Cider

 Apple cider has been a staple of the American experience since the very beginning of the American experience. A cider press came over on the Mayflower, and part of it was repurposed after a storm damaged the ship. It was so important to early settlers that cider was consumed more frequently than water. Cider was on every table at every meal.

Today, cider has many forms. It's easy to make, lighter than a beer, and doesn't contain gluten, so immunocompromised people can have an alternative to wine. Soft cider is a mainstay of Autumn months, with cider mills becoming popular destinations for people wanting an authentic taste of Americana. 

Apples were a significant crop in the United Kingdom during the Middle Ages, and when settlers emigrated to the New World, they brought their favorite things with them, including apples. Orchards were planted up and down the Eastern seaboard, and as the versatile fruit was cultivated, cider was always a product growers made. In 1622, these tracts were so important, colonizers in Virginia imported bees, not native to the region, so they could pollinate the plants and make growing and expansion more viable. 

In the Northern colonies, apples were equally important. In the areas around Boston, huge orchards were planted. In fact, there is evidence of some farms with apple trees that date back to the 1630's. In 1648, a Salem, Massachusetts man named William Trask acquired 250 acres and 500 apple trees. He built a cider press and made enough barrels of cider to start selling it to the local taverns. His cider was so popular that people were indulging to a dangerous extent. As a result of the increase in drunkenness, the local government enacted the first set of blue laws in American history. Enforcement, however, proved difficult, so the regulations lacked the teeth to be truly effective. 

Over the next 250 years, cider grew in popularity, and regional flavors became more prominent. John Adams, while in Philadelphia during the creation of Continental Congress, lamented in a letter to his wife how the cider in Pennsylvania was vastly inferior to Boston's variety. In the mid 1800's, immigrants from Germany, Ireland, and other European regions brought their own alcohol traditions with them. 

Beer, wine, and spirits ate into cider's popularity to the point where, in the early 20th century, cider was soft, a drink for children. Once Prohibition hit, cider was dealt a devastating punch. Rum and whiskey became the more popular drink. Even in New England, a hotbed for the cider industry, distilled spirits took over. The coastline from Maine to Connecticut was dotted with inlets for bootleggers to import the banned liquors, and cider got left behind. Orchards that grew cider apples were burnt and their soil salted, rendering them unusable. Apple varieties that were used for cooking and baking survived, and some of that area was converted to cider apples, but for the most part, the hard cider industry had been crippled and nearly killed entirely.

Cider making itself is quite traditional. After the 21st Amendment repealed Prohibition, cider struggled to keep up with the advancing brewing and wine making technology. Because the old school nature of cider continued, it was looked at as a niche beverage. A distilled version, called Applejack, was brought over by German immigrants. Applejack is significantly more alcoholic than traditional hard cider, so the cordial was never a mainstay in American taverns like the original was.

Recently cider has seen a resurgence. In the 1980's commercially available ciders saw a boom among young people. Diversity in strength and flavor grew the drink, and the ease in which it's made saw cider become popular with home brewers. Cider apple farms started to sprout up again in New England, where the earth and climate are conducive to growing specific types of apples that happen to be preferable for fermentation. 

Now, New England has become a hotbed for cider once again. The apples and juice are often exported to other states to mix with their juice. Of course, there are cider mills all over the Northeast, especially New York and Pennsylvania. Each region has different characteristics in their cider, much like regional wines may differ despite the same grape being used. 

One of the other aspects of cider that makes it so appealing to home brewers is it's versatility. Other juices, spices, bourbon, and herbal aromatics have all been used to spike the flavor of cider. It can be carbonated, much like the French sparkling Cidre, or still. Cider can be nonalcoholic, called soft, or very alcoholic. Ice distilling, Applejack, and other versions of cider can be found across the globe.