What is the difference between apple juice, apple cider, and hard cider?

When I first moved to Jefferson County, one of the first things I did was pick some wild apples from my property and juice them. My goal was to make hard apple cider. Unfortunately, my attempts at fermentation were flawed and I ended up with apple cider vinegar (albeit one of exceptionally good flavor).  This attempt taught me that making good apple cider is both an art and science requiring a high attention to detail.

Apple cider, or “sweet cider,” is simply the unfiltered juice of apples as it flows from an apple press. Apple cider is made by first grinding or chopping whole apples into small pieces.  These are then placed between layers of fabric and placed into a press. Increasing pressure is applied, causing juices to flow from the apples into a collection container. In the United States, the term “apple juice” refers to unfermented (sweet) cider that has been filtered to remove any solids (pulp), creating a clear product.  In Europe, cider only refers to fermented products and apple juice only to unfermented products (whether filtered or not). 

Without intervention, natural yeasts found in the environment quickly begin consuming the sugars found in sweet cider, converting them into alcohol.  Fermented cider is known as "hard cider” or, less commonly, “apple wine”. Historically, prior to the invention of refrigeration and pasteurization techniques, virtually all cider sold in the United States and Europe was hard cider. Like beer, people often drank cider instead of water due to concerns over contamination. Hard cider was widely consumed in the United States well into the 19th century.

Hard cider can be distilled into liquor, commonly known as Apple Jack Brandy. As I learned early in my cider-making career, apple cider vinegar is a second product made from hard cider. Acetobacter bacteria are naturally present on most fruits and vegetables. In the presence of oxygen, these bacteria quickly convert alcohol into acetic acid.  Apple cider vinegar was also widely available and used throughout America in the 18th and 19th centuries.

At home, you can make your own fresh apple cider simply by processing apples in a standard juicer. To prevent fermentation from occurring, this cider should be consumed immediately or refrigerated no more than a few days. To control food-borne pathogens (such as e. coli and cryptosporidium), New York State requires that commercial cideries either treat their sweet (fresh) ciders with ultraviolet light or pasteurize them by heating, typically to 160 degrees Fahrenheit for six seconds. This relatively low temperature helps to preserve some of the more delicate flavors found in fresh cider. These flavors are often lost in commercial apple juices, which undergo higher temperature pasteurization to make them shelf-stable for longer periods of time.

Here in the North Country, we are blessed to have several choices for locally produced cider. Burrville Cider Mill has been making cider since the early 1800’s, with commercial production beginning in the 1940’s.  Canton Apples uses heirloom organic apples picked from their orchard to create both sweet apple cider and ciders blended with other fruit. Kaneb Orchard in Massena won a gold medal in the World Cider Championship in 2016 for their hard cider and that’s just to name a few!