Glossary · Cider
Fruit cider
Definition
Cider to which other fruit, fruit juice or fruit flavouring has been added, before or after fermentation. The base must still be cider for the name to apply.
- Subject
- Cider
In more detail
Whether the addition is whole fruit fermented with the apple juice, juice blended in afterwards, or a flavouring added at packaging makes a large difference to the drink and is rarely stated on the label. Some jurisdictions restrict how much non-apple material a product may contain and still be taxed and sold as cider.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Style
Fruit cider
Cider with other fruit added as juice, purée or flavouring, a category that now accounts for a large share of the global market and spans a very wide range of practice.
Production
Fruit addition
Bringing fruit other than apple or pear into a cider as juice, purée, whole fruit or concentrate, where the timing of the addition decides whether you keep the aroma or the alcohol.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Cider
Hopped cider
Cider dosed with hops, usually after fermentation and usually for aroma rather than bitterness, so that the hop’s oils sit over the apple.
Law and labelling
Apparent juice content
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.
Law and labelling
Hard cider tax class
The United States federal tax category for cider, bounded by alcoholic strength, carbonation level and permitted fruit. Products outside those bounds are taxed at wine rates.
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.
Hard cider tax class and labelling requirements
Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) · regulator · retrieved 2026-08-24
Opened on 2026-08-24. The address CiderHQ had registered — ttb.gov/wine/hard-cider — now returns 404; the bureau publishes its cider material at ttb.gov/cider/cider-resources, and the record has been corrected. The substantive hard cider definition is in 27 CFR §§24.10 and 24.331, which CiderHQ cites directly and has verified to the passage; this page is the regulator’s own gateway and its industry circular pointer, not the operative text.
European Cider and Fruit Wine Association (AICV)
AICV · specialist organisation · retrieved 2026-08-24
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.