cider

One of Herefordshire’s newer cider producers, Once Upon a Tree, has won this year’s BBC Food & Farming Awards Best Drinks Producer. Simon Day’s friendly orchard-based set-up beat off tough competition from London’s Kernel Brewery and the boutique Kilchoman Whisky.

It was “very tight”, admitted judge Pete Brown. For the panel, “It was the full story” that edged it. “Everything from the way the orchard is planted and tended, to the production process, to the fabulous drinks themselves and how they help redefine cider, and pitch it as a perfect partner to food,” said Pete, who at the moment is in the midst of writing a major book on cider himself.

Knowledgeable cider-drinking folk aren’t just limited to rural patches of Somerset and Kent these days - they’re in the capital city and they’ve got serious thirsts to be met. Thankfully, help is at hand.

Providing London’s cider enthusiasts with a place to drink is The Euston Cider Tap in King’s Cross, just opened by the beer enthusiasts behind The Euston Tap. Sitting across the road from its barley-loving brother, The Euston Cider Tap gives a small nod to cider's rural beginnings in the form of some casual hay bale seating outside the stone lodge, while inside it’s more bar stool chic.

Devon stole back the National Cider & Perry Pub of the Year crown with the news that perennial favourite, Ye Olde Cider Bar in Newton Abbot, had won the title. This makes it two top accolades in a row, since owner Richard Knibbs received CAMRA's Pomona Award in 2010, given to an individual or organisation for their exceptional work championing real cider and perry.

Rather like today's rain, my past couple of weeks have been overflowing with British cider: cloudy, clear, Kentish and Cornish, I’ve tasted it all.

The combination of a cold winter followed by an exceptionally warm spring has caused a bumper crop of extra-large apples across the UK this year, leaving cider and apple juice makers busy collecting the fruits of their labour - a task that becomes especially tiresome when you consider the fact that different types of apple ripen at different times and the season has started a full three weeks earlier than usual this year. Help is needed!

Calling all cider drinkers from across the West – do you have any old cider mugs that might have been part of the collection at the Shepton Cider Mill? If so, Kate Wilson, a ceramic artist from Somerset, is keen to get her hands on them for some serious analysis. As the first person to take a PhD in cider mugs at Bath Spa university (purely on the collection found at Shepton), her specific areas of interest include why some cider mugs have more than one handle, and how they were used throughout history as satirical mirror on the social politics of the day.

Westons cider has purchased its very own pub, which is conveniently situated just down the road from the Much Marcle mill where they’ve been producing their ciders since 1880.

If visitor numbers at the annual Welsh Perry and Cider Championships last bank holiday weekend (28 May) are anything to go by, it seems that craft cider is finally getting the widespread love and attention it deserves. Visitor numbers were sky high at almost 2000 – that’s a whole 500 more than last year.