Is cider made from more than one variety of apple

A.� Traditional ciders are made from a blend of cider-apple varieties, to enchance their richness and apple fruitiness. The more varieties you use, the more likely you are to have a complex and balanced cider.

Producers often use cider-blending recipes passed down for generations, using trees planted on their farms.

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The main varieties used in Herefordshire, the traditional English home of cider-making, are Dabinette, Yarlington Mill and Bulmers Norman, all bittersweet and high in tannins; Foxwehlp, a sharp apple with high acidity, and Kingston Black abd Stoke Red, bitter -sharp applies with high tannins and acidity.

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Despite the school of thought that says a good cider must contain a blend of varieties, there are several single-varietal ciders and perries on the market. Yarlington Mill, for instance, is an amber-coloured cider, which boasts a flavour of apples, toffee and tannin.

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And in some cases, bottle-fermented dry cider, produced from either Stoke Red or Kingston Black apples, has been comapred with dry champage by wine critics.

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Q.� When is cider traditionally made

A.� Many� Herefordshire producers begin production in September. Windfalls are picked up and any apples still on the trees are shaken off. To allow the juice to be extracted, the fruit must be pulped using a "scratter".� The pulp is left for 24 hours to improve the yield and flavour of the juice, and pressing begins the next day. The apple pulp is packed by hand into porous polypropylene cloths, to fom flat, square parcels, known as "hairs", and built into a layered stack, a "cheese". Traditional makers use a hand-powered twin-screw press to squeeze out the apple juice. It trickles into the stone bed of the press, where it's pumped into oak barrels for fermentation. Fermentation can finish at any time between Christmas abnd September, and it's on sale from Easter, traditionally.

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Q.� What's the wassailing ceremony

A.� It's one of the highlights of the cider-maker's calendar, usually performed on January 6 - the Twelth Night. Cider-makers gather and a toast soaked in cider is impaled on a branch in an orchard as an offering to the tree spirit, cider is poured onto the roots as an offering to the gods of the earth, and a gun is fired through the branches to get rid of evil spirits. A circle of 13 bonfires is lit and in the middle a bunch of straw on a pole is set alight. This is called 'The Sun Reborn".

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By Katharine MacColl