Jun 12, 2026
The Kitchen Cabinet Comes to The Cider Works !
Sandford Orchard Cider Works will be hosting a live recording of BBC Radio 4’s much-loved culinary panel show, The Kitchen Cabinet, hosted by Jay Rayner, on 23rd June.
This is your chance to be part of the audience for one of Radio 4’s most entertaining food and drink programmes, featuring expert panellists, plenty of good-humoured conversation, and the opportunity to ask your own questions about all things culinary.
Doors open from 4pm, with food from Darts Farm featuring local produce and cider accompaniments, plus plenty of cider available at the bar to help you settle in before the recording begins.
It promises to be a fantastic evening and we can’t wait to welcome The Kitchen Cabinet to Sandford Orchards.
Tickets are free, but advance application is required via the BBC:
Mar 18, 2026
Devon-based Sandford Orchards has just won silver, at the International Cider Awards, for its non-alcoholic cider, Red Zero, to add to its burgeoning trophy cabinet. It has already been named Best Non-Alcoholic Cider at the World Cider Awards 2025 and won awards from Untapped Gold 2026, Great British Food Awards, Great Taste Awards, The International Cider Challenge, World Alcohol Free Awards, Taste of the West, Food Drink Devon and The Farm Shop and Deli Awards.
Barny Butterfield, founder of Sandford Orchards comments: “It took eight years of failure, iteration and obsession to get Red Zero right, but we like to do things properly at Sandford Orchards. When we perfected the process, we were thrilled with the outcome but we weren’t prepared for the response we received once we launched it. Fifteen months on and the accolades keep rolling in. Red Zero has been named best in county, region, country and the world! That is what we call alcohol-free cider done right!”
Red Zero (ABV <0.5%) is an utterly delicious, crisp and fruity non-alcoholic cider produced from fabulous apple varieties including Farmers Glory, Dabinett and Sweet Alford. Created using a combination of traditional cider methods and cutting edge technology, it is a real fermented drink with the alcohol extracted.
Barny continues: “Removing alcohol without damaging character is hard. Doing it properly is even harder. We invested in the right technology to access processes that genuinely lifted us above the category, taking learnings from wine and developing them in cider. We blend for a product without alcohol from the outset because when the alcohol is gone, there’s nowhere to hide. We have a cellar team with 70 years of experience which we use to ensure we make the right decisions at every stage. The judges can tell and so can our customers. It may be the most expensive way to make non-alcoholic cider but that is why it’s one of the most authentic non-alcoholic drinks out there.”
Founded in 2002, independent, family-owned Sandford Orchards is based in Crediton, Mid Devon in the oldest working cider mill in the UK. Sandford Orchards takes a fresh, natural and low impact approach to producing cider. Combining tradition and innovation, Sandford Orchards produces an award-winning range of core session, traditional, fine and fruit ciders.
For further information on Sandford Orchards please visit www.sandfordorchards.co.uk, follow Sandford Orchards on X, Facebook and Instagram.
Sandford Orchards takes a low impact approach to producing cider:
- Their orchards act as carbon sinks, promote soil health and support biodiversity
- Their apples are all grown in a 20 mile radius of the cider works
- Their by-products are bio-converted locally into natural green gas and CO2, which is used to carbonate their ciders
- They use locally coppiced regenerating woodlands for fuel for heating water and have installed solar panels which produce 25% of their required electricity
- They are working towards having all their company vehicles charged by renewable power
- They use natural lighting, rainwater harvested from their roofs and insulation to reduce their energy requirements
- Their cider is produced using filtration and cold sterilisation and without the need for boiling ingredients
Dec 19, 2025
Devon-based Sandford Orchards is celebrating a fantastic year of awards for its new non-alcoholic cider, Red Zero. It has just been named ‘Low and No Alcohol Category Champion’ by Taste of the West after winning Best Non-Alcoholic Cider at the World Cider Awards, Best New Drink at the Food Drink Devon Awards, Gold from The Farm Shop and Deli Awards and Silver from the Great British Food Awards.
Barny Butterfield, founder of Sandford Orchards comments: “Red Zero has had an outstanding first year, picking up a host of awards that recognise the hard work and dedication that we put into creating it. We started our alcohol-free journey several years ago and took our time to find the right way to make Red Zero. We wanted to produce a non-alcoholic alternative that was as good as our award-winning authentic cider and I think these accolades prove that we have achieved that!”
Red Zero (ABV 0.5%) is an utterly delicious, crisp and fruity non-alcoholic cider created from fabulous apple varieties including Farmers Glory, Dabinett and Sweet Alford. Made using traditional cider methods and the same technology used for Guinness Zero, you’re drinking the real fermented drink with the alcohol extracted. It is a fantastic alcohol free version of our best selling Devon Red with all the flavour but none of the alcohol.
Barny continues: “It’s not just awards that we have accumulated for Red Zero this year. We have also won the admiration of the public with 5 star reviews across the board and TV appearances and press recommendations that have all led to its first supermarket listing. It has been a whirlwind 12 months and, with the exponential growth in demand for exceptional non-alcoholic drinks, 2026 promises to be another exciting year for Red Zero!”
Founded in 2002, independent, family-owned Sandford Orchards is based in Crediton, Mid Devon in the oldest working cider mill in the UK. The area has long been known as one of the most fertile parishes in all of Britain, both for its grazing and ability to grow apples. Crediton sits in the lee of the moors, so receives the right amount of rain and the right units of heat in summer.
Sandford Orchards takes a fresh, natural and low impact approach to producing cider. Combining tradition and innovation, Sandford Orchards produces an award-winning range of core session, traditional, fine and fruit ciders.
For further information on Sandford Orchards please visit www.sandfordorchards.co.uk, follow Sandford Orchards on X, Facebook and Instagram.
Sep 22, 2025
Devon-based Sandford Orchards has just installed 8 new 50,000 litre tanks ahead of a bumper harvest expected to be up to a third bigger than normal. They plan to increase production of their core ciders and create new varieties from this year’s exceptional apple haul.
Barny Butterfield, owner of award-winning Sandford Orchards comments: “Anyone with fruit trees in their garden is likely to be experiencing a record crop this year and we are no different. A mild spring and the sunniest summer for some time has left our trees groaning under the weight of fruit, and we’re looking forward to a harvest around a third bigger than last year. That’s around 4,000 tonnes of apples! In fact, it looks set to be the biggest harvest I have experienced in my lifetime as a cider maker!”
He continues: “ The very un-British weather has also meant that the apples are ripening ahead of schedule and were already beginning to drop in late August, so it’s all happening a lot earlier than normal. We don’t usually start harvesting our apples until early October but this year looks set to be different. All our fruit comes from local orchards so we are able to make regular checks on them to identify the optimum moment to harvest. Our inspections throughout the summer have already indicated that this year is set to be an epic harvest and in anticipation of that we have invested in eight new tanks which will increase our capacity by 400,000 litres.”
He finishes: “The extra hours of sunshine that the apples have enjoyed this year should also have boosted sugar levels, which means this could be the sweetest and largest harvest on record for us. With our newly increased capacity and these fantastic raw ingredients, we will be pressing 6 days a week from 5am until 9pm to produce more bottles of our much-loved ciders for next summer’s cider drinking. We will be pressing at least 70 different varieties and, amongst them, there are going to be a lot more of the rare apples that we have been identifying in our DNA mapping project. So we’ll be able to do some really interesting small batch blends with them too!”
Sandford Orchards takes a fresh, natural and low impact approach to producing cider. Combining tradition and innovation, Sandford Orchards produces an award-winning range of core session, traditional, fine and fruit ciders.
For further information on Sandford Orchards please visit www.sandfordorchards.co.uk, follow Sandford Orchards on X, Facebook and Instagram.
Sep 10, 2025
Devon-based Sandford Orchards’ Red Zero has just won gold and been named Best Non-Alcoholic Cider at the World Cider Awards, less than a year after it was launched. This latest achievement follows gold awards from Taste of the West and The Farm Shop and Deli Awards, with undoubtedly more to come.
Barny Butterfield, founder of Sandford Orchards comments: “We took our time creating Red Zero because we like to do things properly at Sandford Orchards. It was not the first non-alcoholic cider to market but we like to think that it is one of the best and it seems that the experts agree. Winning Best Non-Alcoholic Cider at the World Cider Awards recognises all the hard work and effort we put into making Red Zero and puts it firmly on the global cider map as the best in the world!”
Red Zero (ABV 0.5%) is an utterly delicious, crisp and fruity non-alcoholic cider created from fabulous apple varieties including Farmers Glory, Dabinett and Sweet Alford. Created using traditional cider methods and the same technology used for Guinness Zero, you’re drinking the real fermented drink with the alcohol extracted.
Barny continues: “We chose to make Red Zero in the most expensive way because we weren’t prepared to compromise on quality and the result is on another level. In its short life, Red Zero has already won rave reviews from our customers but this accolade is the icing on the cake and a testament to our team’s efforts. I am really proud of how hard they’ve worked to produce a cider with the same attention to detail as our flagship Devon Red. Red Zero tastes so good that most people can not believe it is not alcoholic- we call it alcohol-free cider, done right.”
Founded in 2002, independent, family-owned Sandford Orchards is based in Crediton, Mid Devon in the oldest working cider mill in the UK. The area has long been known as one of the most fertile parishes in all of Britain, both for its grazing and ability to grow apples. Crediton sits in the lee of the moors, so receives the right amount of rain and the right units of heat in summer.
Sandford Orchards takes a fresh, natural and low impact approach to producing cider. Combining tradition and innovation, Sandford Orchards produces an award-winning range of core session, traditional, fine and fruit ciders.
The World Cider Awards celebrate the best ciders from across the globe. For more information visit www.worldciderawards.com.
For further information on Sandford Orchards please visit www.sandfordorchards.co.uk, follow Sandford Orchards on X, Facebook and Instagram.
