Glossary · Cider
Sidra espumosa
Spanish. Kept in its own language here rather than translated into the nearest English word, because the nearest English word is usually cut on a different axis.
Definition
Spanish sparkling cider, made either by a second fermentation in bottle in the traditional method or by tank conditioning, and sold under pressure with a cork and cage.
- Subject
- Cider
- Language
- Spanish
In more detail
Where sidra natural is deliberately still, sidra espumosa is a formal sparkling product with disgorging, dosage and a bright appearance. Under the Asturian DOP it is a separate category from natural cider with its own rules.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Style
Sidra espumosa
Sparkling Asturian cider made by a second fermentation under pressure or in bottle, presented as a fine sparkling drink rather than in the still poured tradition.
Production
Traditional method
A second fermentation in the bottle the cider will be sold in, followed by riddling the deposit into the neck and expelling it, so the drink is both bottle-fermented and clear.
Region
Asturias
The largest cider culture in Spain and one of the most distinctive anywhere: dry, still, unfiltered *sidra natural*, fully through malolactic fermentation, poured from a height into a wide glass and drunk a mouthful at a time.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Cider
Sidra natural
Asturian and Basque cider fermented to complete dryness from pure juice, unfiltered, uncarbonated and bottled without added gas or sugar. It is poured from a height to raise a momentary foam.
Fermentation
Traditional method
Sparkling production in which a base cider is bottled with sugar and yeast, refermented under crown or cork, matured on its lees, then riddled, disgorged and topped up with a dosage before final closure.
Fermentation
Disgorging
Expelling the frozen plug of yeast sediment from the neck of a bottle-fermented cider, so that the finished drink is clear. The bottle is immediately topped up and closed.
Fermentation
Dosage
The measured liquid — cider, juice, or a sugar solution — added after disgorging to replace what was expelled and to set the final sweetness of a sparkling cider.
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.
Denominación de Origen Protegida Sidra de Asturias
Consejo Regulador de la DOP Sidra de Asturias · designation authority · passage verified 2026-08-24
The regulating council for Asturian cider. Read on 2026-08-24, and it turned out to carry far more than a permitted-variety list: an agronomic and technological characterisation of each admitted variety, with total acidity, total polyphenols, vigour, flowering, ripening, cropping and susceptibility to fungal disease. The characterisation is credited to SERIDA’s fruit-research programme. Two things it settles are corrections to what CiderHQ previously held: Asturias sorts cider fruit into nine technological blocks rather than five, and it publishes acidity as sulphuric acid rather than malic. The figures are transcribed into `data/trials/serida-asturias.ts` and cite this source, because this is where they were read.
Servicio Regional de Investigación y Desarrollo Agroalimentario (SERIDA)
Principado de Asturias · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
The Asturian regional agri-food research service, and the technical authority behind the Asturian cultivar classification and the analysis of sidra natural. SERIDA’s own site has not been opened; what CiderHQ has read is SERIDA’s varietal characterisation as republished by the Consejo Regulador of DOP Sidra de Asturias, which credits it explicitly. The Asturian measurements therefore cite the Consejo rather than SERIDA — citing the body that did the work, at a document CiderHQ has not seen, would be exactly the kind of borrowed authority this register exists to prevent.