All posts tagged: magners

No sugar in REAL cider, avoid the fake stuff

Off 1st May 2014

A Study by The Telegraph finds a single pint of cider contains almost as much sugar as the World Health Organisation recommends should be an average person’s daily limit.

Heres the link to the Telegraph article.

Ciders that are in this report are syrup or concentrated sugar made on a industrial scale like Strongbow, Magners or Bulmers. Readers of this blog already know these are not recognised as real ciders, as they contain very little, or no apple juice at all.

Following conversation on our Facebook Real Cider group – Mathew Veasey of Nook’s Cider Yard points out the following:

According to Andrew Lea, the sugar content of *absolutely dry* and *totally & fully fermented* full-juice cider is as follows:

Sucrose nil
Glucose nil to trace <0.1%
Fructose nil to trace <0.1%
Sorbitol 0.4 – 0.8%
Xylose ca 0.05%

“The balance of Glucose and Fructose and the exact amounts remaining will depend somewhat on the yeast strain and how glucophilic or fructophilic it is.”

Keep Calm and Drink ‘REAL’ Cider

– ie: Cider containing 100% juice

Irish Cider in Somerset

Off 11th December 2009

At the end of November the makers of Magners cider, C&C bought the UK cider brands Blackthorn, Olde English and Gaymers as part of a £45m deal.

Irish cidermakers Magners have got very good at making cider popular, its this industrial cider that has actually bought attention to traditional ‘artisan’ cider which isn’t bad. However, cider fans and producers are worrying as they’ve just bought one of Somerset’s crown jewels, Gaymers of Shepton Mallet.

John Dunsmore, Chief Executive of C&C Group, said the price of the deal was “highly attractive.”

“This transaction strengthens our position within the world’s largest cider market and broadens the scope of the group’s existing cider offering,” he added.

magners-web

  • C&C Group has more than doubled its UK cider volumes.
  • Magners cider goes head-to-head with Heineken’s Bulmers in the UK.
  • 250 staff will transfer, and I’m told there is no threat to their jobs.

In Ireland they’re not called Magners, but Bulmers. Why? Because many years ago, the Herefordshire cider dynasty that is Bulmers set up an Irish offshoot. As happens, it split off after a while and went native. And now the Irish cousins are back here, teaching Somerset cider men how to sell their brew!

There are a few unanswered questions, such as will the cider remain the same under new management? and is being bought out the way for struggling cider producers to stay afloat as cider tax duties increase to perhaps the same as beer prices?

Ciders not recognised as being Real

29 Comments 6th October 2009

Below is a list of the most common ciders that we do not recognise as being real:

Most of these ‘ciders’ have nothing to do with real cider except in name and the fact that a minor portion may have see some kind of apple product at some stage in the production process.

We want you to get involved with real cider, so we have listed the ones here to avoid.

Here they are (Source: CAMRA).

  • Amber Harvest (Aston Manor)
  • Ashton Press
  • Aspall (except Temple Moon,
  • Bounders (Bath Cider)
  • Briska
  • Brothers
  • Bulmers
  • Chaplin and Cork
  • Chardolini Perry (Aston Manor)
  • Copper Press (St Austell)
  • Crofter’s (Aston Manor)
  • Crumpton (Aston Manor)
  • Diamond White
  • Druids Celtic Cider (Aston Manor)
  • Dry Blackthorn
  • Duchy Originals (Aston Manor)
  • Friels
  • Frome Valley
  • Frosty Jack’s
  • Gaymer’s
  • Golden Valley (Aston Manor)
  • Harry Sparrow (Aspall)
  • Hereford Orchard (Aston Manor)
  • Jacques
  • K Cider
  • Knights (Aston Manor)
  • Kopparberg
  • Lazy Jacks
  • Magners
  • Malvern Gold (Aston Manor)
  • Merrydown
  • Natch
  • Oakleys
  • Old Moors (Devon Cider Co.)
  • Old Mout
  • Pomagne
  • Red C
  • Rekorderlig
  • Robinsons
    SKU
  • Samuel Smith’s
  • Scrumpy Dog
  • Scrumpy Jack
  • Sharp’s Orchard Cornish
  • Somersby (Carlsberg)
  • St Helier
  • Stella Cidre
  • Strongbow
  • Strongbow Sirrus
  • Symonds
  • Taunton
  • Three Hammers
  • WKD Core
  • White Lightning
  • White Star
  • Woodpecker

Why are they not real cider?

  • As it is not craft cider produced using traditional methods.
  • Not only does it fill a marketing gap that wasn’t a gap in the first place, but it tastes just like it is – poor commercial cider with added ‘flavour’ and fizz. I’ve tasted some commercial ‘ciders’ that taste like a chemically enhanced fizzy cross between apple juice and cordial.
  • Real cider has always been a traditional drink which is produced naturally from apples and is neither carbonated nor pasteurised. Cider is only made from pressed, and fermented apples. Nothing else.

The ingredients listed on a can of Strongbow are:

Fermented apple juice & glucose syrup, water, sugar, carbon dioxide,
acid: E270, E330, antioxidant: E224 (sulphites).

These cider imposters have had most of the alcohol derived rom fermenting corn starch syrup which is then diluted with water. Malic acid is then added in order to get a bit of taste back into it.

Doesn’t sound very appetising does it?

It doesn’t mean that the drinks aren’t refreshing on a hot summers day, however with real cider you will find the majority are organic, free of artificial colours, acids and antioxidants.

The drinks don’t last as long in the bottle, but because they taste of real apples it means the cider doesn’t normally stay in the bottle long before it is enjoyed!