Comparison
Long Ashton vs Asturian thresholds
Why does the same apple get classified differently in England and Spain?
In short
A classification threshold is a decision about where to divide a population, not a discovery about fruit. Long Ashton set its cut points so that Somerset cider fruit divided usefully into four groups. SERIDA set Asturian cut points so that Asturian fruit divided usefully into five.
Because the underlying populations differ, so do the boundaries. Asturian fruit skews acidic, so a threshold that produced a useful split there would put most English fruit on one side; the reverse is equally true.
The practical rule is that a class label is only meaningful with its system named, and that borderline cultivars will be placed differently in good faith. Where the underlying figures exist, they carry more information than the label does.
The two things being compared
Each side described in its own terms first, so the table below has something to hang on.
Long Ashton thresholds
Total acid at roughly 0.45% w/v as malic acid and tannin at roughly 0.2% w/v, applied to Somerset-grown fruit to give four quadrants.
Asturian thresholds
Titratable acidity and polyphenol cut points fitted to Asturian cultivars, producing five classes including an intermediate acidity group.
Where they differ
Dimension by dimension. Where a row needs a qualification, it carries one rather than being simplified until it fits.
| Dimension | Long Ashton thresholds | Asturian thresholds |
|---|---|---|
| Population the thresholds were fitted to | Fruit grown at one Somerset site across the first half of the twentieth century. | Asturian cultivars analysed for the regional designation. |
| Number of cut points | Two, one per axis. | Three, with the acid axis divided twice. |
| What is measured on the phenolic axisNeither resolves the distribution of chain lengths, which is what decides how much of the effect is bitterness and how much astringency. | Total tannin. | Polyphenol content. |
| Effect of climate | The same cultivar grown warmer ripens to lower acid and can cross the boundary. | Subject to exactly the same effect, which is one reason the thresholds are local. |
| Status | A research convention with no legal force. | Attached to a designation’s permitted-variety list. |
| What to do with a borderline cultivar | Sources may place it on either side; the underlying figure is the better record. | The same, with the added wrinkle that the regulatory list can be revised. |
Notes under a dimension name qualify the whole row, not one column.
When Long Ashton thresholds is the relevant one
The circumstances in which this is the thing being described, rather than a reason to prefer it.
- You are interpreting figures reported in English cider literature.
- The cultivar is an English one described in the English tradition.
When Asturian thresholds is the relevant one
The circumstances in which this is the thing being described, rather than a reason to prefer it.
- You are reading Asturian variety data or a designation specification.
- The fruit was grown and analysed in Asturias.
A misconception worth clearing up
This comparison exists partly because of the claim below, which is repeated often enough that most readers arrive holding it.
A cultivar has one true class, and disagreement between sources means one of them is mistaken.
What is actually the case: Class depends on the system and on where the fruit grew. The same tree can sit either side of a threshold in two seasons. Disagreement between a Somerset record and an Asturian one is usually two accurate observations of different fruit, not an error.
Related comparisons
Distinctions that turn on the same thing, or that this one is routinely confused with.
English vs Spanish classification
The Asturian scheme sorts fruit by acid and bitterness into five classes including a semi-sharp group with no English equivalent, on thresholds fitted to Asturian cultivars rather than English ones.
English vs French classification
Both schemes sort cider fruit on acid and tannin, but the English one cuts it into four classes and the French into five, with a distinctly tannic *amère* family the English scheme has no name for.
Bittersweet vs bittersharp
Both are high-tannin classes in the Long Ashton scheme; the difference is acid, and it decides whether the fruit can carry a cider on its own.
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.
- How does the french classification of cider apples differ from the english one — The English scheme cuts fruit four ways on acid and tannin; the French scheme cuts it five ways and separates amère from douce-amère, a distinction English has no word for. The French thresholds are also stated in grams per litre with acidity as sulphuric acid, so the numbers do not compare directly.
- What is the difference between a bittersweet and a bittersharp apple — Both are high in tannin; the difference is acid. Under the Long Ashton scheme a bittersweet sits below roughly 0.45% acid and a bittersharp above it, so a bittersharp brings sharpness as well as bitterness to a blend.
- How are spanish cider apples classified
Where to go next
- All comparisons — The rest of the pairs, grouped by what kind of difference is at stake.
- Glossary — Either term on its own, defined without a second thing to hold it against.
- Learn about cider — The background these pages assume, written from the beginning.
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.
Servicio Regional de Investigación y Desarrollo Agroalimentario (SERIDA)
Principado de Asturias · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
The Asturian regional agri-food research service, and the technical authority behind the Asturian cultivar classification and the analysis of sidra natural. SERIDA’s own site has not been opened; what CiderHQ has read is SERIDA’s varietal characterisation as republished by the Consejo Regulador of DOP Sidra de Asturias, which credits it explicitly. The Asturian measurements therefore cite the Consejo rather than SERIDA — citing the body that did the work, at a document CiderHQ has not seen, would be exactly the kind of borrowed authority this register exists to prevent.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.