Beverage

Dry Cider

S tier

Dry cider is fermented until almost all of the apple sugar is gone, so the glass finishes tart and tannic rather than sticky. West-country bittersweets, Norman cidre brut, and Basque sagardoa live here: yellow to amber, sometimes still, sometimes with a quiet natural sparkle. The apple should taste like skin and orchard floor, not like juice from a children's carton. This is the cider to cook with. It deglazes pork, sausages, mussels, and onions without turning the pan to syrup, and it stands up to cheddar and a pork pie. A "dry" supermarket sparkling that still reads sweet on the tongue is not this variety—look for brut, sec, or a listed residual sugar near zero. Reduce it only briefly or the acid will shout.