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Discover Cider

A Simple Guide to Cider Styles

Dry. Medium Dry. Medium. Medium Sweet. Sweet. What do they actually mean — and how much do those words really tell you about the cider you're about to drink?

Sounds straightforward enough.

Until you're looking at a shelf full of cider and wondering what the difference actually is — and whether choosing Dry means you're about to spend the evening pulling a face.

It doesn't.

Those words are useful clues to what you're about to drink, but they don't tell you everything that's going to be inside the bottle.

And that's where cider starts to get interesting.

A useful starting point

The cider sweetness scale

DRY → MEDIUM DRY → MEDIUM → MEDIUM SWEET → SWEET
Understanding cider

So, what do the different cider styles mean?

At its simplest, Dry through to Sweet is a way of describing how sweet the finished cider tastes.

Move from left to right and, generally speaking, you'll find more noticeable sweetness.

Simple.

Well... mostly.

Because two ciders carrying exactly the same description can still taste remarkably different.

01

Dry Cider

A dry cider has very little noticeable sweetness, but dry doesn't mean sour.

Some dry ciders are light, crisp and refreshing. Others can be richer, fuller and have considerably more character.

Traditional English cider makers often use apples specifically grown for making drier styles of cider, with wonderful names such as Dabinett, Yarlington Mill, Michelin, Harry Masters' Jersey, Kingston Black and Brown Snout.

There isn't actually a dry cider apple, though. And that's where the story gets much more interesting.

Discover Dry Cider →
02

Medium Dry Cider

Move a little further along the scale and you arrive at Medium Dry.

There's a little more sweetness than you'd normally expect from a Dry cider, while still retaining plenty of crisp, refreshing character.

For plenty of cider drinkers, this is a rather nice place to be.

It's also a reminder that cider styles aren't rigid boxes. One producer's Medium Dry can taste noticeably different from another's.

Discover Medium Dry Cider →
03

Medium Cider

Medium sits, unsurprisingly, somewhere around the middle.

There's noticeable sweetness, but it shouldn't dominate the cider.

That balance makes Medium cider an accessible place to start if you're not yet sure where your preferences lie.

But Medium doesn't mean ordinary. The apples and the way the cider is made still have a huge influence on what's in your glass.

Discover Medium Cider →
04

Medium Sweet Cider

Now we're moving towards the sweeter end of the scale.

A Medium Sweet cider has more obvious sweetness while still retaining enough apple character to keep things interesting.

It's a useful middle ground for people who enjoy a sweeter cider without necessarily wanting to go all the way to the sweetest end of the spectrum.

And just like Dry and Medium, the words on the label only tell part of the story.

Discover Medium Sweet Cider →
05

Sweet Cider

Sweet cider does exactly what it says on the tin.

Or bottle.

It's at the sweeter end of the cider spectrum — but sweet doesn't automatically mean sickly or sugary.

A good sweet cider still needs balance. Apple character, acidity and sweetness all have a part to play.

There's far more variation than one word on a label might suggest.

Discover Sweet Cider →
And then things get interesting

What about Fruit Cider?

This is where our nice, tidy Dry-to-Sweet line stops being quite so useful.

Because Fruit Cider isn't another point on the sweetness scale.

Is strawberry cider actually made from strawberries?

Fruit cider generally begins with cider made from apples, with other fruits or fruit flavours becoming part of the finished drink.

That could mean strawberry, raspberry, cherry, blackcurrant, mango, rhubarb or all sorts of other combinations.

And fruit cider can have its own range of sweetness too.

So when somebody tells us they like fruit cider, there's another question worth asking:

Which one?

Because a light strawberry cider and a rich dark-berry cider can be very different drinks.

Discover What Fruit Cider Really Is →
Finding your way around

Light Fruit or Dark Fruit?

At The Online Cider Shop we divide our fruit ciders into Light Fruit and Dark Fruit.

We're not pretending they're official cider-industry classifications.

They're simply a useful way of helping you navigate a very broad range.

Light Fruit

Brighter, lighter fruit styles and flavours such as strawberry, raspberry and other refreshing fruit combinations.

Dark Fruit

Richer berry and darker-fruit flavours such as blackberry, blackcurrant and cherry.

Discover Light vs Dark Fruit Cider →
The important bit

So which cider style is best?

The one you like.

There's no prize for drinking the driest cider in the room, and you're not doing cider incorrectly because you prefer yours sweeter.

Likewise, enjoying traditional cider doesn't mean you're forbidden from enjoying a fruit cider when you fancy one.

The descriptions are there to help you navigate. They're starting points, not rules.

And there's only one reliable way of discovering where your own preference sits.

Pour it. Taste it. Decide for yourself.

And if you don't like that one? Try another.

With different apples, different makers, different methods and hundreds of ciders to discover, there's a fair chance you simply haven't found the right one yet.

POUR • TASTE • DISCOVER
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