The World of Apples

Cider apples

Apples grown to be pressed and fermented, many of them small and bitter with tannin. Below are notes on how they are classed, then the varieties in the atlas that their sources describe as cider apples.

Cider apples are the varieties grown to make cider1. Many of the traditional English and French ones are rich in polyphenols, the tannins that give cider its bitterness and astringency, and cider apples may hold more acid and sugar than apples grown for eating2. Their fruit is generally smaller and more bitter than a dessert apple’s, with a fibrous structure that keeps longer1. In Andrew Lea’s figures a typical bittersweet juice has about 15% sugar, against about 10% in Bramley’s Seedling3.

Sweets, sharps, bittersweets and bittersharps

When the Long Ashton Research Station was founded near Bristol in 1903 to work on cider, its first director, B. T. P. Barker, set out to bring order to what Lea calls “the then-prevailing chaos of nomenclature” by classing cider apples on the acid and tannin in their juice4:

  • Sweet: under 0.45% acid, under 0.2% tannin4.
  • Sharp: over 0.45% acid, under 0.2% tannin4.
  • Bittersweet: under 0.45% acid, over 0.2% tannin4.
  • Bittersharp: over 0.45% acid, over 0.2% tannin4.

It remains the most widely recognised system2, used by cider makers internationally5. Few cider apples have the ideal balance, so cider is nearly always blended; Lea names the bittersharp Kingston Black as one that comes close3, though a Somerset list in Hogg’s Fruit Manual (1884) said that it “of itself makes a thin cider”6. Hogg’s lists, older than Barker’s classes, already named Wilding Bitter-sweet and Tremlett’s Bitter6. Sweets and sharps are generally culinary varieties2: in Long Ashton’s analyses both Bramley’s Seedling and the dessert apple Cox’s Orange Pippin came out as sharps4.

Vintage quality

Cider makers also speak of “vintage quality”: there is general agreement that some varieties make better cider than others, but no clear understanding of it in chemical terms3. Varieties held to have it come from all four classes, among them Sweet Alford, Frederick, Dabinett and Kingston Black4. Not every true cider apple has it: Michelin, widely planted in Hereford and Somerset, gives “mere bulk without any distinction”3.

In early New York the name meant something else: the fruit of ungrafted seedling trees, fed to stock or pressed, was “often called cider apples”7.

93 varieties Filter them with the finder

And 64 more in the catalogue, A to Z

Sources

  1. Genomic basis of the differences between cider and dessert apple varieties, Diane Leforestier and others, Evolutionary Applications 8(7): 650–661; PubMed Central, 13 June 2015. Supports: "bitter cider apples are used to produce cider"; the fruits of cider varieties "are smaller and bitter", though not all are extremely bitter; cider apples "known for their fibrous structure, which allows longer storage".
  2. A bittersweet symphony: genetic insights into cider apple fruit quality, Pierre Bouillon and others, G3: Genes, Genomes, Genetics 16(1): jkaf241; PubMed Central, 19 October 2025. Supports: many traditional French and English cider apples high in polyphenols; total polyphenols "a key determinant of bitterness and astringency"; cider apples "may have greater polyphenol, organic acid, and sugar concentration than fresh-market apples"; the Long Ashton classification "the most widely recognized system"; sweets and sharps used for cider "are generally culinary cultivars".
  3. The Science of Cidermaking, Part 2: Fruit and Cultivation, Andrew Lea, The Wittenham Hill Cider Portal (cider.org.uk), 1997, updated 2009. Supports: approximate sugar in the juice: typical bittersweet 15%, Cox 12%, Bramley 10%; "very few 'true' cider apples" match the ideal juice, so "a blend of cider apples is nearly always necessary"; the bittersharp Kingston Black "does approximate to the ideal"; vintage quality an "elusive characteristic", with "no clear understanding of what this means in chemical terms" but "general agreement that certain cultivars produce a superior quality of cider"; Michelin, "widely planted for cidermaking in Hereford and Somerset", gives "mere bulk without any distinction".
  4. Cider Apple Compositional Data, Andrew Lea, The Wittenham Hill Cider Portal (cider.org.uk). Supports: the Long Ashton Research Station, near Bristol, founded to work on cider in 1903, its first director B. T. P. Barker; his classification, made "to try and impose some order on the then-prevailing chaos of nomenclature": sharp (acid over 0.45%, tannin under 0.2%), bittersharp (over 0.45%, over 0.2%), bittersweet (under 0.45%, over 0.2%), sweet (under 0.45%, under 0.2%); in the Long Ashton data Bramley's Seedling (culinary) and Cox's Orange Pippin (dessert) both class as sharps; the cultivars "generally regarded as having" vintage quality: sweets (Sweet Alford, Sweet Coppin), sharps (Frederick, Browns Apple), bittersweets (Dabinett, Yarlington Mill and others) and bittersharps (Kingston Black, Stoke Red, Broxwood Foxwhelp).
  5. Commonly Grown Cider Apple Cultivars in the U.S. (CIDER Report 202), C. Miles, J. King and G. Peck, Washington State University Mount Vernon NWREC, 2015. Supports: the classification by acid and tannin in the pressed juice, developed at Long Ashton Research Station, "is used by cider makers internationally".
  6. The Fruit Manual, fifth edition, pp. 259–260: The best cider apples, Robert Hogg, Journal of Horticulture Office, London; Internet Archive, 1884. Supports: the lists of the best cider apples of Herefordshire (with Wilding Bitter-sweet), Devonshire (with Tremlett's Bitter) and Somersetshire (with Lurley Bitter-sweet); in the Somerset list, Kingston Black: "This of itself makes a thin cider".
  7. The Apples of New York, vol. I, p. 8: Primitive orchards, S. A. Beach, New York Agricultural Experiment Station; Internet Archive, 1905. Supports: the fruit of seedling trees, as against grafted fruit, used "chiefly for feeding to stock and for cider-making, being on that account often called cider apples".