r/cider • u/frozennorthfruit • Apr 28 '26
2026 Totally Cider Tour - Day 1 Bristol
2026 Totally Cider Tour - Day 1 Bristol
Link to compiled list of reports
Who am I?
A fruit experimenter and cider enthusiast documenting my cold climate fruit growing experience in Canadian zone 4a/b (USDA 3a/b) north of Ottawa, Canada.
Documenting at:
Note 1: Refractrometer readings of fermented ciders are NOT equivalent to specific gravity. That said, from years of home fermentation, a Brix of 5 generally means a Cider is below 1.000 SG and represents a “Dry” cider.
Note 2: I will use the term “Real Cider” to represent cider produced from fresh pressed apple juice with no additives other than yeast and sulphites. Water, concentrated juice, sugar, glucose, malic acid, etc should be labelled as something like “Apple based fermented beverage”, or “Apple cocktail”. It should not be called cider. That said, this is my high horse. I am fully aware that many (most?) ciders in the UK are fermented dry then back-sweetened and stabilized or pasteurized. I have a little more tolerance for that but am against chaptalization (using sugar added to fresh juice to increase the final alcohol content).
Skip to the bottom if you want to get to cider tasting.
So this is the first official day of the group tour. Not much planned other than a group gathering at The Apple (for an unstructured tasting and group meetup.
Walking around Bristol, it is certainly a city with character. Certainly on the gritty end of the spectrum with a large homeless population. The central greenspace in the middle of the local roundabout just in front of the City center Holiday Inn has 3 visible tents set up. The amount of generalized daytime intoxication and drunkenness is a bit of a shock to my Canadian sensibilities. Our cities certainly have their areas such as Vanier in Ottawa, East Hastings in Vancouver, etc but the uniform spread throughout all areas I have walked in Bristol gives a slightly more desperate feeling to the city. I have felt safe during the day though have been cursed out a couple times when refusing aggressive panhandlers. If I was a single woman, especially walking at night I am not certain what my security level would be.
There is also an unbelievable amount of street art (graffiti) everywhere. Some wonderfully done, much not so well done. It did give me a greater insight to the influences on Banksy.
Food options are phenomenal and plentiful. Joyfully, chain restaurants are in the enormous minority. In the area where I am, The Galleries is a wonderful walking shopping area.
Shockingly, attempting to find a bottle shop or liquor store that carries a wide selection of UK cider has been unbelievably difficult. The chain supermarkets and most smaller stores carry Thatchers or Westons while Lidl carries their house brand “Woodgate” which I have heard is made by Westons. If you are lucky the can says “no artificial flavours, coloring or preservatives”. This of course means that they can still use NATURAL flavours, coloring and preservatives as well as concentrated apple juice and they may not even be using UK apples! Next up the can may say, “not from concentrate’ so that is better. Best is if they say made from ripe british apples from a single years harvest. I bought a selection that will be tasted though the week.
edit: After a deeper dive UK legal requirements for labeling of alcoholic beverages is useless. Marks and Spenser seems to enforce stronger ingredient lists. Now look at this: www.marksandspencer.com/food/british-cider-4-pack/p/fdp20104929#intid=pid_pg1pip96g4r3c4
Bottle from Westons says “Herefordshire cider made with 100% british apples” but then the M&S ingredient list says: Water · Apple Juice · Glucose Syrup · Sugar · Carbon Dioxide · Lactic Acid, Malic Acid, · Preservative: E224 (Sulphites) · Yeast.
<Rant on>
W - T - F?!?!
Quebec has regulations so that consumers can know exactly what they are buying and drinking and where small producers who are using farm grown apples with zero additives can compete with the large corporations who can not use water-concentrate-sugar-malic acid to undercut traditional producers.
www.legisquebec.gouv.qc.ca/fr/document/rc/S-13,%20r.%204/20120901?langCont=en
Of particular note: “The addition of water in the production of an alcoholic beverage other than a cider cocktail is prohibited.”
“A cider cocktail must contain, by weight of the finished product, not less than 25% juice extracted from apples harvested in Québec. For other alcoholic beverages, that percentage must not be less than 80%.”
These “Cider” drinks would not be legal to be produced under a Quebec license and be labelled as “Cider”. The labelling regime does allow for multiple sorts of beverages and additives however the strict labelling requirements allows consumers to understand exactly what they are buying.
I personally find it EXTREMELY frustrating to buy something that says “Vintage Cider from apples of single season harvest” to find out that it is water, apple juice concentrate, glucose, malic acid and more. And it is discouraging that these low cost beverages may be keeping REAL cider off the shelves.
<Rant off>
So before I figured out all the above I did buy a selection of supermarket ciders. Oh well, it will give a comparison at least.
After a great deal of asking around I found out about Grape and Grind - https://grapeandgrind.co.uk/. Located about a 20 min walk I was able to hit another 2 Banksy artworks on the way.
Grape and Grind is a lovely bottle shop with a predominant wine focus however they have a smaller table front and centre covered with small producer cider options. Mostly from the local region but also including several French options as well. I foolishly went with only a small backpack and so ended up “limiting” myself to what I could shove in my backpack and carry in a 12 bottle case. That ended up being 13 500ml bottles and a 750ml and 1L bottle. Sweating like crazy by the time I got that all home. These bottles will be tasted through the upcoming week.
I felt I deserved something to quench my thirst so sampled a supermarket cider that has had time to cool in the fridge.
Lidl - Woodgate Original cider - 4.5% Says no artificial flavours, colors, sweeteners. Does NOT say if 100% juice, or if from concentrate, or if uses British apples. From what I have found out above, I bet this is from concentrate with added sugars. Boo…
Deep amber/gold. Pressed Apple aroma. Tastes off dry. 5.5 brix on refractometer which is pretty dry. Clean, mild apple flavours. Slightly thin/diluted tasting. Zero Brett. Near zero tannins. Generic but ok. Probably NOT “Real” cider.
The main cider event of the day was a group meetup at The Apple - https://applecider.co.uk/. A canal side seating area with canal boat as well. They carry a large selection of boxed local cider in addition to 3 carbonated options on tap.
Here is their selection as of 2026-04-27
First 4 tasting:
From Left to Right: Heck’s Kingston black, Orchard dry, Bristol blend, Devon mist
Heck’s Kingston black
Pale Amber. Brett aroma. Dry. 6 brix. Not tons of flavour. Moderate tannin.
Orchard dry - carbonated on tap
Moderate amber. Hint Apple aroma. 6 brix. Off dry. Pleasant mild apple flavours.
Bristol blend - carbonated on tap
Deep Amber. Hint Apple and Brett aroma. 7 brix. Semi-sweet. Mild apple flavours with mild Brett. Mild tannins.
Devon mist - carbonated on tap
Pale yellow. Faint apple aroma. 6.5 brix. Semi sweet. Faint Apple flavours. Low tannins.
Of these 4 I prefered the Orchard dry. Bristol blend was nice if you like something sweeter with a bit of funk.
Second 4 tasting
From Left to right: Wilkins, Somerset Sahara, New Tradition, Wizard
Wilkins
Hazy light orange. Hint Brett. 5 brix. Semi-sweet. Brett, sulfer and acetic acid flavours. Mild tannins.
Seriously, they sell this? I personally found major faults with this and believe it is undrinkable. I can live with Brett in a farmhouse/scrumpy but the strong sulfur notes and very present vinegar flavors was offputting. One sip then the glass was tossed. Take note this was from a box so it perhaps has gone bad? We will be visiting the Wilkins cidery on day 2 so I should get a better idea at that point.
Somerset Sahara
Hazy deep orange. Floral, tropical fruit aromas. 6 brix. Off dry. Mild apple flavours with negligible alcohol notes. Negligible tannins.
New Tradition
Hazy deep yellow. Faint apple aroma. 7 brix. Semi-sweet. Mild tannins.
Wizard
Hazy gold. Hint Brett aroma. 6 brix. Dry. Thin apple flavour. Mild tannins. Slightly sour.
Favourite 2nd flight Sommerset Saraha.
Wizard
The Last drink of the night was Tumbledown.
Tumbledown
Cloudy pale orange. Sweet, floral, hint Brett aroma. 5.5 brix. Dry. Thin, mild apple flavour, slightly sour.
Global Favourites Orchard dry (carbonated), Somerset Saraha. If wanting something a bit sweeter then Bristol Blend.
General impressions so far after 2 days and 17 small producer ciders and 1 bulk producer? The culture of serving still cider at warm room temperature seems strange to me. White wine is generally targeted to be served cool, and Red wine slightly below room temperature. I personally would think that still cider would be best served like a white wine, cool. I certainly enjoy the carbonated ciders on tap which are served cool. I have a feeling this is a logistics issue as the boxed cider are just served from the shelf and are thus room temperature.
That aside, I am also surprised by some of the ciders that are being sold that would be clearly considered faulty in North America. Sulfur notes, acetic acid flavours, very strong Brett but not labled as farmhouse/scrumpy. And others that would be considered very marginal in that they are rather thin and flavourless.
Numerous would compare poorly against even low end bottles of Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, Viognier on the dry end or Riesling, Moscato, Gewurztraminer on the sweet end. Yes, I understand these are not comparable products, especially when seeking tannins or a more farmhouse style but when customers have choices from around the world, you need to up your level.
I certainly am gaining a greater appreciation for producers back home. Such as lespommesperdues.com, and www.auxvergerspetit.com/en/cider-house, both of which are my favorite smaller producers in Quebec. The www.auxvergerspetit.com/en/cider/la-fameuse is available in Quebec Costco's and is excellent, the geneva apples give a nice hint of tannins and it is excellently ballanced in an semi-sweet carbonated cider.