Glossary · Cider
Zider
German. 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.
Also written Cider (Austrian legal sense). Each is a name for the same thing, which is why none of them has an entry of its own.
Definition
A defined Austrian category: fruit juice blended with fruit wine of the same fruit group, to 5 % vol and 2.5 bar. Austria has a statutory definition of cider; Germany, until 2026, had none at all.
- Subject
- Cider
- Language
- German
- Also written
- Cider (Austrian legal sense)
In more detail
The Obstweinverordnung defines Zider as a drink made from a blend of fruit juice with fruit wine of the same fruit group, carrying up to 5 % vol and a carbon dioxide overpressure of at most 2.5 bar at 20 °C, with the alcohol including any residual sugar converted to alcohol not exceeding 8 % vol. It may be labelled Zider or Cider.
That is a narrower thing than the English word. It describes a juice-and-wine blend, not fermented juice as such, so an Austrian drink labelled Cider is by definition not the same product as an Austrian Most.
Germany acquired its own category only in the food-code recast of 23 January 2026: Apfel Cider and Birnen Cider, from 1.2 to 8.5 % vol at 1.0 to 2.5 bar, permitting honey, juice or concentrate, natural aroma, and water to as much as half the volume. The two definitions are not equivalent, and neither resembles the British statutory position.
Where this is covered properly
The glossary defines; these pages explain. Each is described in its own words.
Country
Austria
Home of one of the world’s three great perry pear landscapes: in the Mostviertel, *Most* usually means a dry, tannic pear drink made from enormous standard trees standing over grazed pasture.
Glossary
Cider
A fermented alcoholic drink made from the juice of apples. What may legally be sold under the name varies sharply between countries, so the word describes a family of drinks rather than a single specification.
Related terms
Terms that belong to the same part of the subject, or that this one is routinely confused with.
Cider
Most
In German-speaking Europe, either fresh fruit juice or the fermented drink made from it. Which one it means is settled by the country you are standing in, and in Austria it is settled by statute.
Cider
Obstwein
In Austrian law, the umbrella term for every fermented fruit drink, pome fruit included. In German usage it is not a category at all — the German food code says *Fruchtwein*, and means only the non-pome ones.
Cider
Cider
A fermented alcoholic drink made from the juice of apples. What may legally be sold under the name varies sharply between countries, so the word describes a family of drinks rather than a single specification.
Cider
Apfelwein
German apple wine: cider fermented dry from culinary and wild apples, usually still or lightly sparkling, sharply acidic and served in the Frankfurt region as a regional speciality.
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.
Obstweinverordnung, BGBl. II Nr. 18/2014, consolidated
Republic of Austria, made under §§ 35, 36 and 37(1) of the Weingesetz 2009; consolidated text published by the Bundeskellereiinspektion · legislation · passage verified 2026-08-25
The instrument that decides what Most legally is in Austria, and the answer is: a fermented drink. That single fact is the one most often got wrong in English writing, because Most means the unfermented juice in Switzerland and is ambiguous in Germany. The ordinance also names two pear cultivars individually — Speckbirne and Schweizer Wasserbirne — in a derogation lowering their minimum acidity, which is a legislature encoding pomology. Retrieved from the federal cellar inspectorate’s mirror because the Austrian legal information system refused every automated request.
Deutsche Lebensmittelbuch-Kommission, BAnz AT 02.03.2026 B5, GMBl 9/2026 S. 184–189; published by the Bundesministerium für Landwirtschaft, Ernährung und Heimat · standards body · passage verified 2026-08-25
Where the German numbers actually are. The Leitsätze are qualified expert opinion rather than legislation — courts use them as evidence of customary trade practice — but they are the only German statement of what an Apfelwein must contain, and they are followed. Retrieved as PDF and read on 2026-08-25, five months after this recast took effect. Two changes in the recast matter to this site. It creates *Apfel Cider* and *Birnen Cider* as a named category for the first time, at 1.2 to 8.5 % vol with up to 50 per cent water, concentrate and added aroma permitted — a category defined so as to admit almost everything the Apfelwein entry excludes. And it splits the word Speierling from the fruit: the flavour indication carries on meaning a tannic, acid-led apple wine, and only the phrase *mit Speierling-Früchten* now says that any service-tree fruit was used.