As you quench your thirst with a refreshing glass of Magners, your thoughts might well turn to cider and how it’s made. Here are a few background titbits about Magners and cider-making to mull over:
- Cider is one of the oldest and most natural beverages known to man. Cider was popular with the ancient Greeks and Romans who called the drink ‘cicera’ in Latin.
- Cider has been an important part of life throughout history – in the 14th century children were even baptised in cider as it was considered cleaner than water.
- Magners is produced in Clonmel, County Tipperary, a land of lush pastures, beautiful orchards and a mild climate – perfect for apple growing.
- Magners is Ireland’s biggest purchaser of apples, accounting for a substantial proportion of the entire Irish apple crop.
- Over seventy years ago, cider-maker William Magner created the first Magners pint. He knew all about the importance of choosing the right apples, balancing dessert, culinary and cider apples to create the perfect cider.
- Seventeen varieties of apple are used to create the Magners blend. Some are well-known varieties such as Bramley; others are less well-known like Improved Dove, Breakwell Seedling and Harry Master’s Jersey.
- Magners’ cider-makers today use the same skills and processes as their predecessors. The production methods are simple and traditional, and are broadly similar to wine making.
- Magners starts life as apple juice, which is then naturally fermented in huge oak vats ranging from 2,000 gallons to 60,000 gallons in capacity.
- High speed equipment bottles up to 36,000 pints of Magners an hour – that’s 600 every second of the day!
- From Portugal to Pennsylvania, and Florida to Finland, Magners is now enjoyed in many parts of the world.
So now you know all about cider and all about Magners … so as the Irish say…slainthe!