From Idea to the Bar.
One of the reasons our cider tastes so good, is the constant blending and experimentation that goes into every batch.
Pilot, Mothership, Sussex Dabinett and Sonic Titan contain apples and nothing else. Wild fermented apple juice, blended with freshly pressed apple juice. No added sugars or yeast. Thus our ciders change in flavour slightly throughout the year to reflect what fruit is available to us. We do not, and will never, use apple juice concentrate.
Pilot, Per, Mothership and Sonic Titan are relatively simple for us to blend and package. We take the cider and then blend with differing levels of freshly pressed apple juice, or pear juice for Per. To get the right balance, we taste the cider, analyse it for flavour and acidity, and then head to Ringden’s apple stores to see which varieties are available to us. We can then choose which apples we wish to be pressed, and in what ratios, to best suit the cider and create another delicious batch!
Our Limited Edition blends take a little more time and patience to get just right. Some blends, such as GLOW, we managed to get right the first time, cinnamon and apple are best mates! Finding the right balance, however, was key to ensuring that the apples were complimented by the cinnamon, not overpowered. After a couple of days of tinkering, we had our glass of apple pie ready to ship out.
Our Turkish Delight cider was a very different beast. We were using rosewater to develop that classic flavour, with all the sugar coming from the apples used. We quickly found that too little rosewater, we had no real flavour coming through, but too much and it tasted like soap, and pretty much wrecked our palate’s for the day! Six months of blending, tasting, finding the right apples and finally getting the thumbs up from our tasting crew, we finally had a blend we were happy with. We quickly scored validation of our hard work when fifty boxes, the whole run, left Ascension HQ in ten days.
We are often asked by cider aficionados why we experiment with other fruits, spices and infusions, and it’s simply to create another layer to the world of cider. The thing we love is the alchemy of it all. We derive just as much pleasure from making a tart lemon and pineapple blend as we do from blending a single variety, single orchard cider.
We’ve had several individuals come to us and say that they went further into the world of cider due to a limited edition blend that they’d had on a night out. Finding that not everything needed to be reminiscent of the mass produced ciders that rarely see an actual apple. From this, they’ve explored the vast and complex world of cider further, from chilli infused to barrel aged vintages.
We are very proud to blend and infuse as we go, to allow our creativity to run amok and keep the enjoyment and fun of cider making alive within us. We hope you get as much joy out of drinking our ciders as we do making them.
