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Comparison

Whole juice vs concentrate

What is the difference between cider from whole juice and cider from concentrate?

In short

Whole juice cider ferments the pressed juice of that season’s fruit. Concentrate is made by evaporating most of the water from juice, which allows it to be stored and shipped cheaply and used at any time of year; water is added back before fermentation.

Concentration is a heat and vacuum process and it removes volatile aroma along with the water. Some concentrate is produced with aroma recovery and the recovered fraction added back, but the reconstituted juice is generally aromatically thinner than the original.

The commercial logic is decoupling: a mill running on concentrate is not tied to a harvest window, a local orchard, or a single season’s crop size. The cost is the aromatic loss and the loss of any link between the drink and a particular fruit. Several designations and definitions restrict or exclude concentrate for exactly that reason.

The two things being compared

Each side described in its own terms first, so the table below has something to hang on.

Where they differ

Dimension by dimension. Where a row needs a qualification, it carries one rather than being simplified until it fits.

Whole juice and Concentrate compared. Neither column is the baseline the other is measured against.
DimensionWhole juiceConcentrate
AromaIntact.Diminished by the evaporation step, partially restored where an aroma fraction is recovered and returned.
SeasonalityFermentation is tied to the harvest, and vessel capacity must cover the crop.Production runs year-round from stored stock.
Storage and transportBulky and perishable; juice must be fermented, chilled or preserved quickly.Compact and stable, and internationally traded.
Traceability to fruitDirect — cultivar, orchard and season can all be named.Generally lost; concentrate is blended commodity stock.
CostHigher per litre of finished cider.Substantially lower, which is why most volume cider uses it.
Regulatory treatmentPermitted everywhere and required by several designations.Restricted or excluded under a number of designations and campaigning definitions.
Juice content on the labelA minimum juice content figure does not by itself tell you whether concentrate was used.Stated as pressed juice.Calculated on the reconstituted equivalent, which is why the two look alike on a label.

Notes under a dimension name qualify the whole row, not one column.

How much concentrate each rule allows

Whether a cider may be made from concentrate is not a matter of taste or tradition alone; it is written down, differently, in almost every framework a cider can be made under. Read side by side, the rules run from a duty definition that counts concentrate and added water towards its juice minimum, through a French regional name that caps concentrate at two-fifths of the must, to protected names that forbid it outright along with water and sugar.

The pattern is consistent: the broader and more commercial the category, the more concentrate it admits, and the narrower the name, the closer it comes to fresh fruit and nothing else. A label that names none of these frameworks says nothing about concentrate either way.

Concentrate, water and sugar under a selection of frameworks, from the specifications as read. Each binds only what carries its name.
FrameworkConcentrateWater, sugar and the rest
UK cider dutyCounts towards the minimum of 35% apple or pear juice, as does juice diluted with waterBelow 8.5% alcohol; otherwise taxed as another fermented product
Three Counties cider PGIsNot stated in the passages readChaptalisation permitted to about 9.5% potential alcohol before final blending; up to 25% perry pear juice
IGP Cidre de BretagneUp to 40% of the total must, counted as reconstituted, including any used to sweetenCarbonation by added gas permitted; caramel the only permitted colouring
France, the pur jus mentionNoneNo water
AOP Pays d’AugeNone — no operation that changes the must’s natural sugarNo water, no colouring, no pasteurisation
Traditional Welsh Cider PGINoneNo water, and no fermentable sugar except to start a second fermentation in bottle
Euskal SagardoaNone, nor sugars or syrups of any kindNo water, no artificial sweeteners, no added alcohol

When Whole juice is the relevant one

The circumstances in which this is the thing being described, rather than a reason to prefer it.

When Concentrate is the relevant one

The circumstances in which this is the thing being described, rather than a reason to prefer it.

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.

Commonly said

A high juice-content figure on the label proves the cider was made from fresh-pressed apples.

What is actually the case: Juice content is calculated on reconstituted concentrate as well as on pressed juice, so a full-juice claim is compatible with concentrate. Whether concentrate was used is a separate question, answered by the specification or by asking the producer.

Related comparisons

Distinctions that turn on the same thing, or that this one is routinely confused with.

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.