Forget the juice; we’re talking about the hard stuff. Here are 5 facts everyone should know about good old-fashioned apple cider.
1. Back in the 14th century, it is believed that kids were baptized in cider since it was often more sanitary than water.
2. If you want to make great cider, be sure to practice your wassailing. The English custom, used to appease the deities of the apple trees, was believed necessary to ensure healthy crops. Here’s how to honor the spirits: Place a jug of cider or piece of cider-soaked toast on the biggest apple tree. Then sing a chant or song. Finish by banging on kettles and blowing horns to scare away any evil spirits lingering in your orchard. It’s that easy.
3. Also, you’ll need lots of apples. It takes about 36 pieces of fruit to make one gallon of the good stuff.
4. Other fruits can be used to make cider-like drinks, too. Perry comes from fermented pear juice, cyser is cider fermented with honey, and plum jerkum—made from plums—supposedly has some strange intoxicating effects. According to legend, it leaves “the head clear, while paralyzing the legs.”
5. Looking for the proper way to care for a dead genius’ brain? For more than 40 years, Einstein’s cranium was stored in a box labeled Costa Cider. Actually, it was stored in two mason jars in the Cider box, under pathologist Thomas Harvey’s sink.
