Cider is fermented apple juice just as wine is fermented grape juice. The best cider, just like the best wine, is carefully crafted from fruit chosen for cider making. That brown stuff you buy in the grocery store juice section is just that, apple juice.

Cider history in the United States

In colonial America, fermented cider was the drink of choice. John Adams attributed his health and long life to a tankard of cider before breakfast. Thomas Jefferson’s champagne-like cider, made with Hewe’s Crabapples, was his “table drink”. Throughout the 19th century, growing apples and crafting cider from cider apples was an integral part of every community. Many factors contributed to the decline of cider in the US—the Industrial Revolution caused a decline in farms; immigration patterns changed and more beer drinkers arrived in the US; Prohibition dealt the last blow and most cider orchards declined or were destroyed. Many Virginia cidermakers aim to revive the cider tradition by growing, or encouraging others to grow cider apples, and by crafting fine cider.