Hard Cider

Note Profile

Prepared

About

Hard cider is fermented apple juice. The note is the drink, not the fruit. Its own judging standard leads with the fruity and floral aroma of apples and a bright, juicy acidity, over a clean fermentation. It is not boozy-led and it is not oaky. Once a cider ferments dry, BJCP calls the result wine-like.

Scent Profile

Fruity leads: pressed apple, plus the ester fruit that fermentation makes, which BJCP warns is not always apple-like. Sour follows immediately as the bright, juicy acidity the style guide names first after the fruit. Floral sits alongside the fruit rather than under it, because the guideline pairs the two words in one phrase, the fruity and floral aroma of apples, and names floral again for dry ciders. Boozy is low and clean. This is a 4 to 8 per cent drink with a clean fermentation and no barrel. Two traces finish it: a tropical banana from isoamyl acetate, and a green cut-grass edge from acetaldehyde.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeTop · ~2h lasting

Family Fruity

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

Origin

Apple juice, usually from cider varieties carrying more tannin and acid than dessert apples, fermented to about 4 to 8 per cent alcohol. Ethyl 2-methylbutyrate carries most of the positive apple character and is present in the raw fruit as well as the finished drink. Isoamyl acetate is a fermentation ester most judges name as banana. 2-methyl-4-pentyl-1,3-dioxane gives the quality judges call cidery, which has no word outside this drink. Acetaldehyde gives green apple and cut grass, and at high concentration BJCP treats it as a fault. A minority Normandy style is reported as spicy and smoky. This note does not describe it.

Usage in Perfumery

A top note for orchard accords that need acidity instead of sugar. Use it where apple is too green and red-apple too candied. It lifts light florals and reads well against a dry musk. It has no base of its own, so it will disappear under an amber or a resin.