Thompstone's Ciders

The range of ciders we make has continued to expand with the addition of Wassailer and some new ciders are under development using novel ingredients to shift gravity and flavour in desirable directions. Diabolical with its fiery hue utilises apricots and Whiting's Lightening contains a raw cane sugar for extra kick and sweetness.

All ciders will continue to be labeled to show their origin and vintage and no blending of ciders from year to year will be entertained as this is contrary to our aim to celebrate each years virtues.

The ciders below are all currently in production, click on one to find out more:
Cider bottle Thompstone's Wassailer

Last year saw the development of our mulled cider at the Crokern Party to a point of such excellence it seemed foolish not to include it in our range.

Mulling is something of a black art and the balance of spice and sugar with careful control of the temperature and heating time make all the difference between success and failure. Using a milk dairy pasteuriser we were able to carefully heat the X-Rum cider to relieve it of its volatile aldehydes and infuse it with our chosen whole exotic spices.

The resulting cider could be quickly reheated to provide a drink often described as Christmas in a glass.
Cider bottle Thompstone's Single Estate Ciders

From the outset Thompstone's Cider endeavoured to make single estate ciders that celebrated the unique make up of each small orchard. This for the sound reason that these small farm orchards were often developed over many centuries to achieve a balance amongst the fruit that allowed a good cider to be made for the land owners family and workers every year.

Perhaps importantly for the future it encourages the replanting of existent varieties by grafting and cultivation rather than buying in foreign trees that disrupt the balance and history of the orchards.

The trees present in these orchards are often eminently suited to the 'terrior' for the simple reason that they were developed in that locale.

This year we have focused on the Barkingdon estate where many of the apples are local varieties like Tom Putts and the Browns or Staverton apple. Next year we will be back in Hood and other new orchards with a view to understanding and preserving their characteristics.