Now that summer’s bounty has been harvested and the cold snap of autumn is in the air, it seems appropriate to turn to spirits like apple cider and Perry (pear cider). These decidedly fall-flavoured drinks are refreshing on a hot summer day but warm the spirit on crisp autumn nights and provide a wonderful match with foods like butternut squash soup and roasted pork.

Apples are at their peak this time of year and cider houses around the world and especially in Canada have been thrown full barrel into production mode. With approximately 500,000 tons of apples grown in B.C., Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick every year (that’s about 3 billion apples, give or take) it’s no wonder one-third of the harvest is used for apple cider, vinegar, juice and sauce. No country could possibly eat that many raw apples out of hand and even if we could, who’d want to miss out on some of the tastiest booze produced in this country? Let’s face it, sometimes we’d rather drink our apple a day than eat it.

Those numbers don’t include Perry, also produced by many cider houses in Canada including the Okanagan Valley’s Growers Cider Company and Wyder’s Beverages Ltd.

However, if you’re looking for a truly Canadian product, turn to ice cider. Much like ice wine, it’s produced from apples left on the trees until frozen, but while Canada may have mastered the technique to produce ice wine we have to bow down to the Germans for having come up with the concept. Ice cider, on the other hand, was invented and mastered by Quebec’s leading cider houses.

Thanks to hardy trees that hold on to their fruit long after the first snow flies, Quebec’s ice cider producers pick the frozen fruit and separate the concentrated nectar from the crystallized water around it. Leaving the apples to freeze in the orchard concentrates their sugars and intensifies their flavour, producing a distinct amber-coloured liqueur. And at about 12 per cent alcohol, ice cider is easy-drinking and ideal for sipping by the fire.

Unlike ice wine, with flavours that range from melon to cotton candy, ice cider has a pronounced sweet apple aroma with caramel and brown sugar qualities. Pair it with sharp Canadian cheddar or a pungent blue cheese from Quebec to showcase its full flavour capacity.

Page 1 of 2