Cider Voice

We've talked to death about varieties on the pod – we've even discovered the definitive BEST (twice). But we've never talked about bringing them together in a blend.* So Albert and Adam sit down to rectify that. Why do you blend? How do you blend? What do you blend? When do you blend? It's all here, alongside meandering chat about wine, whisky and our own flagship blends. (Yes, Adam's calling a ci...

Whilst we love all of full-juice cider's rich tapestry (honestly), dry cider is what has captured the hearts of our team most completely. In this episode Albert and Adam talk all things dry cider - what it means to us, why we love it so much, myths and misconceptions around dry cider ... and why 'dry cider' in and of itself is such a broad definition of a mind-blowingly diverse tapestry of drinks....

We may have had something of an off-year, but the Cider Voice Tree is once again bearing fruit! In our return episode we briefly touch on what we've been up to since we last troubled the airwaves, then plunge into a discussion of our recent visit to Normandy - high stem trees, varieties, cows, Calvados and all. Albert makes cider @rosscider Adam works in wine again @adamhwells Justin is lost in sp...

Join the Broome Farm Orchard Walk audio story. This is a narrative discussion between Albert, our regular host, and his father Mike and his brother Martin, of the Johnson family at Ross-on-Wye Cider & Perry Company in Broome Farm, Herefordshire. This is the complete audio story of their new orchard walk - a free to access walk with a choice of a 2.5km or 5km route, with 27 information signs, t...

With the brothers Wells conspicuous by their abscence (are they out there right now, spreading fireblight?), Albert has an opportunity to talk to Dr Kathryn Bruce, a social historian of horticulture and plant science who recently completed her PhD at the University of St Andrews. Kathryn's PhD had the title "The Fireblight Menace: Knowledge communities and their response to crop disease in the Ang...

Whilst Albert heads to Westminster, Justin and Adam recruit Little Pomona's James Forbes to chat about all things fortified in the cider category. James has just brought out his first Mistelle, Fomo (even if he's forgotten it today) and we learn how an 'alarming' coloured cider led to one of the most hyped releases of the last couple of years. Just and Adam are both card-carrying fans of all thing...

An anxiety pulling up of my socks, with Martin Johnson We continue to mine our families for quality cider content, and this time it’s Albert’s turn to provide a relative, in the shape of his fellow @rosscider maker, @yewtreepeterstow supremo and, coincidentally, brother, Martin Johnson. We discuss the running of a perfect cider pub, and everything Martin has done to transform the Yew Tree into jus...

The plight of the hapless cidermaker, with Caroline Wells For absolutely definitely 100% the first time ever on the show, we reveal that Justin and Adam have started their own cidermaking project, Three Wells Cider, and we’re joined by their business partner, cidermaking colleague and fellow Wells, Caroline, to tell you all about it. From being accidentally compelled to become craft drinks produce...

Liberty to Cider – with Elisha Mason We take an apple-tinted journey into the past with our guest this week, Elisha Mason, @museumofcider Archives and Collections Officer. Leading us into the mysterious (and, apparently, heavily haunted) archives and cellars of the magnificent Museum of Cider in Hereford, Elisha talks us through British Cider Riots, and how they inspired revolution in America, dre...

After receiving an eloquent letter of encouragement from one of our 12 listeners, we re-run our extremely thorough and official tournament for the greatest cider apple or perry pear. Bigger, better, with no apples off the table and two bonus judges in @helenannesmith and @ratchellle, this is Pome Total War, with apples and pears judged on every factor – taste, yield, vibes, name, treacherousness a...

Once again we dive into the inspiring international scene, this time learning all about cider in Japan thanks to our guest Lee Reeve, @inciderjapan. We talk through Japan’s cider beginnings in the 1950s, its modern movement that began around 2017 and the different styles, makers, places and inspirations behind modern Japanese cider. From French-style keeves to English bittersweets, from Fuji apple...

It’s about time we dug into one of the world’s biggest cider cultures – and the only only outside the UK with a large concentration of bittersweet and bittersharp cider apples – France. So who better to catch up with than Virginie Thomas of @bouscule_tes_sens – author, consultant, advocate and trainer? We cover all things French cider, chat through some of the similarities in how the drink’s perce...

We level up once again this week as we welcome international cider dignitary Darlene Hayes to Cider Voice. One of the most important and influential figures in the American and now global cider revolution, Darlene has played a central role in expanding cider education, especially through the Certified Cider Guide and Certified Pommelier Programmes. We talk through Darlene's introduction to cider,...

With Albert on Freya-watch, Adam and Justin decide to celebrate a year of Cider Voice by learning how to actually podcast, and chatting to our secret producer, Neutral Cider Hotel's Martyn Goodwin Sharman, aka @cidershit Cue a wide-ranging chat with someone who's watched the aspirational cider revolution first-hand for almost a decade. Everything from Daniel Craig ice lollies to cider tie-die t-sh...

It's been a year since we relaunched Cider Voice and to celebrate, Albert's holding a massive festival at the farm and launching 14 special edition ciders. In this episode we run through all the festival releases, from the last of a particular perry pear ever to be grown on the farm to an apple that isn't called Hagloe Lobster. Has Albert been coerced into releasing a perry by Adam? And is Ross-on...

‘The wobbler’. ‘The shakey shakey’. ‘Ladder method’. ‘Plank method’. ‘Squolch’. What does it all mean? With harvest rapidly incoming, Albert and the Cousins Wells sit down to discuss the vital topic of Toil. The physical business of making cider is, we feel, much underdiscussed. But between Adam’s leather jacket and Justin’s ‘hands more suited to picking up cake’ we feel we’re the people to do it....

The team pull a late one for an extra exciting episode with a serious time difference as we catch up with Camilla Humphries (@camillas_crush) cider maker, expert and advocate in Mornington Peninsular, Australia. We see almost none of Australia’s amazing cider scene here in the UK so Camilla gives us the full rundown from climate to apples to the inspirational Cider Australia (@cideraustralia) move...

The team welcome a transatlantic cider rock star to the pod for this episode as they're joined by Eleanor Leger, co-founder and owner of Vermont's @ edenciders We talk about all things ice cider and how Eden experiment with this magnificent dessert cider style. Plus the economics of fine cider, and how Eden have diversified over the years whilst staying true to their full juice roots. Having exper...

It's the 44th episode of Cider Voice and in Albert's absence thanks to his exciting new role we have a huge question: do we finally have a 13th listener? To celebrate we're joined by whisky writer and new Cider Review contributor Beatrix Swanson . Bea talks to Justin and Adam about growing up in Germany's apfelwein country and how she joined the cider community. We extol the virtues of the bagnum...

Well, it's another Albertless episode, but that doesn't hold Justin and Adam back from interviewing the once and future Cider Critic James Finch of Chapel Sider and Cider Review fame! They discuss Chapel Sider's origin and future, James' love of orchards, and the vicissitudes of cider writing and advocacy, along with a bit of a retrospective on Cider Review and how it came about. Not to mention th...

With the whole CV team back together again we thought about doing an earnest and serious conversation about apple and pear varieties. But with all the sport on we changed our mind and turned it into a knockout tournament to discover the greatest (British) cider apple or perry pear of them all.  Pitting 32 contenders against each other, Adam tasks Justin and Albert with finding the ultimate. Thorn...

In this episode Justin and Adam demand the finest ciders available to humanity and they want them here and they want them now, so who better to speak to than Felix Nash, founder of the Fine Cider Company. We talk the 10-year development of Fine Cider, the ways Felix has found to bring restaurants round to the concept, parallels with and differences to fine wine, the new Fine Cider Shop in London a...

With Adam still MIA, Justin and Albert make it all the way to the top, sitting down with the godfather of aspirational cider, Mr Tom Oliver @ tomoliverscider . Drawing on Tom's wealth of knowledge and abundant wit we chat adventures in America, ordering everything on the menu and the increasing importance of aspirational cider on keg. As a kindred Herefordshire cidermaker Albert and Tom compare no...

Absolute cider royalty comes to the pod this week as Justin and Albert are joined by Alison Taffs, head honcho at multi-award-winning might-as-well-keep-the-trophy cider pub The Hop Inn. We talk about Alison and Justin's shared background as drama students at Mountview, and how that armed them to become tasting host extraordinaires, we touch on managing alcohol intake when working in the drinks in...