Glossary · Cider
White cider
Definition
A pale, high-strength, low-juice British product made largely from concentrate, apple pomace extract and added sugar, then decolourised by carbon or filtration.
- Subject
- Cider
In more detail
White cider is a duty-driven category: it exists because a drink meeting the minimum apparent juice content could be taxed as cider while being cheap to produce at high strength. Its colour comes from aggressive treatment rather than from the fruit. It is the category most often meant when public-health commentary criticises cider pricing, and it sits at the opposite end of the trade from full-juice cider.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
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.
Cider
Cider from concentrate
Cider fermented from apple juice concentrate that has been reconstituted with water, rather than from juice pressed and fermented in the same season.
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.
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.
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.
Alcoholic Products Technical Guide, section 2 — alcoholic products (formerly Excise Notice 162)
HM Revenue & Customs · regulator · passage verified 2026-08-24
What may be called cider or perry for UK duty purposes. The substantive text now lives in section 2 of the Alcoholic Products Technical Guide rather than in the notice itself, and the passages below were read there. The widely repeated "35% juice" figure checks out — but note two things the figure alone hides: it is a tax threshold rather than a quality standard, and concentrate and dilution both count towards it.
Alcoholic products duty rates and the Alcohol Duty regime
HM Revenue & Customs · regulator · passage verified 2026-08-24
The UK alcohol duty system was reformed in August 2023 onto a strength-based footing, with draught relief and small producer relief alongside it. The rate table was read on 2026-08-24 and carries an effective date of 1 February 2026. CiderHQ records the band *structure* — which is stable and explains why producers make the strengths they do — and states rates only with that effective date attached, because a rate with no date on it becomes permanent and wrong.
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.