Ancient British seider — Conducive to longevity — The best made in Normandy — Which develops into champagne — And other popular and salubrious wines — Non-alcoholic cider — A loathsome brew — German man-u-fac-turers — Medical properties of apple juice — Away with mel-an-choly — The mill and the press — Pure wine — Norfolk cider — Gaymer’s gout-fuge — Revival of the industry — Old process of cider-making — Improving the flavour — Boiled cider — Hippocras — Juniper cider — An ancient cider-cup.
According to some chroniclers the ancient Britons made cider—or “seider” as the poor ignoramuses wrote it—but it must have been nasty stuff according to our civilized ideas; for until the Romans came to visit us the apple was not cultivated in Britain, nor, indeed, any fruit or vegetable. Our blue forefathers were not particular as to what they ate or drank; and I should think the fermented juice of wild or “crab” apples must have corroded the throats of the hardiest.
It is claimed for cider, and perry, that no fermented drinks do less hurt to the imbiber; although one authority states that the man who {175} drinks too much of either invariably falls on the back of his head, which sounds rather dangerous. Whether the drinking of cider in moderation conduces to long life deponent sayeth not; but no less an authority than Lord Bacon evidently thought so; and in his History of Life and Death he tells of eight men dancing a Morris-dance, whose ages, added together, were 800 years, “tennants of one Mannour” belonging to the Earl of Essex, and habitual cider-drinkers. But the lengthening of the days of the imbiber depends, in all probability, upon the brand of cider. I have tasted some varieties which were capable, apparently, of shortening life, rather than of prolonging it; and in parts of Somersetshire, even at the present day, the locals—case-hardened and poison-proof to a man—swill a horrible decoction, which would probably kill off an alien, at long range, most speedily and effectively.
Cider was called “cidre” and “sithere” by fourteenth century writers; and the word is said to be a corruption of the Greek sikera, used in the Septuagint to translate the Hebrew shekar, usually rendered “strong drink” in the Old Testament.
“The name of Cider,” says one of these old writers, “if from Sikera, is but a general name for an inebriating or an intoxicating drink, and may argue their ignorance in those times of any other name than Wine for that liquor or juice in the Saxon or Norman language, either of those nations being unwilling (it’s probable) to use a British name for so pleasing a drink, they not affecting the Britains, made use of few of their {176} words; but since that, that wines have been imported from foreign parts in great quantities, the English have been forced to make use of the old British name SEIDER, or Cider, for distinction sake, although the name vinum may be as proper for the juice of the apple as the grape, if it be derived either from Vi or Vincendo, or quasi Divinum, as one would have it. Also the vulgar tradition of the scarcity of foreign wines in England, viz. that Sack, which was then imported for the most part but from Spain, was sold in the apothecaries’ shops as a cordial medicine; and the vast increase in vineyards in France (Ale and Beer being usual drinks in Spain and France in Pliny’s time) is an argument sufficient that the name of Wine, might be attributed to our British Cider, and of vineyards to the places separated for the propagating the fruit that yields it.”
As a matter of fact the best cider in the world is made in Normandy. And for what purpose do the Normans make it? To send to the Champagne country to be sold to the unsuspecting tourist as the sparkling wine of that district. This is solid truth. Hundreds of millions of gallons are made in Normandy with the most scrupulous care, under the supervision of experienced chemists, and the bulk is eventually sold as champagne. And not only champagne, but claret, white wines, and even honest, manly, beautiful, unsophisticated, good old Portuguese port, owe their being in some instances to Normandy apples; the rich colour of the port being added by log-wood, beet-juice, {177} and the root of the rhatany. In fact, genuine port can be so closely imitated as to deceive many a good judge; and it really seems wonderful that the British farmer does not go in for making port wine, with apples so plentiful and cheap, and beet, mangels, and elderberries so easy to cultivate. In fact, given the time, and the materials, I am convinced that I could produce an excellent ’98 wine for laying down, for hospital purposes, public rejoicings, or miladi’s boudoir.
Cider, like all other useful drinks, can be, and is, imitated; and Bands of Hope and other well-meaning but misguided associations are chiefly responsible for this. What is known at Sunday-school treats and Salvation Army marriage-feasts as “non-alcoholic cider” has been found, on analysis, to be “a water solution of sugar and citric acid, flavoured with apple essence.” It’s the flavouring as does it.
“Harvest cider,” as home-made for the “hands,” is dreadful stuff, and absolutely unfit for human consumption. Apples which have fallen of themselves, or been blown off the trees, “windfalls,” are left on the ground to rot, and be eaten of slugs and wasps; and are then shovelled into the cider-mill, together with leaves, stalks, slugs, wasps, dirt of all sorts, spiders, ear-wigs, wire-worms, “Daddy Long-legs”-es, and—other things; the whole being converted into a species of “hell-broth,” which would have done credit to the best efforts of the witches in Macbeth, when properly mixed.
For a long time the Germans held aloof from {178} the man-u-fac-ture of cider. The good Rhine wine, and the flowing and flatulent lager of their own country, were good enough for the Teutonic palate. But when it comes to a question of making money, with the risk reduced to a minimum, Germany seldom “gets left,” as the Yankees say. Some of the inhabitants of the Fatherland discovered, about two decades ago, that there was gelt in cider, and since that time apples have been imported from France, by train-loads, for the purpose of being converted into cider. Germany now exports nearly twelve times as much of this fascinating beverage as does France; and under whatever name it may figure in the bills—German Champagne, Military Port, ?pfel-wein, or Sparkling Hock—away goes the apple juice to all parts of the civilized world, including Damascus, Pekin, Khartoum, San Francisco, and Shaftesbury Avenue. In Frankfort-on-the-Maine alone there are more than fifty cider-factories, and the industry brings the town at least half a million sterling per annum.
“The fruits of the earth,” says the ancient chronicler quoted above, “and especially of trees, were the first food ordained for man to eat.”
And yet I had always understood that it was for eating an apple that our first parents were evicted from the garden. But to continue the quotation.
“And by eating of which (before flesh became his meat) he lived to a far greater age than since any have been observed to have lived. And of all the fruits our Northern parts produce, there’s none more edible, nor more wholesome than Apples; {179} which by the various preparations of the cook are become a part of our table entertainment almost throughout the year, and are esteem’d to be very temperate and nourishing.
“They relax the belly, which is a very good property in them; but the sweet more than the sharp. They help concoction, eaten after meat, with a little bread: you may be confident that an apple eaten after supper”—paste this in your hats, ye revellers—“depresseth all offensive vapours that otherwise would offend the head, and hinder sleep. Apples rosted, scalded, or otherwise prepared, according to the skill of the operatour, are good in many hot diseases, against Melancholy, and the Pleurisie.
“But Cider is much to be preferr’d, it being the more pure and active part separated from the impure and feculent; and without all, peradventure, is the most wholesome drink that is made in Eur............