From Apple to Tipple: The Making of Cider

First of all, we get our baskets and gather the apples from the orchards. We're rosy cheeked and might even stop for a sneaky snack under the shade of a fruit-laden tree. Once the apples are collected, the next stage is to have them scratted. Granted it may sound dodgy, but this is simply the grounding down of the fruit into what's called pomace.

This pulp is then transferred to a cider press and built up in layers curiously known as cheeses. Now we're going to stop you right there – we've got no idea. And although the prospect of a nice cheese to go with a personalised cider is a lovely one, it boggles the mind that they couldn't come up with another word for it.

Anyway, after that the juice is squeezed from the cheese at increasing levels of pressure, until all the juice is emptied from the pomace. It's at this point that it's popped into either open vats or closed casks. And in true farmland spirit, the pressed pulp is then given to farm animals or composted off. Waste not want not and all that.

Next, it's all about the fermentation, which happens at temperatures of between four and 16°C. This typically lasts for about three months, although some ciders are matured for up to three years. It's also worth noting that shortly before the process eats up all the sugar from the juice, it's put into new vats so that all the dead yeast cells and yucky stuff is left behind. After all, nobody like bits, do they?

And that's about it really. Stick it in a bottle and voila… you've got your cider. It's properly good stuff, which is presumably why cider gifts make such good presents. Personalised cider, in particular, is bound to get any cider lover grinning from ear to ear like an apple-guzzling nutter.

So how, we here you cry, are they personalised? Well, it's all thanks to the personalised cider bottles that feature labels with your chosen name emblazoned across the front. Better yet, the cider comes with an engraved pint glass and both are then packaged up in a fancy, satin-lined gift box.