A cider tasting is the perfect fall party. It fits Friendsgiving, an apple-picking weekend, a tailgate or a harvest dinner, and it's easy on the budget, since most ciders come in four- and six-packs. Better still, cider has far more range than most people expect: bone-dry, sweet, pink, pear, hopped, funky Spanish sidra and dessert-sweet ice cider. Here's how to put that range on one table.
Hard cider vs. apple cider
In the US, "apple cider" on its own usually means fresh, unfiltered apple juice that hasn't been fermented. Hard cider is that juice fermented by yeast, which turns the sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Most hard cider lands between 4 and 7% ABV, about the same as beer. US tax law treats hard cider as 0.5 to under 8.5% ABV, made only from apples or pears, so stronger styles like ice cider (around 10%) are taxed as wine instead.
The difference matters at a party: hard cider is for guests 21 and over, and fresh apple cider is what goes in the kids' pot.
What to buy: three ways to build a flight
Pick four ciders that each show something different:
- The grocery flight. A sweet crowd-pleaser like Angry Orchard Crisp Apple, a crisper cider, an unfiltered cider like Downeast and an amber cider like Woodchuck Amber.
- The styles flight. A dry cider, a rosé cider, a perry (made from pears instead of apples) and a dry-hopped cider that smells a bit like an IPA.
- The old-world flight. A French cidre from Normandy, a Basque sidra natural, a heritage American dry cider and an ice cider to finish. These come in 750 ml bottles (ice cider in 375 ml) from a good wine or beer shop.
Sweet vs. dry: if the yeast eats all the sugar, the cider is dry. Sweet ciders either stop fermenting early or have juice or sugar added back, and many big brands are back-sweetened. French makers use an old method called keeving that starves the yeast so it quits early, leaving natural sweetness.
How much to buy
For a tasting, pour about 3 ounces per cider, and just 1 to 2 ounces of ice cider. One 12 ounce can gives four tasting pours, so a six-pack of each cider covers a tasting for six with plenty left. For the rest of the evening, plan on 2 to 3 cans or bottles per adult, plus extra if you're cooking with it. The full math is in How Much to Buy for a Tasting Party.
How to serve it
- Cool, not ice cold. About 45 to 50°F. Too cold mutes the apple. Pull bottles from the fridge 10 to 15 minutes before pouring.
- Use a wine glass if you have them; it shows off the aroma better than a pint glass.
- Taste dry to sweet. Start with the driest cider and end with ice cider, so sweetness doesn't blunt everything after it.
- Pour sidra from a height. Spanish sidra is nearly still and is traditionally poured from high above the glass to wake it up. Pour a small splash and drink it right away. Do this outside or over a towel.
How to taste
For each cider, look at the color and clarity (hazy is normal for unfiltered), smell it, then sip and notice three things: sweetness, acidity (does it make your mouth water?) and tannin (a dry, slightly grippy feeling, common in traditional ciders made from bittersweet apples). Then decide whether you'd drink a whole glass.
Make it a blind game
Pour each cider into a numbered glass, or wrap the bottles in paper bags, and hand out a list of what's in the lineup. Guests rate each one and guess which is which. The rosé and the perry are usually easy; telling the French cidre from the heritage American cider is not. In our kit this game is the Cider-Off, and How to Run a Blind Tasting covers scoring and the reveal.
What to eat with it
Apples love pork, cheese and fall flavors:
- Sharp cheddar with any cider.
- Camembert or Brie with French cidre, since both come from Normandy.
- Blue cheese and pears with perry or ice cider.
- Soft pretzels and mustard, sausages and roast pork.
- Butternut squash soup with an amber cider.
- Apple cider donuts or apple pie with a small pour of ice cider for dessert.
Hot cider and safety
If you warm hard cider with spices, keep it steaming but never boiling, about 140 to 160°F; boiling drives off alcohol and makes the spices bitter. Set slow cookers at the back of the table with the cord out of reach. Label every pitcher, keep spirits for punches on a separate shelf and serve hard cider only to guests 21 and over. Cider goes down easy, so set out food and water and make sure everyone has a ride home.
The zero-proof track
Everyone should get a glass. A pot of hot mulled apple cider or a sparkling cider punch made with fresh apple cider and ginger ale works for kids and non-drinkers. Serve it in different colored cups from the hard stuff, buy pasteurized cider for kids, and keep hot pots at or above 135°F while serving.
The kit that runs it for you
Our Cider 101 kit puts this whole fall tasting in a printable PDF: 12 real hard ciders in three tiers (from Angry Orchard to Christian Drouin and Eden Ice Cider), the blind Cider-Off, tasting sheets and a flavor wheel, a build-your-own cider board, eight party batches from a slow-cooker pot for 20 to cider sangria and a caramel apple bar, and 20 cider drinks and fall snacks. It's for adults 21+, with a zero-proof track throughout.