Glossary · Sensory
Mouthfeel
Definition
The tactile impression of a drink in the mouth — viscosity, weight, texture, prickle and drying — as distinct from its taste and aroma.
- Subject
- Sensory
In more detail
In cider, mouthfeel is built from alcohol, residual sugar, polysaccharides and lees-derived mannoproteins, tannin, and dissolved carbon dioxide. Perry adds sorbitol to that list. It is the attribute most often lost to aggressive filtration, and the one hardest to restore afterwards.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Sensory
Body
The perceived weight and fullness of a cider in the mouth. Full-bodied ciders feel substantial and coating; thin ones feel watery regardless of their alcohol.
Sensory
Astringency
A tactile sensation of drying, roughening and puckering in the mouth, caused by tannins binding and precipitating the proteins that lubricate the oral surfaces. It is a feeling, not a taste.
Chemistry
Glycerol
A three-carbon polyol produced by yeast during fermentation, chiefly early on as it balances its internal redox state. It contributes slight sweetness and a sense of viscosity.
Fermentation
Sur lie
Maturing cider in contact with its fine lees rather than racking clear, so that yeast autolysis contributes body, texture and savoury character. Literally "on the lees".
Chemistry
Carbon dioxide
The gas produced alongside ethanol in fermentation, and the gas that makes a cider sparkle. Its solubility falls as temperature rises, which is why a warm bottle foams.
Chemistry
Sorbitol
A sugar alcohol present in substantial quantity in pears and in smaller amounts in apples. Yeast does not ferment it, so it survives fermentation and leaves a fully dry perry tasting faintly sweet.
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.
Washington State University cider research programme
Washington State University Northwestern Washington Research and Extension Center · university · passage verified 2026-08-24
The single most useful open cider dataset CiderHQ has found. The programme’s cultivar performance database gives juice chemistry, orchard behaviour, bloom and harvest timing and cider-maker tasting notes for 73 cultivars grown at one maritime site over fifteen years, and — unusually — publishes its classification thresholds alongside its figures, so the classification can be checked rather than taken on trust. It also states outright that its results diverge from the English ones. Read in full on 2026-08-24 and transcribed into `data/trials/wsu-mount-vernon.ts`; four published figures were found to be impossible and are withheld there with their reasons.
The Science of Cidermaking and associated technical writing
Andrew Lea · reference work · passage verified 2026-08-24
Written by a food chemist who worked at Long Ashton on apple phenolics. Unusual among specialist cider writing in that it is primary-research-adjacent: the author is describing work he did, and cites the literature. This is why it is registered at tier 1 for chemistry while a general cider book is not.