Is there a non-alcoholic version of hard cider?

Cafe Society
1

While you can easily get sparkling apple cider, it typically tastes like carbonated apple juice. Fermented hard cider, on the other hand, usually has a deeper, more complex flavor than sparkling apple cider. Is it possible to get something that tastes like hard cider, yet does not have alcohol in it?

I would drink the non-alcoholic version when I would otherwise drink iced tea or soda.

2

In the autumn, still, non-alcoholic cider is sold in grocery stores, farmer’s markets and orchards. In most places, it isn’t pasteurized, so it’very seasonal. It has a bit of bite that you won’t find in apple juice or its bastard cousin, sparkling cider (which only exists, IMO, to make a toast at a Baptist wedding). Look for some in September, October and November, depending upon your locale.

3

One reason hard cider tastes different from soft cider is that it’s usually made from cider apples. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about them. I’d expect the unfermented juice of cider apples to taste pretty nasty, especially if you use the bitter types.

4

Something I enjoy is hard cider mixed 50/50 with regular cider. I get two drinks for the alcohol of one. If you really want to go no alcohol, I bet regular cider mixed with ginger ale would be pretty good. I don’t think there’s an apple beverage out there that’s quite what you’re looking for aside from apple soda, but that stuff is (to me) nasty. The cider I buy is in the refrigerated produce section, more scarce in late winter/spring, but usually there.

5

And for the kid’s wine glasses and Christmas…

6

I suppose it’s possible. I have a friend who makes ‘champagne’ by carbonating the wine he makes. My wife likes it which is the official stamp of approval for champagne in the civilized world, so I think it could be possible to start with a good tasting non-fermented apple cider and bubble it up. But it’s probably difficult to achieve the full flavor provided by the action of wild yeast on real cider. Perhaps you could make Apple Jack by freezing hard cider and pouring off the alchohol rich fluid and adding some water back to the frozen portion, but I assume the bubbles, along with a lot of flavor, will be lost.