Cider by the jug.
Sweet cider is pressed fruit. Whole apples go into the press and juice comes out — no sugar, no water, no clarifying, no concentrate reconstituted back into something apple-shaped.
That's why it's cloudy. What you're looking at is apple solids still in suspension, and it's the reason a jug of real cider tastes like the fruit rather than like a soft drink. Clear apple juice is filtered and pasteurised to sit on a shelf for a year. Cider isn't, and shouldn't be.
It also means it's alive. Cider keeps about a week or two in the refrigerator and then starts to turn — first a prickle on the tongue, then properly fermenting. That's not a fault. It's the same process that makes the hard stuff, just happening in your kitchen without being asked.
Pressing follows the harvest. In Virginia that's roughly September through November — late-season apples make the better cider, because a fruit that has hung longer carries more sugar and more acid, and cider wants both.
Anything sold as cider in May came out of cold storage or a freezer. Worth knowing when somebody offers it to you year-round.
Shake the jug first — everything worth tasting has settled to the bottom. This is how most of it gets drunk, and there is nothing wrong with that.
Low heat, a cinnamon stick, a few cloves, a strip of orange peel. Do not boil it — you'll cook off the aromatics and flatten the apple. Twenty minutes barely steaming is plenty.
The same pot, a measure of rye or bourbon added off the heat so it doesn't cook away. Apple and barrel-aged whiskey share a lot of the same notes, which is why this works better than it has any right to.
Pressed apple juice, unfermented and unfiltered. Non-alcoholic. Cloudy, perishable, seasonal. In the United States this is what "cider" usually means, and it's what goes in the jug.
The same juice, fermented until the sugar has turned to alcohol. Typically 4–8% ABV. In Britain and most of Europe, this is what "cider" means without qualification — which is a reliable source of confusion in both directions.
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