An Ancient Spanish Style Of Cider Takes Root In America

There is a joke among cider makers when they open a bottle and its contents taste disappointingly sour or flawed:

“We say, ‘Oh yeah, this cider went bad, so we just put it into green bottles and called it Spanish,’ ” says cider maker Nathaniel West, owner of Reverend Nat’s Hard Cider in Portland, Ore.

The joke refers to the fact that northern Spanish cider, which has been made for centuries along Spain’s Atlantic coast, is characteristically tart, almost entirely flat, cloudy with sediment and a bit funky tasting — as though the fermented juice might have been filtered through a hay bale. It can taste a bit off to first-timers more accustomed to the sweeter, and sometimes one-dimensional, ciders of America’s rather limited, if growing, craft cider market. Complete Story