Glossary · Law and labelling
Apparent juice content
Also written juice content, minimum juice content. Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
The proportion of a cider that is treated as having come from apple juice, calculated for excise purposes from the product’s composition rather than measured directly at the mill.
- Subject
- Law and labelling
- Also written
- juice content, minimum juice content
In more detail
United Kingdom excise law works from a minimum apparent juice content: below it, a product is not cider for duty and is taxed as made-wine instead. The rule is the reason "35 per cent juice" is quoted so often in British cider discussion, and it is also why UK cider can lawfully be far more dilute than French cidre, which must be pure juice.
Because the figure is derived rather than measured, it is a fiscal construct, not a guarantee of what went into the tank. A full-juice producer and a heavily diluted one can both satisfy it.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Law and labelling
Made-wine
A United Kingdom excise category for fermented alcoholic drinks that are neither beer, cider, perry nor wine of fresh grapes. A cider that fails the juice-content or strength tests is taxed as made-wine.
Law and labelling
Duty band
A range of alcoholic strength within which a single rate of alcohol duty applies. The United Kingdom moved to a strength-based banded system in 2023, so a small change in ABV can change the tax substantially.
Cider
Cider from concentrate
Cider fermented from apple juice concentrate that has been reconstituted with water, rather than from juice pressed and fermented in the same season.
Milling and pressing
Second pressing
Breaking up pressed pomace, wetting it with water, and pressing again to recover the sugar and extract left behind. The product is weak and is used for low-strength drinks or for blending, not sold as full-juice cider.
Where to go next
- Cider glossary — The whole vocabulary, by subject and A–Z.
- Comparisons — Terms that are only really clear when set against the thing they are not.
- Search — Finds terms by their aliases and by their spellings in other languages.
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.
Alcoholic Products Technical Guide, section 2 — alcoholic products (formerly Excise Notice 162)
HM Revenue & Customs · regulator · passage verified 2026-08-24
What may be called cider or perry for UK duty purposes. The substantive text now lives in section 2 of the Alcoholic Products Technical Guide rather than in the notice itself, and the passages below were read there. The widely repeated "35% juice" figure checks out — but note two things the figure alone hides: it is a tax threshold rather than a quality standard, and concentrate and dilution both count towards it.
National Association of Cider Makers
NACM · specialist organisation · retrieved 2026-08-24
The UK trade association. Useful for industry-agreed definitions and for the voluntary labelling standards its members work to. A trade body has an interest in how its product is described, so CiderHQ cites it for what the industry says about itself rather than for neutral scientific claims.