Yes, I'm talking about cider. That cider should ever come to be associated with the word quality is perhaps the most baffling element regarding a drink once known affectionately as tramp juice. I had expected a lot, but my pants were beaten off. There are no known limits how cider can taste.
Of course there was the rough Asturian Sidra Natural, which is served at every corner in this area (see here how Asturian cider has to be poured that it develops its full potential).
Also the other well know cider regions, the Normandy and south west England sent ardent representatives of this old trade. But the colour came from countries like Japan, Mexico, U.S. of A., Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and Canada.
The most flabbergasting discovery came from Quebec were they have developed Cidre de Glace (literally ice cider). In this case, the apples are naturally frozen either before or after harvest. It was hard to believe that this elixir is based on apples.
And yes, we were in Spain, and yes, they know how to to raise your expectation regarding stupendous dinners.
One should never miss the opportunity to mingle with people who are absolutely passionate about what they do.
* Just to make things clear. The British term cider is what Americans call hard cider. American cider is what the British call apple juice. I use cider in the British manner.
5 comments:
I had no idea...thank you for educating us!
Cider over here (which is typically unfiltered apple juice) is usually only available in the fall.
When I was growing up there was a cider press just a mile from my house. It was an annual "Field Trip" in school and I'll tell you that after watching them make cider....I won't drink Cider....I guess that's what I get for growing up on a farm.
Michael, that means you're a vegan then? Or did you never made a field trip to the butcher?
Well let us start from my beginning: in Mexico cider is the poor champagne. When my oldest sister got married she and her husband had around 600 guests and all of them got several glasses of "Sidra rosada" (sparkling rose cider). When I told this to my boss, she told but Antonio that is as well this way in Asturias. Now what I have found there was a world of modernity and of course of a very deep and strong tradition. I was not just doing nothing in Gijon. Gijon was a discovery of hidden pleasures f0r me...
We raised our own cows...and slaughtered them....well my Dad killed theme and then sent them off to the butcher, but I do know where meat comes from......unlike a lot of Americans (which is scary to me).
I just never realized that Cider had such a following.
Michael, my father has a blood issue, so it did not went further than to slaughter rabbits and chicken at home. But our neighbors killed some pigs quite frequently, which was always interesting to watch. As a boy I had to shoot birds on the cherry tree and catch mice in the field. But I did not eat them.
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