Mar 21, 2017
Thatchers Cider is preparing to stage its Haze Sessions for the second year.
The one-day music event will take place in Bristol on Saturday 6th May 2017.
As the official cider of Glastonbury Festival, Thatchers already has a strong association with live music. The Haze Sessions is part of the Somerset cidermaker’s promotional support for its brands this year, including TV throughout spring and summer, sampling events, social media and digital campaigns.
Marketing Director at Thatchers, Yvonne Flannery says, “Supporting events and festivals is a key part of our marketing activity once again this year – kicking off with our second Haze Sessions event in Bristol at the beginning of May. It’s a great way to continue to make the association between expertly crafted cider and expertly crafted music.
“We’re really excited about The Haze Sessions, we have some fantastic local bands who are each carving out names for themselves nationally. This is a wonderful showcase for their talents alongside our own Thatchers Haze Cider.”
This year, The Haze Sessions features a line-up of four up-and-coming bands, hand-picked with the help of BoomTown’s head of music, Kaptin Barrett, who will also be compering the evening:
- Little Comets, famed for their impromptu gigs in unorthodox venues, feature a mix of tricky percussive rhythms and Afro-beat-tinged guitars.
- Elder Island, a Bristol-based trio with sizzling synths and angelic, otherworldy vocals.
- Eva Lazarus has been making waves on the Bristol music scene for a few years now and is all about the big afro, big voice, big beats and big bass.
- Harry and the Gondolas hail from Somerset and are a three-piece, Nu-Folk ensemble – a festival favourite in the making.
Tickets for The Haze Sessions, which takes place at The Passenger Shed, Brunel’s Old Station, Bristol, go on sale from this week.
Featuring the strapline What Cloudy Cider’s Supposed to Taste Like, Thatchers Haze is a 4.5% naturally cloudy cider, crafted from Discovery, Falstaff, Gala and Jonagold eating apples to create its crisp, sweet finish. All importantly it’s the juice of the Jonagold apple that gives the cider its all-natural haze.
Martin Thatcher, fourth generation cidermaker adds, “Tapping into all of the great things that the consumer is asking for – craft, heritage, and quality, Thatchers Haze is a contemporary cloudy cider for the new generation of cider drinkers as well as those who love apple cider and are looking for something different.
“The Haze Sessions shows how great music and great cider are perfect partners.”
Mar 17, 2017
Westons Caple Rd Cider, the UK’s first craft cider in a can, has formed a partnership to become the Official Cider of Backyard Cinema for the next two years.
One of London’s favourite attractions, Backyard Cinema is known for transforming unique spaces into captivating cinematic experiences. From the Zombie Apocalypse that took place in a top secret location to Romeo + Juliet at St Mary’s Church with a live choir and magical Winter Night Garden at the new permanent venue, Mercato Metropolitano, Backyard Cinema is aiming to change the face of cinema.
Backyard Cinema screens a wide selection of films in unique and iconic settings within London. Each show becomes a memorable evening out, while staying true to its original ethos of being ‘somewhere cool you can watch your favourite films, with great food, drinks and all your mates’. It is anticipated that this year’s Backyard Cinema events will attract 80,000 Londoners.
Tessa Holden, Caple Rd brand manager, says: “We are delighted to have formed a partnership with Backyard Cinema. Backyard Cinema’s audience of young, urban consumers who are eager to try new and authentic experiences and brands, is the perfect audience for Caple Rd. We are very much looking forward to working with them in 2017 and beyond.”
James Milligan, director of Backyard Cinema, says: “We are really excited to partner with Caple Rd Cider, an innovative, young, independent cider, at our new, independent, permanent cinema home, Mercato Metropolitano.”
Caple Rd Cider is now available in 330ml cans at Backyard Cinema, which is set in Mercato Metropolitano, a brand new Italian food market close to London’s Borough Market. The market also includes an Italian deli, 30 independent food vendors and several small bars.
Mar 17, 2017
Last week saw the hosting of the biennial International Cider Awards. This event sits alongside its bigger brother, the International Brewing Awards: one of the most respected and longest standing beer competitions in the world. Such a big undertaking is the hosting of these concurrent events, in fact, that they are only held once every 2 years.
The NACM was instrumental in the design of this year’s awards, and its Chair, Helen Thomas was one of the judges. To demonstrate the truly International nature of the competition, Helen was joined by cider making colleagues from Sweden, Belgium, New Zealand and the USA. The standard of entries from all over the world was incredible, with award winners from over a dozen countries demonstrating that cider is a truly global phenomenon.
Cider had its own class in the competition from the early 20th century up until the 1950s. With the boom in global cider popularity, the International Cider Awards were reinstated in 2012. The last time, however, that cider gets a decent mention in dispatches at the Brewer’s Exhibition is in 1932 when Stanley Sheppy, of Sheppy’s Cider of Bradford-on-Tone in Somerset, receives a Gold Medal for their Still Table Cider, also taking out the Champion Cider crown. Rather wonderfully Sheppy’s (an NACM member) is still a family concern, with Stanely’s grandson, David, at the helm. And to fully close the loop, not only is Gold Medal Cider still being made today, but David received a Silver Medal in the Speciality Class at last week’s competition for Sheppy’s Iwood Cider.
The UK also saw Gold medal success for Aston Manor’s Knight’s Malvern Oak, which took home the Gold in the Dry Bittersweet Cider category. Special mention should also be given to Hogan’s Cider from Alcester in Warwickshire, members of the Three Counties Cider and Perry Association, one of the UK’s regional cider associations and affiliated to the NACM. They won the Gold Medal for in the Speciality Class for their ‘sour’ cider, Killer Sharp, which has been fermented with Brettanomyces yeast. This is a fantastic achievement for such a small company, and demonstrates the awareness of cider makers of the highly popular craft beer market.
Mar 17, 2017
The National Association of Cider Makers and (NACM) and the Institute of Brewing & Distilling (IBD) are proud to announce that they will be working in collaboration to create a new General Certificate in Cider Making. This unique training offering is being specifically created for people working within the technical side of the cider industry, ensuring they have a sound grasp of the fundamentals of cider making.
Taking in the full range of cider making processes, from apple selection all the way through to final packaging, this course is aimed at commercial enterprises that take a modern approach to cider making, with a focus on quality.
The equivalent of an A level standard qualification, it will follow in the well-trodden footsteps of the highly respected General Certificates already provided by the IBD in Brewing, Malting and Distilling.
Gabe Cook, NACM Communications Officer, points out that this course is long overdue. “There has been a huge increase in the number of people involved in the production of cider making over the last few years, not just in the UK, but all around the globe. This course will provide the resource for ensuring current and new entrants into the cider making world are operating to the highest standards’
The IBD continues to develop qualifications for professional in the malting, brewing and distilling industries had over 3,000 exam candidates in 2016.
Jerry Avis, IBD CEO says “We are delighted to collaborate with the NACM to provide cider makers with a qualification that will demonstrate the extent of their technical knowledge with the degree of rigor that the IBD examination systems are renowned for. I know that both individuals and our member companies will be equally excited by the opportunity to demonstrate mastery of their art and science”.
Gabe Cook has no doubt that this course will be of the highest quality. ‘The course material is being put together by the world’s greatest cider making minds, who between them have centuries of cider making experience. What they don’t know isn’t worth knowing!’
Feb 22, 2017
The last week has seen a raft of stories about British ciders abroad. The Mail on Sunday ran with an article at the weekend that highlighted the current popularity of cider in Russia. Apparently volumes have increased seven fold over the last few years, with British cider accounting for the majority of this. This follows on from an interview with Henry Chevallier, from Aspall Cider, on BBC Radio 4’s Farming Today, highlighting the importance, and challenges, of exporting. Whilst Westons announced it is launching its Caple Road brand into Canada. These stories serve to highlight the increasing importance, and potentially significant future of, exporting great British ciders.
Many British cider makers, such as Aspalls, Westons and Thatchers have exported for many years, with the UK cider industry now exporting to over 50 counties, from Estonia to Australia and Malta to Thailand. Smaller cider makers have increased their levels of exporting, too. You can now find the finest, artisanal ciders from our smaller producers filling the fridges at the hippest joints in the vast megacities of New York, Moscow and Tokyo, as the discerning consumer seeks out the finest of British drinks.
But it’s not just British ciders that are being enjoyed around the world – more cider is being made globally, too. Markets such as the USA, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa all have burgeoning cider categories, with many brands now available in the UK. The US just held its annual CiderCon – a gathering of cider professionals from the US and around the world, to discuss the latest happenings. At events such as this, UK producers are often held with some reverence, thanks to their quality ciders, old orchards and the thousands of years of British cider making heritage. Strong domestic cider markets around the globe can only mean there is an increased demand for British ciders, with consumers wanting to enjoy a taste of the good stuff straight from cider central.
The world is waking up to cider in a big way, and rest assured, British cider will be at the forefront of the global renaissance!
