The UK has a strong palate for cider: we drink more of the stuff than anyone else in the world, in fact we drink it more than other countries combined. Full-bodied craft cider is popular across all age demographics, many pairing its high acidic taste with cheeses, whereas others enjoy the low, healthy ABV compared to wine.
With over 2,500 indigenous apple varieties growing across the UK, it is a home-grown, sustainable choice: low on food miles, carbon footprint and high on taste.
Honey’s Cider is a charming, award-winning family-run business at Upper Midford Farm, near Bath in Somerset, producing mainly blended medium, dry, bright and sparkling cider on site.
“We did make our first single variety cider in 2021, we used the brown snout apples, which are late flowering and tend to avoid the late May frosts,” explained Kim, who co-runs the company with her dad.
“Our West Country eating and cooked apples are fresh-picked from our orchard and pressed once a year during early Autumn, and left to ferment for 9-12 months. The orchards were re-planted in 2002, after discovering on the original land maps that there were orchards there. We started pressing cider about five years later and now our orchards are fully established: with cattle grazing and we even feed the leftover dried pomace to the local cattle: offering a complete sustainable life cycle, between land, produce and livestock.
Cider is a sort of alchemy, dependant on the weather, which makes it exciting: we are always looking at how to enhance the natural tastes further.”
Honey’s Cider might be small and mighty but it has won many prestigious awards: a Taste of the West Gold award and a Great Taste Star (Guild of Fine Food) for Honey’s Stoney Bonk, an eclectic cider and ginger beer blend.
“We sell mainly to trade but we meet many new customers at the smaller niche, food and drink festivals. They sample our cider and fall in love: becoming repeat private customers, ordering off our website. Sparkling cider is a perennial favourite but interestingly, cloudy cider is gaining ground.”
In the age of globalisation, this small, mighty family-business is proud to be producing full-bodied craft cider from sustainable, rewilded orchards. The glass bottles can naturally be recycled and at food and drink events, Kim uses only bio-degradable vegware packaging.
You can catch Honey’s Cider at the Frome Independent Markets (‘more than a market’) on the first Sunday of the month and The Bath Soft Cheese Company open day on the 11 June.
To view the full delicious cider range, or to make an enquiry, see the website below:
T 07879610482