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Taste and sweetness
How sweet or dry a cider is, how to read sweetness and how to describe what you taste.
- Does dry cider have less sugar?
Yes, dry cider has less sugar left in it, because the yeast has turned most of the apple sugar into alcohol. In BJCP's guidelines a dry cider has under 0.4% residual sugar, against more than 4% for a sweet one. Taste can mislead: acidity, tannin, sweeteners and, in perry, sorbitol all change how sweet a drink seems.
- What is the best dry cider?
The best dry cider is the one that suits your taste, but some styles are reliably dry: traditional Spanish sidra natural, many English farmhouse ciders, French cidre labelled "brut" or "extra brut", and modern ciders labelled dry or extra dry. In competition terms, a dry cider has less than 0.4% residual sugar.
- Which cider is the sweetest?
Ice cider is usually the sweetest cider: Quebec's protected Cidre de glace must keep at least 140 g/L of residual sugar. Among everyday ciders, look for "sweet" on the label or "doux" on French cider. BJCP calls a cider sweet above 4% residual sugar, but acidity and tannin change how sweet a cider tastes.
- Why does cider smell like eggs?
A rotten-egg smell in cider is usually hydrogen sulphide (H2S), made by yeast during fermentation. It is more likely when the apple juice is short of yeast nutrients, especially nitrogen, and it also depends on the yeast strain and temperature. A faint sulphury note in young cider can be normal, but a strong one is a fault.