Sensory descriptor
Cut grass
A sharp green note from cis-3-hexenol and cis-3-hexenal, the same green-leaf volatiles released by mown grass.
Also called Mown grass, Green leaf.
- Aroma family
- Herbal and vegetal
- Does it indicate a fault?
- It depends on the style it is met in
What causes it
The green-leaf volatiles that mown grass releases — cis-3-hexenal and its alcohol cis-3-hexenol — are produced by the same lipoxygenase and hydroperoxide lyase system that produces hexanal in cut apple, differing only in which double-bond isomer the pathway yields. Apple tissue produces both, and the ratio depends on cultivar, maturity and the pH of the milled pulp. Cider carrying the cis-3 isomers therefore reads as grassy rather than as apple-green, and it is favoured by early harvest, by cool processing and by minimal oxidation of the pulp.
Low levels are part of the fresh character of any young cider from early-picked fruit. High levels read as unripe and, combined with high acidity, as harsh and stalky.
The compounds responsible
Where the molecule is established. Some descriptors in this lexicon name a compound the compound register does not yet hold a record for; those are named in the cause above instead.
trans-2-Hexenal
The sharper, more penetrating green aldehyde of the same pathway as hexanal, made from linolenic rather than linoleic acid, and a marker of underripe fruit.
Hexanal
The green-apple aldehyde generated within seconds of breaking fruit tissue, which gives fresh juice its cut-grass smell and is largely converted away by the yeast.
What raises it
Processes that increase this character, or preserve it where it would otherwise be lost.
Milling
Reducing whole fruit to a pulp so that the press has cell walls it can drain, rather than intact apples it can only bruise.
Ripeness assessment
Judging when cider fruit has converted enough starch, loosened enough on the spur and hardened enough for the store to be worth gathering.
Juice settling
Letting freshly pressed juice stand cold and undisturbed so that gross solids fall, then racking the cleaner juice off the deposit before pitching.
Cold maturation
Holding cider at low temperature so that it settles bright, sheds colloidal material and stops changing microbially, without any additive or treatment being applied.
Where it is usually met
Fruit and styles this character is recorded in. A record here is where the descriptor is commonly found, not a claim that every example shows it.
About Cut grass
Cut grass is a young-cider descriptor and one of the clearer reports on harvest timing. It falls rapidly with age as the aldehydes are reduced and oxidised.
Panels regularly conflate it with hay, which is the same volatile family after transformation, and with the vegetal notes of Brettanomyces activity, which are a different chemistry entirely and arrive with volatile phenols alongside them.
Others in the herbal and vegetal family
Hay, grass, hedgerow, green leaf.
Hay
A dry, sweet-grassy note from coumarin and degraded green-leaf volatiles, characteristic of traditional farmhouse cider.
Black tea
A dry, tannic, faintly leafy note from polymerised procyanidins with mild oxidative development.
Hedgerow
A mixed green-and-floral note combining leaf volatiles with faint blossom and a damp edge, common in wild-fermented cider.
Straw
A dry, dusty, cereal-like note from advanced degradation of green volatiles in aged cider.
Nettle
A sharp green-vegetal note with a faint sulphurous edge, met in early-picked and reductively handled cider.
What people ask next
Questions readers ask about the things this page mentions. Each one goes to the section that answers it rather than to a page written to receive the question.
- How are apples milled for cider
- When are cider apples harvested — In the northern hemisphere the cider harvest runs from about September to November, with late bittersweets such as Dabinett and Vilberie coming in last. Cider fruit is generally picked riper than dessert fruit, and often gathered from the ground.
- What is modern american cider like
- Why does my dry cider still taste sweet — Alcohol, glycerol and ripe fruit aroma all read as sweetness even when no sugar remains. High alcohol in particular is perceived as sweet before it is perceived as strong.
- What is juice settling in cider making
- What is eastern counties cider
Where to go next
- The sensory model — The thirteen structural dimensions and the twenty aroma families, in full.
- Compounds — The chemistry behind the words.
- Troubleshooting — When a perception turns out to be a problem, this is where it is diagnosed.
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.
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.
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.
Cornell Cider Research and Extension programme
Cornell University, School of Integrative Plant Science · university · passage verified 2026-08-24
Runs cultivar trials in New York State and publishes juice chemistry for European cider varieties grown in a North American climate — the single most useful counterweight to treating English figures as universal.