1903 The Flowing Bowl by Edward Spencer

"APPLE SASS"

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Other quaffers. It is the " malic acid " in the liquor which is so inimical to these diseases ; and as a cider-drinker of considerable experience, and a sad sufferer, at times, from both diseases, I can safely say that there is no " touch " of either in the "natural" Norfolk cider made by Messrs. Gaymer—a drywinewhich is very palatable, and is one of the best and the most wholesome of beverages. Cider at its strongest does not contain a large percentage of alcohol, and its makers contend that its qualities are more health-giving and far less heady than those of any other liquor con sumed in England. According to Mr. Radcliffe Cooke, an enthusiast on the subject, the revival in the cider industry dates from 1890, and there is every hope that that industry will flourish more and more, through the centuries. The recog nized cider fruit may be divided into "bitter- sweets"—such as the so-called Norman apples and the Wildings—and the " red " fruits, such as the nearly extinct " Red Streak." The best cider is made from an admixture of the two sorts. But the gout-fuge cider, we gather from another writer, should be made from a single sort of apple. " There is no difficulty," writes Mr. Cooke, " in expressing the apple juice ; but the fermenta tion process is not sufficiently studied, and it is here that failure commonly occurs." " As for the making of Perry and Cider," writes an authority of the seventeenth century, " which are drinkes much used in the West parts, and other countries well stored with fruit in this