North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Thomas Olenio <tolenio@sentex.net>]

Claude Jolicoeur wrote:

<snip> The first and most important thing I can tell you is that taste and 
flavor is greatest
from juice that flows from the press - it starts to degrade after a few 
hours... The second point
is that juice from a low yield screw press will be better than juice from a 
ultra high pressure
and extremely efficient industrial press.  <snip>

Hello All,

I can tell you that the best tasting cider is that which flows from the press 
first.

When we moved to Canada we stayed on the family farm for a time, and I helped 
with the cider
apple collection, and bringing it to the press.

After the pressing (large old style press) we loaded a large number of 5 
gallon pails and old
steel milk cans filled with cider into the pickup truck.  Before leaving for 
home we stopped to
eat lunch and popped open a pail and dipped out some cider.

I have never tasted cider that good anytime, or anywhere else.  The same 
cider a few hours later
did not compare to that "off the press" taste.  It really spoils you, and you 
can only drink it
once a year, for a very short time.

Just for the record...  That cider was 3/4 Northern Spy and 1/4 Macintosh.

We put our cider into 2 liter pop bottles as quickly as possible and get it 
into a freezer (leave
space in bottle for expansion).  This seems to preserve the flavor better 
than anything else.

Later,
Tom