Sensory descriptor
Raspberry
A raspberry aroma arising in unfruited cider from bacterial spoilage — the French framboisé — as well as from added fruit.
Also called Framboise, Framboisé.
- Aroma family
- Berry
- Does it indicate a fault?
- It depends on the style it is met in
What causes it
In a cider with no raspberries in it, this note is a recognised microbial fault. Zymomonas mobilis, a bacterium tolerant of the low pH and low nutrient status of cider, ferments residual glucose and fructose to ethanol and carbon dioxide while producing acetaldehyde and hydrogen sulphide; the combination is perceived as raspberry with a sulphidic edge, and the drink usually gasses and hazes at the same time. French cider makers named the fault framboisé for the aroma. It is a particular risk in sweet ciders that have been racked but not stabilised, since the organism needs residual sugar.
A faint raspberry lift in an unfruited cider is the first sign of Zymomonas activity and precedes the gassing and haze by some days. By the time the aroma is obvious the population is established and the sugar is going.
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.
Acetaldehyde
The compound sitting one step short of ethanol, which smells of bruised apple and sherry, binds most of the sulphite added to a cider, and is the chemical signature of oxidation.
Hydrogen sulphide
The rotten-egg gas a nitrogen-starved yeast produces, detectable at concentrations too small to measure easily, and removable only if it is caught before it becomes something worse.
Glucose
The sugar yeast takes first and the smallest of the three in apple juice, which is why the last sugar left in a slow ferment is almost never glucose.
Fructose
The dominant sugar of apple juice and the sweetest of the common sugars, which is why apple juice tastes sweeter than its total sugar figure implies and why a stuck ferment leaves sweetness behind.
What raises it
Processes that increase this character, or preserve it where it would otherwise be lost.
Racking
Moving cider off the sediment it has thrown, which both cleans the liquid and — by taking yeast and nitrogen away with the deposit — slows what is left of the ferment.
Sulphite stabilisation
Managing free sulphur dioxide through maturation and at packaging so that a useful antimicrobial and antioxidant fraction survives into the bottle.
Sterile filtration
Membrane filtration at a rating that retains viable yeast and bacteria, which is what allows a sweet cider to be shelf-stable without heat or preservative — provided the filling that follows is aseptic.
Sanitation
The cleaning and sanitising discipline that underlies every other process, and why removing soil must come before any attempt to kill organisms.
The fault it points at
Meeting this descriptor above a certain intensity is how the fault below is usually noticed first.
Fault
A raspberry-and-rotten-fruit character with sulphurous overtones, produced by Zymomonas mobilis in sweet ciders that still contain sugar.
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 Raspberry
This is one of the few faults whose sensory signature is a fruit that would be welcome if it had been put there deliberately, and it is a good illustration of why a descriptor without a cause is worthless. Raspberry in a fruit cider and raspberry in a sweet keeved cider are the same word describing entirely different situations.
The accompanying signs settle it: framboisé brings unwanted carbonation, haze and a sulphidic note, and the residual sugar the cider was sold on disappears.
Others in the berry family
Strawberry, raspberry, red-fruit notes.
Red fruit
A general soft red-berry impression from medium-chain ethyl esters, most often met in tannic ciders with some age.
Strawberry
A soft red-fruit note from furanone and ester chemistry, arising in fermentation or from added fruit.
Blackcurrant
A dark, slightly green berry note from sulphur-containing thiols, or from direct fruit addition.
Cherry
Dark stone-and-berry character combining benzaldehyde with heavier ethyl esters, met in aged tannic 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 do i sterilise cider bottles — Wash them clean first, then sanitise with a no-rinse sanitiser or a sulphite solution, and fill while still wet with it. Bottles that look clean but have dried deposits inside are the usual source of bottle spoilage.
- What is racking in cider making — Racking is siphoning cider off the sediment it has thrown into a clean vessel, leaving the lees behind. It clarifies the cider and, in traditional practice, is also used to slow a ferment by removing yeast with the lees.
- What is fruit cider — Fruit cider is cider flavoured with another fruit, either as juice, purée or flavouring, added after fermentation. How much apple has to remain varies by jurisdiction, and in some markets very little does.
- Which sugar is most of the sugar in apple juice — Fructose, by a long way. Apple juice carries roughly twice as much fructose as glucose, with a smaller amount of sucrose, and fructose is the sweetest of the three on the tongue.
- Does a sweeter cider have more calories
- What does doux mean on a cider — *Doux* means sweet. A cidre doux is typically the lowest in alcohol of the French sweetness grades, often around three per cent, because fermentation was stopped early.
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.
Peer-reviewed literature on cider fermentation microbiology
Various journals · peer-reviewed literature · registered as competent for this subject
Covers the microbial succession of spontaneous cider fermentation, the role of non-Saccharomyces yeasts in the early stages, malolactic conversion by Oenococcus and Lactobacillus species, and the organisms behind the principal spoilage faults.
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.
Institut Français des Productions Cidricoles (IFPC)
IFPC · research institute · retrieved 2026-08-24
The French technical institute for cider production. The authority for the French cultivar classification families, for keeving as an industrial process, and for the pectin and nitrogen chemistry that keeving depends on.