Cider apple
Somerset Redstreak
A mild bittersweet planted at very large scale in the late twentieth century for its heavy, regular cropping on bush trees, and a fruit whose commercial importance exceeds its character.
Also written Somerset Red Streak, Somerset Redstreak Apple.
- Classification
- Bittersweet — Long Ashton classification
- Harvest
- Mid (Late September to mid October)
- Single varietal
- Not suited to a single-varietal cider
- Blend role
- Bulk juice, Bittersweet base, Sugar and body
- Origin
- Somerset
- Species
- Malus domestica
- Flowering
- Pollination group 3
- Vigour
- Moderate
- Biennial bearing
- Slightly biennial
- Keeping
- Moderate
How it is classified
Long Ashton classification
Bittersweet
Low acid, high tannin. The class that has no real equivalent in dessert fruit and that defines West Country cider.
Basis: Below about 0.45% w/v acid and above about 0.2% w/v tannin.
A mild bittersweet: tannin above the threshold but at the low end of the class, and acid low.
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.
| Axis | Typical | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Acid | Low | |
| Tannin | Moderate | |
| Sugar | High | |
| Bitterness | Moderate | |
| Astringency | Noticeable | |
| Aroma | Restrained | |
| Body | Medium |
Long Ashton acid and tannin ranges, with all bands moderate because the cultivar is consistently described as mild on every axis.
Supplies volume, sugar and a light tannin, and contributes little that is distinctive on its own.
Aroma
No aroma descriptors are recorded for Somerset Redstreak, 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.
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.
2 separate analyses of total acid. They are shown as they were measured, in their own contexts, and are not averaged — the same fruit grown somewhere else can genuinely give a different number.
Total acid0.180–0.280 % w/v
Long Ashton, Somerset, England, Long Ashton analyses, 1903–1985 · Titration of pressed juice, reported as malic acid · National Fruit and Cider Institute / University of Bristol
One site, one climate, and a cultivar whose plantings postdate much of the analytical programme.
Total acid0.190 % w/v
Long Ashton Research Station, near Bristol, Somerset, England, 1905–1975 · Titration with alkali, reported as malic acid. Composite figure across many seasons; the source states neither the sample count nor the year of any individual analysis. · Andrew Lea
A composite of Long Ashton analyses reaching CiderHQ through three hands: the station’s own work, a printed compilation (Bulmer’s Pomona, 1987, and Beech and Carr, 1977), and a transcription of that compilation. CiderHQ has seen only the transcription.
How much acid the juice contains, conventionally reported as malic acid. Measured in percent weight per volume.
2 separate analyses of total tannin. They are shown as they were measured, in their own contexts, and are not averaged — the same fruit grown somewhere else can genuinely give a different number.
Total tannin0.200–0.280 % w/v
Long Ashton, Somerset, England, Long Ashton analyses, 1903–1985 · National Fruit and Cider Institute / University of Bristol
A range that sits just above the scheme’s tannin threshold. In a low-tannin season this fruit is analytically close to a sweet.
Total tannin0.280 % w/v
Long Ashton Research Station, near Bristol, Somerset, England, 1905–1975 · Löwenthal permanganate titration, reported as tannic acid equivalent. Composite figure across many seasons; the source states neither the sample count nor the year of any individual analysis. · Andrew Lea
A composite of Long Ashton analyses reaching CiderHQ through three hands: the station’s own work, a printed compilation (Bulmer’s Pomona, 1987, and Beech and Carr, 1977), and a transcription of that compilation. CiderHQ has seen only the transcription. A permanganate figure. It is not comparable with a Folin–Ciocalteu total-phenolics figure for the same fruit, and the two can differ by a factor of two.
The phenolic fraction responsible for bitterness and astringency. Measured in percent weight per volume.
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.
Long Ashton composite cider apple analyses
Long Ashton Research Station, near Bristol, North Somerset, England · 1905–1975 · Andrew Lea
Maritime and mild, with wet autumns and few hard frosts — the climate the English cider cultivars were selected in, and the reason their acid and tannin figures here are the ones the rest of the world has spent a century comparing its own fruit against.
- Held as
- Listed as “Somerset Redstreak”, early/mid season
Filed here as bittersweet.
Marked in the source as one of the cultivars “generally regarded as having that elusive and hard-to-define character of vintage quality”. The compiler marks fourteen of the forty-two that way, and does not say who regards them so or on what evidence.
Recorded by the programme from professional cidermakers in the region. One panel, one place, one set of seasons — a description of these ciders rather than of the cultivar everywhere.
Freshly expressed juice, not finished cider. Acid by straight titration against alkali, reported as malic acid; tannin by Löwenthal permanganate titration, reported as tannic acid equivalent. Composite figures across seventy years of analyses: the source gives neither a sample count nor the year of any individual reading.
In the orchard
- Harvest window
- Mid
- Flowering
- Pollination group 3
- Vigour
- Moderate
- Cropping
- Slightly biennial
- Keeping
- Moderate
Mid to late October. Fruit is shaken or gathered from the ground in commercial orchards.
Regular and very heavy cropping is the whole point of the cultivar. It comes into bearing early and holds a consistent yield, which is why it was planted in preference to better-tasting fruit.
Mid-season flowering, earlier than most of the Somerset bittersweets it is planted beside.
Disease and pest susceptibility
| Issue | Susceptibility | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Scab | moderate | — |
| Canker | moderate | — |
Juice and pressing
- High juice yield
- Low acid
- Light tannin
- Reliable sugar
How it is used
- Bulk bittersweet juice for commercial West Country cider
- Planted heavily in intensive bush orchards from the 1970s onwards
On its own
Not suited to a single-varietal cider
Has neither the acid nor the aromatic interest to stand alone, and is rarely offered as a varietal even by producers who have plenty of it.
About Somerset Redstreak
Somerset Redstreak is a fruit chosen by agronomy rather than by taste. It crops heavily, crops regularly, comes into bearing quickly on a bush tree, and gives a lot of juice per tonne. In the expansion of intensive West Country orchards from the 1970s onwards those properties mattered more than flavour, and it went into the ground in enormous quantity. A great deal of commercial English cider contains it, and almost none of that cider mentions it.
Analytically it is a mild bittersweet sitting just above the tannin threshold, which means its class label promises more than the juice delivers. In a blend it behaves as bulk: it dilutes acid, adds sugar and a little soft tannin, and takes the character of whatever is blended with it. That is a legitimate and necessary role — a cider made only of Dabinett and Kingston Black would be expensive and unbalanced — but it is not a role that rewards single-varietal attention.
The name is a genuine nuisance. Shortened to Redstreak it collides with the historic Herefordshire Redstreak, the apple that made seventeenth-century Herefordshire cider famous and which no longer exists in its original form. The two have nothing to do with each other. Old orchard records that say only "Redstreak" cannot be resolved without other evidence, and modern writing that treats the Somerset fruit as a survival of the Herefordshire one is simply wrong.
Its origin is unrecorded, which is unusual for a cultivar of this commercial weight and probably reflects that it was a locally known Somerset apple of no particular reputation until orchard economics found a use for it. There is no founding-tree story here, which at least spares the record one piece of folklore.
Names, origin and identity
Cultivar naming is the hardest problem in cider fruit data. The same tree carries different names across ten miles, and two different trees have shared a name for two centuries.
Origin · traditional account
Origin unrecorded beyond the county. The name is descriptive and was applied to red-striped Somerset fruit long before this particular cultivar was fixed, which makes early references unreliable as evidence about it.
| Name | Kind | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Redstreak | Disputed identity | Shortening this to Redstreak conflates it with the historic Herefordshire Redstreak of the seventeenth century, which is a wholly different apple. |
Why it matters
- One of the most planted cider apples in England by area, on volume rather than quality grounds
Related cultivars
Recorded relationships, including the ones this fruit is routinely confused with.
Often confused with
Redstreak
The historic Herefordshire Redstreak, unrelated and long since lost in its original form.
Similar role
Michelin
The other bulk mild bittersweet of intensive orchards.
Traditional blend partner
Dabinett
Grown alongside it in commercial orchards, supplying the character Somerset Redstreak does not have.
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.
Hangdown
A Devon mild bittersweet named for its weeping habit, sitting close enough to the tannin threshold that sources place it on both sides of it.
Dabinett
The most widely planted English cider apple: a small, late-ripening bittersweet whose soft, full tannin ferments into a cider that needs almost nothing added to it.
Michelin
A Norman bittersweet raised near Yvetot in the 1870s that became, in England rather than in France, one of the most widely planted cider apples in the world.
Brown Snout
A Herefordshire mild bittersweet named for the russet patch at its eye, valued for compact growth and regular cropping rather than for concentration.
Bulmer’s Norman
A large, vigorous French-derived bittersweet imported by H P Bulmer and planted across Herefordshire for heavy cropping and mild, plentiful juice.
Harry Masters’ Jersey
A medium bittersweet from the Yarlington district, valued for tannin that is full without being harsh, and among the more reliable croppers in a class that is generally unreliable.
Styles it is characteristic of
West Country farmhouse cider
Cider made on the farm from tannic bittersweet fruit, wild-fermented in wood and sold still and unfiltered, in a tradition whose variability is one of its defining features.
Somerset cider
Cider from the Somerset levels and the surrounding hills, built on a locally selected bittersweet fruit population and a tradition of full-bodied, tannic, still cider.
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.
- What is dabinett — The most widely planted English cider apple: a late bittersweet with soft, full tannin that ferments into a cider needing very little added to it. Long Ashton measured it at 0.18 per cent acid and 0.29 per cent tannin.
- How do you blend cider
- What is pressing yield — Pressing yield is the proportion of fruit weight recovered as juice. It varies from under half on a poorly loaded basket press to around seventy per cent on a well-run rack-and-cloth or belt press.
- What is a michelin apple
- How is supermarket cider made
- What is a traditional west country cider blend — Predominantly bittersweet fruit for body and tannin, with a proportion of sharp fruit for acidity and sometimes a smaller share of bittersharps for both. The exact composition varied by farm and by what was in the orchard.
Where to go next
- How cider apples are classified — Why there are four schemes and none of them is universal.
- The blend explorer — See which way changing the proportions moves a blend.
- Blending — What a cider maker is actually deciding when they build a blend.
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.
Long Ashton Research Station cider fruit analyses
National Fruit and Cider Institute / University of Bristol · research institute · registered as competent for this subject · covers 1903–2003
The foundational body of cider-fruit science in English. Long Ashton produced the acid-and-tannin classification that divides cider apples into sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp, and analysed hundreds of cultivars grown at its Somerset site. Its figures are historic measurements of specific fruit at a specific place, not universal constants — a distinction CiderHQ preserves in every measurement record that cites it.
A Somerset Pomona: The Cider Apples of Somerset
Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001. ISBN 9781874336877 · reference work · bibliographic record verified, not opened 2026-08-25
Bibliographic record verified on 2026-08-25 against Open Library: Liz Copas, The Dovecote Press, 2001, ISBN 9781874336877. The author was Long Ashton’s cider pomologist, which is why this work is registered for Somerset cultivar identity at all — it is the nearest thing to a successor to the station’s own descriptions. No copy was opened. Not digitised in any open collection.
University of Reading / Defra, Brogdale · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
The UK national reference collection for apple and pear cultivars. The authority CiderHQ uses for whether two names are the same fruit, which is the central duplicate-resolution problem in cider data.
Traditional record Evidence standard for this record. What that means.