Glossary · Law and labelling
Hard cider tax class
Definition
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.
- Subject
- Law and labelling
In more detail
Because the class caps carbonation and strength and restricts which fruits may be present, an American producer’s stylistic choices carry direct tax consequences. This is a large part of why the American category vocabulary differs from the European one.
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.
Cider
Hard cider
The North American term for fermented, alcoholic apple juice, used because the unqualified word "cider" means the unfermented pressing there.
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
Fruit cider
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.
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.
Title 27 of the Code of Federal Regulations — Alcohol, Tobacco Products and Firearms
United States Government · legislation · passage verified 2026-08-24
Read on 2026-08-24. eCFR blocks automated retrieval, so the sections below were read in the Cornell Legal Information Institute’s mirror of the same text; the locators are the CFR’s own. The federal definition of hard cider is a *tax* definition and sits in two places — §24.10 sorts cider by dissolved carbon dioxide, and §24.331 sets eligibility for the hard cider rate. The consequence surprises people: a cider carbonated past 0.64 g/100 mL, or flavoured with anything other than apple or pear, remains cider in ordinary speech but is taxed as wine.