SERVING CIDER
Mostly, treat your bottle of cider like a bottle of wine. Here are a few tips for how to serve and pour fine cider.
TEMPERATURE
Tannic ciders should be served at cellar temperature, which is around 55 degrees. If you don’t have a room in your house that is “castle temperature”, take the cider out of the fridge 15 minutes before you serve it.
SERVING SIZE
Pour cider like wine! Good, orchard based ciders are not beer alternatives and have too much alcohol for pint-sized single servings. And while good cider should taste good in any type of glass, we always recommend a wine glass if you have one. The reason is that the shape of a wine glass affects how we experience aromas.
A BOTTLE FOR TWO
With a bit less alcohol than wine, a 750 of cider is the perfect accompaniment to a meal for two. That said, if you need to save a bottle you’ve opened for later, read on.
KEEPING CIDER
Bubbly cider will keep in the fridge for a week to 10 days after opening if you have a nice champagne stopper (a worthwhile 2 buck investment). Our still ciders will keep equally as long with a simple cork. The ice cider seems to keep indefinitely. Cider doesn’t go bad after opening, but over time it oxidizes. If your cider begins to taste oxidized, use it to steam mussels or glaze pork. Cooking with cider is exciting!
AGING
How long will cider age? The jury is out. Some ciders, especially those with plenty of acidity and tannin will age longer than others. We find out champagne method ciders hit a sweet spot at around age two. So stock up, but drink up. You don’t need to cellar it like an epic red wine.
PAIRING
The rules for pairing cider are: Does it taste good? If you want some inspiration, check out the archives of Autumn's Pairing Issue.