Glossary · Cider
Scrumpy
Definition
A West Country word for rough, strong, usually still and cloudy farm cider, sold with little processing and no attempt at clarity.
- Subject
- Cider
In more detail
The word is regional trade usage rather than a defined category: nothing prevents a filtered, carbonated product being marketed as scrumpy. Where it is used honestly it implies full-juice cider, unfiltered, still, dry to the point of austerity, and often above 6% ABV.
The common derivation from scrump, a dialect word for a withered apple and for the act of stealing apples, is widely repeated and plausible but not securely evidenced; treat it as folk etymology rather than settled fact.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Style
Scrumpy
A colloquial West Country word for rough farm cider that has never had a fixed definition and now carries as much marketing weight as descriptive meaning.
Region
Somerset
The county most closely identified with English farmhouse cider, where a wet maritime climate, heavy grazing land and a labour system that paid part of a wage in drink produced a tradition of strong, dry, tannic cider made on the farm.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Cider
Farmhouse cider
Cider made on the farm that grew the fruit, traditionally in small volumes for the farm’s own use and local sale, and by extension any cider made in that manner.
Cider
Real cider
A campaigning definition, established by consumer organisations, for cider made from fresh-pressed juice without pasteurisation, carbonation, concentrate or extensive additions.
Culture
Scrumping
Taking apples from someone else’s trees without permission, traditionally by children. The word is West Country dialect and is the probable source of *scrumpy*.
Cider
Still
Containing no perceptible dissolved carbon dioxide. Traditional farm cider and Spanish *sidra natural* are still in the glass, though the latter is aerated by the way it is poured.
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.
CAMRA cider and perry standards
Campaign for Real Ale · specialist organisation · retrieved 2026-08-24
Opened on 2026-08-24. Registered for the consumer-campaigning vocabulary — "real cider", "full juice" — which is advocacy language rather than legal definition, and is recorded as such wherever CiderHQ uses it.
Somerset Rural Life Museum — cider collections
South West Heritage Trust · museum · 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.