We’ve unveiled a brand new cider to join this year’s Cider Barn limited edition selection.

 

Three Counties is a full flavoured, single variety cider with a richness of colour and depth of body that oozes from this West Country bittersweet apple.

 

Thatchers Three Counties joins our ever popular 458, Spiced Apple and Green Apple in this year’s Cider Barn line up.

 

Available from Thatchers Cider Shop at Myrtle Farm, online as well as in The Railway Inn, Sandford, the Cider Barn range is available in 500ml bottle from RRP £2.50.

The Three Counties apple is an early ripening, bittersweet variety, grown in Thatchers Somerset orchards.

 

Creating a 6% abv cider for the first time from Three Counties, Thatchers Head Cider Maker, Richard Johnson says,

 

“The Three Counties apple is one we love to use in our cider blends for its richness and body. As a single variety cider it creates a characterful, robust drink, rich and warming, with a crisp, sparkling finish.”

 

The apple variety has an interesting origin. It was developed at the Long Ashton Research Station, part of the University of Bristol in the 1990s, in response to demand from cider makers for a cider apple that would ripen in September, much earlier than traditional varieties. The three counties the name refers to are Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire – with the apple now growing very healthily in a fourth county, Somerset!

 

We continue our close association with the University of Bristol today, with a ground-breaking research project that is using DNA fingerprinting techniques to further identify heritage apple tree varieties.

 

Thatchers 458 Cider is crafted from each of the apple varieties found in John Thatcher’s Exhibition orchard at Myrtle Farm, itself a true showcase for the heritage of the apple. This is an 8.4% abv cider with plenty of body and depth.

 

Thatchers Spiced Apple Cider is a traditional apple cider infused with the flavour of warming spices, creating a smooth, rich, full flavoured cider. Crafted from a blend of bittersweet apples from West Country orchards including Dabinett and Tremlett’s Bitter, the taste of cinnamon, cloves and ginger bring a sweet and warming character to this 4% abv Somerset cider, balanced with spicy citrus notes.

 

Thatchers Green Apple tastes just as the name sounds – imagine biting into a crisp, juicy apple with sweetness bursting through! This is a mouth-wateringly fresh, 4% abv cider  with the sweet aroma of crunchy apples oozing from the glass.

 

Ends