American Cider
A Modern Guide to a Historic Beverage
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- 11,99 €
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- 11,99 €
Publisher Description
“Not just a thorough guide to the history of apples and cider in this country but also an inspiring survey of the orchardists and cidermakers devoting their lives to sustainable agriculture through apples.”—Alice Waters
“Pucci and Cavallo are thorough and enthusiastic chroniclers, who celebrate cider’s pomologists and pioneers with infectious curiosity and passion.”—Bianca Bosker, New York Times bestselling author of Cork Dork
Cider today runs the gamut from sweet to dry, smooth to funky, made from apples and sometimes joined by other fruits—and even hopped like beer. In American Cider, aficionados Dan Pucci and Craig Cavallo give a new wave of consumers the tools to taste, talk about, and choose their ciders, along with stories of the many local heroes saving apple culture and producing new varieties. Like wine made from well-known grapes, ciders differ based on the apples they’re made from and where and how those apples were grown. Combining the tasting tools of wine and beer, the authors illuminate the possibilities of this light, flavorful, naturally gluten-free beverage.
And cider is more than just its taste—it’s also historic, as the nation’s first popular alcoholic beverage, made from apples brought across the Atlantic from England. Pucci and Cavallo use a region-by-region approach to illustrate how cider and the apples that make it came to be, from the well-known tale of Johnny Appleseed—which isn’t quite what we thought—to the more surprising effects of industrial development and government policies that benefited white men. American Cider is a guide to enjoying cider, but even more so, it is a guide to being part of a community of consumers, farmers, and fermenters making the nation’s oldest beverage its newest must-try drink.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sommelier Pucci and food journalist Cavallo impress in this deeply researched account of the history of apple cider, its emergence in colonial America, and how there came to be nearly 1,000 producers of it across the country. Cider's earliest roots, they write, can be found in Greco-Roman culture, with records of production dating back to 64 BCE. Norman conquerors brought the craft to England in the 11th century, and centuries later it found its way to the colonies, where it came to embody "the best and worst of America's history and agricultural practices." Thomas Jefferson, for instance, learned to make cider from his enslaved cidermaker and butler, Jupiter Evans, and during the Revolutionary War, George Washington's troops wiped out apple orchards planted by Indigenous peoples who sided with the British. As to the production of cider itself, the authors note, "Cidermaking is more analogous to winemaking, relying only on a seasonal harvest and then fermentation." A survey of contemporary producers rounds things out, with notable operations including Angry Orchard in Walden, N.Y., which makes a Basque-inspired cider and collaborates with other producers across the globe, and Liberty Ciderworks in Spokane, Wash., whose signature Manchurian Crabapple SV Cider is blended with a small amount of McIntosh and Cortland apples. This fascinating guide will appeal to history buffs and imbibers alike.