Glossary · Fruit
Bittersweet
Definition
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple low in acid — conventionally below about 0.45 per cent — and high in tannin, above about 0.2 per cent. Bittersweets form the structural base of West Country cider.
- Subject
- Fruit
In more detail
The class exists because it describes what the fruit does in a blend. Bittersweet juice ferments to a soft, low-acid cider with body, bitterness and astringency, and with the phenolic material that lets a cider age. On its own it is often flat and flabby; corrected with sharp fruit it becomes a complete drink.
The French equivalent is douce-amère, with a further amère class for still more tannic fruit. Long Ashton’s thresholds are numerical and were drawn from analyses of fruit grown in Somerset; the same cultivar grown in a different climate can fall outside them, which is why classification is always stated with its system and its context.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Fruit
Bittersharp
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple high in both acid and tannin — conventionally above about 0.45 per cent acid and 0.2 per cent tannin. The smallest of the four classes and the most self-sufficient.
Fruit
Sharp
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple high in acid and low in tannin. Sharps supply freshness and lower the pH of a blend into a range where spoilage organisms are less comfortable.
Fruit
Sweet
In the Long Ashton classification, a cider apple low in both acid and tannin. Sweet fruit contributes sugar, alcohol and volume but little structure, and makes a bland cider on its own.
Fruit
Douce-amère
The bittersweet class in the French cider apple classification: low acid with substantial tannin, forming the core of a Normandy or Breton blend.
Chemistry
Tannin
In cider usage, the phenolic material responsible for bitterness and astringency, principally condensed tannins — procyanidins — built from catechin and epicatechin units.
History
Long Ashton Research Station
The Somerset research station, founded as the National Fruit and Cider Institute in 1903 and later part of the University of Bristol, whose analyses of cider fruit and fermentation underpin most English cider science.
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.
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.