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Cider apple

Panquerina

A mild Asturian semi-sharp of local reputation, used as a middle term in blends and permitted within the Asturian designation.

Also written Panquerina de Asturias.

Classification
Semi-acid — Asturian technological blocks
Harvest
Mid (Late September to mid October)
Single varietal
Rarely bottled on its own
Blend role
Acid lift, Sugar and body
Origin
Asturias
Species
Malus domestica
Flowering
Pollination group 3
Vigour
Moderate
Biennial bearing
Markedly biennial — heavy and light years alternate
Keeping
Good

How it is classified

Asturian technological blocks

Semi-acid · Semiácido

Intermediate acidity with low phenolics. Together with the acid block this is where most admitted fruit sits.

Assessed in Asturias, as characterised for the protected designation.

Published by the Consejo Regulador of DOP Sidra de Asturias as “Semiácido”, on total acidity 4,3 g/L as sulphuric acid and total polyphenols 1,2 g/L as tannic acid. Asturian practice reports acidity as sulphuric acid, so the figure is not directly comparable with an English or North American malic-acid one.

Every classification on CiderHQ names its system. Why there is more than one.

What it contributes to a blend

A direction, not a measurement. These bands are the level of resolution the evidence supports, and they say which way adding this fruit pushes a blend rather than what the finished cider will be.

Contribution to a blend, scored 1–5 as a band. The filled segment is the typical value; the paler segments are the range.
AxisTypicalRange
AcidModerate
TanninLight
SugarModerate
BitternessNone
AstringencyNone
AromaPresent
BodyMedium
Based on: its recorded classification

Asturian semi-sharp classification under the SERIDA scheme.

Balanced and mild, with moderate acid and a soft finish.

Aroma

No aroma descriptors are recorded for Panquerina, and for a great deal of cider fruit that is a finding rather than a gap. Bittersweet apples in particular contribute tannin, sugar and body while being close to aromatically mute, and most of what a cider made from them smells of was produced by the fermentation rather than carried in by the fruit. CiderHQ publishes the absence rather than filling the space with descriptors nothing supports.

Put Panquerina into a blend

Measured analysis

Each figure is shown with where and when it was taken. They are not averaged: the same cultivar grown in another climate genuinely gives different numbers, and collapsing them into one would be the most misleading thing this page could do.

Titratable acidity4.3 g/L

Asturias, Spain, Published characterisation, retrieved 2026-08-24 · Total acidity expressed as sulphuric acid equivalent, the Spanish convention. Not comparable with a malic-acid figure without conversion: multiply by about 1.37 to reach malic-acid equivalent. · Consejo Regulador de la DOP Sidra de Asturias

Acid measured by neutralisation — the quantity of acid, not its strength. Measured in grams per litre.

Total phenolics1.2 g/L

Asturias, Spain, Published characterisation, retrieved 2026-08-24 · Total polyphenols expressed as tannic acid equivalent. · Consejo Regulador de la DOP Sidra de Asturias

All phenolic compounds together, usually reported as gallic acid equivalents. Measured in grams per litre.

Compare within a study to see where these figures sat among the other cultivars the same work analysed — which is a more robust statement than the figures themselves, because absolute values move between laboratories and the ordering inside one study mostly survives.

Watched in the orchard

What named research programmes recorded about this fruit at their own sites. Bloom, harvest and cropping belong to a place and a run of seasons rather than to a cultivar, so they are reported site by site rather than merged.

DOP Sidra de Asturias varietal characterisation

Asturias, northern Spain · Published characterisation, retrieved 2026-08-24 · Consejo Regulador de la DOP Sidra de Asturias

Atlantic and markedly wet — cool summers, mild winters and high rainfall on the Bay of Biscay coast, a climate that suits high-acid fruit and long, cool ferments.

Harvest
the second ten days of October (published as “2ª decena de octubre”)

Filed here as semiacido.

Vigour: moderate to low. Susceptibility to fungal disease: high to moderate. Flowering: mid-season to late. Cropping: a good level of cropping. As characterised by the Consejo Regulador.

Total acidity expressed as grams per litre of sulphuric acid, the Spanish convention; total polyphenols as grams per litre of tannic acid. Characterisation carried out by the fruit-research programme of SERIDA and published by the Consejo Regulador.

In the orchard

Harvest window
Mid
Flowering
Pollination group 3
Vigour
Moderate
Cropping
Markedly biennial — heavy and light years alternate
Keeping
Good

The Consejo Regulador records ripening in the second ten days of October (“2ª decena de octubre”).

Disease and pest susceptibility

Recorded susceptibility. Pressure differs enormously by region and by season, so these are tendencies rather than predictions.
IssueSusceptibilityNote
Scabmoderate

Juice and pressing

How it is used

On its own

Rarely bottled on its own

Not part of Asturian practice.

About Panquerina

Panquerina is a mild semi-sharp, one of a large group of Asturian cultivars sitting in the middle of the acid range with almost no phenolic content. It is used the way that group is used: as the bulk of a blend, against a smaller proportion of sharper and sweeter fruit.

It is worth restating what this means for the finished cider. Because the fruit is analytically undramatic, the character of sidra natural is made overwhelmingly by what happens after pressing — a long, cool, uninoculated fermentation with a succession of wild yeasts, a malolactic conversion that softens the acid, extended contact with lees, and a working tolerance for oxidative and phenolic notes that would be called faults in a modern clean cidery. The fruit sets the frame; the cellar paints the picture.

There is no analysis to cite for this cultivar and no distinct tasting record, and the entry says so rather than manufacturing detail.

Related cultivars

Recorded relationships, including the ones this fruit is routinely confused with.

Fruit that plays a similar part

Cultivars sharing a classification under the same system and a comparable role in a blend. Not a similarity score — a stated relationship.

Where it grows

What people ask next

Questions readers ask about the things this page mentions. Each one goes to the section that answers it rather than to a page written to receive the question.

Where to go next

Sources

What this page rests on. Where a source is marked as registered rather than read, CiderHQ is recording that the body is authoritative on the subject without claiming to have worked through the document itself. See our evidence policy for what each state means.

Primary authority Evidence standard for this record. What that means.