A LA SIDRA’s delegation went to Cornwall to visit it and establish relations.
Cornwall (Kernow), celtic nation of Great Britain has a big yet unknown cider tradition beyond its borders. It was in the west of the island where an International Delegation of LA SIDRA went to visit various cider mills. While we knew a little about the Cornish culture and enjoyed the landscape we could not less than admire both the great beauty as well as the similarity with Asturies, lands full of green and quite the right place for apple production.
It was in Duloe, in the inner country where we visited one of the cider mills, Cornish orchards, the second biggest one among the 39 existing there. This company has undergone a wide growth, tripling its production in some years and now having an average of 3 million liters per year. This growth is easy to understand giving their policies: sustainable production, the use of local apple varieties, direct buy from the local producers and hiring local crew also.
This cider mill works with 17 varieties of Cornish apple, most of them eating apples, along with certain English ones such as Kingston Black from the nearby areas of Devon and Somerset. The final product has a mixture of 85% bittersweet apple and the rest of Cornish dessert apples.
Their main distribution fields are the pubs with a 80% of their sales, with the other 20% represented by the food chains. Inside the island their main distribution area is London, followed by Kernow.
Patrick Gardner, business support & planning manager was the one in charge of kindly guiding the visit around the cider mill. Their orchards are horizontal growing with year alternation in the production, Patrick stated “we have around 15 acres to develop the apple varieties to blend and reach a good result with plenty of flavor to the final beverage”.
After this nice visit, we encourage everyone to know the Cornish cider and especially Cornish Orchards for their high-quality cider and strong identity. The lovers of international ciders will have a great surprise with these ciders and we hope to see them participating in the next edition of the International Hall of Gala Ciders (IHGC).
