A brief History of cider
Ciders’ roots grow deep into human history. So far back, it’s a story that combines human-plant migration, the fossil record, shifts in glaciation, dynastic power, and the very cradle of civilisation. Crossing continents and millennia, all of these things, and so much more lead to a glass of something unique, grounded in a sense of place that has the power to unite and inspire those drawn to huddle around its glow and warmth.
Evidence in the fossil records emerges of the first instances of members of the wider Rosaceae family, that show apple like characteristics, in the region of modern day North West China.
Over the following millions of years, thousands of species of apple evolve and develop in this Central Asian region and, during interglacial periods, spread throughout the temperate climes of the Northern Hemisphere. The native European crab apple, Malus sylvestris, still present in Britain today, pre dates any human interaction with apples.
With the end of the Ice Age, the ancestor of modern, domestic apples, Malus Siversii begins to move west from its refuge in the Tien Shan mountain forests; firstly thanks to animals, and latterly through human traders along the Silk Road.
The people of Mesopotamia, now present-day Iraq, were amongst some of the first to master agriculture. The key to the domestication of apples and pears is cracked through the development of the grafting process. Particular varieties, with favoured characteristics, can now be preserved and spread widely.
The age of orchards begins as the Greeks, and then Romans, carefully select varieties they wish to preserve and house these trees in collections, often in walled gardens. The species Malus domestica (the progenitor of all eating, cooking and cider apples) is born. An early mention to these new landscapes is given in Homer’s Odyssey from 800 BCE.
The use of apples, beyond simply eating them, starts being mentioned in the records, where there is reference to Hebrews drinking ‘shekar’, Greeks drinking ‘sikera’ and Romans drinking ‘sicera’.
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