Aspall Cyder

TIPSY APPLE TRUFFLE

Aspall Draught Suffolk Cyder

Preparation: 15 minutes

Cooking: 10 minutes

Serves: 8

Ingredients:

300ml/ ½ pint Aspall Draught Suffolk Cyder

75g / 3oz caster sugar

675g / 1 ½ lbs cooking apples, peeled, cored and sliced

4 trifle sponges, crumbled

50g / 2oz ratafia biscuits

2-3tsp Calvados or Brandy

450ml/ ¾pt double cream

Cooking Instructions:

1. Place the cyder and sugar in a large heavy based pan and bring to the boil, stirring. Increase the heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until syrupy.Measure 200ml / 7floz of the cyder syrup and set aside

2. Add the cooking apples to the remaining syrup in the pan, stir well then bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes or until apples are soft and pulpy. Leave to cool

3. Spoon the apples into the base of one large or 6 individual glass triffle bowls. Top with the sponge; crush two thirds of the ratafias and scatter over the Calvados or Brandy.

4. To make the syllabub, whip the cream until it is just holding its shape. Slowly pour in the reserved syrup, whisking well until the mixture is thick enough to leave a trail when the whisk is lifted.

5. Spoon the cyder syllabub on top of the sponge layer and chill for at least 2 hours. Decorate with more ratafia biscuits.

http://dev.aspall.co.uk/recipes/with_aspall_cyder-4-11.html

Aspall Cyder

Aspall Suffolk Cyders are only made from 100% juice of whole fresh pressed English apples. We use different apples to make different base cyders for later blending.

Once harvested, apples are delivered to the press house at Aspall. They are washed and hand graded to take out any rots and leaf debris and then rinsed 3 times before arriving at the mill. Here they are minced to a pulp and pumped in to one of our Bucher Guyer apple presses. The “mash” is then pressed for two hours to extract pure “single strength” apple juice.

The fresh juice is then pumped to a fermentation vessel, where our controlled yeast is added to ensure consistent fermentations. The vessel is also temperature controlled for the same reason – fermentation produces a great deal of exothermic heat, and if it gets too hot during the fermentation, the resulting cyder can develop unwanted off flavours such as volatile acidity, and so taste quite coarse. A typical fermentation will take 3 to 4 weeks.

Once the fermentation has finished, we leave the cyder to stand for 2 weeks to allow dead yeast to drop out. We then transfer or “rack” the cyder in to a clean storage tank for maturation, where it is sealed tight and kept chilled. Maturation periods vary from 6 weeks to 2 years, depending on the type of cyder.

All Aspall Suffolk Cyders are blended, and this is where the art of cydermaking is carried out. No one variety of apple has all the attributes needed to make a truly well balanced cyder, it is only by combining different base cyders that this is achievable. We use dessert apples for sweetness, cookers for acidity and apple aroma, and finally, a combination of bittersweet apples to give a heady perfume, body and a depth of finish.

All blends have to pass the taste panel before processing and packing, and this panel always comprises at least one family member. Once passed for quality, the cyder is filtered bright and packed in to keg or bottle.

We lightly carbonate our ciders at Aspall as this has the effect of lifting the aroma and flavour, so complimenting the experience.

Apples used by style in Aspall Suffolk Cyder include the following:

Dessert: Cox, Blenheim Orange, Chivers Delight, Spartan, Crispin, Katy Cooker, Bramley, Howgate Wonder, Lord Derby

Bittersweet: Kingston Black, Dabinett, Yarlington Mill, Tremlett's Bitter, Medaille d’Or.

Aspall Cyder

Aspall Organic Suffolk Cyder is an homage to our founder Clement. This cyder has a higher bittersweet content than all our others, so is much closer in style to his cyder of the 1700’s.

Organic has an attractive golden colour; a marked fruity aroma of traditional bittersweet cyder apple, with floral and spicy overtones. The palate is rich, initially full and slightly sweet, with good balancing acidity and a pronounced astringency followed by a very long dry finish.

This is a superb cyder which we are sure Clement would be proud of.

Goes well with strong cheddars, Blue Stilton and pungent, ripe French cheeses.

ABV 7%

http://dev.aspall.co.uk/products/cyder/organic-3-6-12.html

Aspall Cyder

A twist on the classic Kir Royale – champagne and crème de cassis replaced by cyder and crème de mure (blackberry liquer). We named this after our grandmother Perronelle and her rosy red cheeks.

The colour is deep blush suggestive of dark summer fruit, with a rich appearance due to the viscosity of the Creme de Mure. There is a subtle blackberry aroma with a hint of traditional cyder apple. Deceptively smooth with a silky but refreshing palate, Blush offers a perfect blend of sweetness and acidity. It has a lovely mouthfeel and a lingering aftertaste of berries.

Superb as an aperitif – as an alternative to pink sparkling wines like Rose Champagne, Perronelle’s Blush is also an occasion drink – garden parties or balmy summer evenings after a hard day’s work. Particularly good with smoked salmon and apple balsamic vinegar dressing and desserts such as tarte au citron or gooseberry crumble with fresh cream.

ABV 5.4%

http://dev.aspall.co.uk/products/cyder/perronelles_blush-3-6-26.html

Aspall Cyder

Launched in 2003 to celebrate our 275^th year of cyder making, Aspall Draught Suffolk Cyder is served on tap and in bottle.

Draught has a mid straw colour with a floral/appley aroma especially of Russetts. It has a lovely mouth filling mousse and a delicate flavour of fresh pressed apples. It is an off dry cyder with a complexity that enhances its long finish.

Draught is attracting a growing audience in pubs across the country and was recently described when scooping the 2006 Quality Drinks Award as ‘almost like drinking a Sauvignon Blanc’.

Ideal as an aperitif. Slightly sweeter savoury dishes, such as pork and apple sauce, or sweet and sour Chinese food are beautifully complimented by Draught.

ABV 5.5%

http://dev.aspall.co.uk/products/cyder/draught-3-6-11.html

Aspall Cyder

Our flagship cyder and the first of the re-launched range to go to market in 2000. Premier Cru has been awarded World's Best Cider and World's Best Dry Cider in the 2008 World Cider Awards run by Beers of The World Magazine. It was described by the judges as "an elegant and well bred dry cider, with a soft fragrant nose and enough earthy apple notes to keep its feet on the ground"

Premier Cru has also scooped first prize in the Quality Drink Awards 2008, receiving high praise from the judges who described it as the "gewurtztraminer" of the cider world.

Of mid straw-gold colour with a clean, light aroma of dessert apples, Premier Cru is dry, round and creamy on the palate with a good acid balance, pleasant soft tannins and an elegant, long finish.

A champagne taste that embodies the essence of an orchard, it has enticed an admiring audience who describe it as ‘pale, subtle and crisp, with a fresh aroma of English apples.’

An ideal partner for charcuterie and mild cheeses. Premier Cru also provides a very harmonious partnership with spicy foods, particularly curry.

ABV 7%

http://dev.aspall.co.uk/products/cyder/dry_premier_cru-3-6-7.html

Aspall Cyder

Aspall Suffolk Cyder has only ever been made with the fresh pressed juice of whole apples. For 8 generations, the use of concentrates to stretch fermentations has never been part of the Aspall philosophy and continues to be a complete anathema to the family.

Made with the finest raw materials and with painstaking care and attention to detail, our cyder is one of the finest drinks available and deserves recognition as such. It was with this thought in mind that we decided to re-launch what was then available only in the local market to a broader audience.

In the process, we played with many different blends of fruit; from astringent heavy tannin cider apples such as Medaille d’Or through to dessert and culinary fruit like Cox and Bramley. During this process it became evident that no single apple carried the necessary constituent properties to give a truly well-balanced cider – Cox was light and delicate but lacked depth; Bramley had strong apple esthers on the nose but was too sharp to drink; and Medaille d’Or and other traditional ‘bittersweet’ varieties had bundles of character, but were too overpowering.

We concluded that blended was best. This way, we can capture the best that each apple provides – Cox for sweetness, Bramley for acidity and apple aroma, and finally, a combination of bittersweet apples to give a heady perfume, body and a depth of finish.

The finished article is not as founder of the business Clement would have made in 1728. Clement would have produced a cider with heavy tannic and bittersweet tendencies that would have appealed to his personal delectation. We may not have followed his blend, but we did follow his philosophy of making a cider we were both excited to drink and proud to sell.

Given the quality of this product, it was imperative that the packaging reflected the contents and stood out as a genuinely premium offering. Throwing all practical thoughts out of the window, we decided to use a replica of a bottle that was used by our Great Grandfather J B Chevallier in the 1920’s and 1930’s. The bottle had a long thin neck and was reminiscent of a wine bottle. Most importantly, it gave the premium image the contents of the bottle merited.

The first bottle of the re-vamped Aspall Suffolk Cyder was delivered in 2000.

http://dev.aspall.co.uk/products/cyder-3-6.html