Cider: where to taste it at Christmas markets

Cider is made by fermenting the juice of cider apples, is low in alcohol, sweet or dry, and the end of the apple harvest, which runs from mid-September to December, coincides with the opening of the Christmas markets of Normandy, Brittany and the Basque Country. Producers sell it by the bottle there, and the chalets serve it by the glass, cold with a crêpe or hot with spices.

Where to drink hot cider at a Christmas market

Hot cider is drunk spiced, from a cup, instead of or alongside mulled wine. In Bayeux it is served hot and spiced among the ciders and pommeaux of the Bessin. In Saint-Brieuc, Breton cider can be ordered chilled or hot. Other markets in Normandy and Brittany offer it as an alternative to mulled wine, and our article on mulled wine and its variations gives it a section of its own.

Cold, it is served by the glass or in a bolée, the small earthenware bowl it used to be drunk from, with crêpes and galettes. Dry cider goes with buckwheat galettes, sweet cider with crêpes and desserts.

Breton or Norman cider: what you will find on the stalls

Cider is between 2 and 6 per cent alcohol. It is classed as sweet, lighter and sugary, dry, stronger on the palate, farmhouse, when the apples come from the farm that makes it, and bouché, the corked kind. After crushing and pressing, the must ferments in a vat or a cask, then the cider rests for anything from a few weeks to several months.

In Brittany, Cornouaille cider is the region’s only PDO cider, recognised in 1996: medium-dry, 100% pure juice, with its sparkle produced in the bottle, made in 38 communes around Quimper, whose market gives it pride of place. Lorient and Locronan serve farmhouse cider, Saint-Malo and Vannes Breton cider.

In Normandy, the PDO ciders are those of the Pays d’Auge and the Cotentin, with Domfront perry alongside. Lisieux, Honfleur and Deauville offer cider, pommeau and calvados from the Pays d’Auge. Alençon adds cider and perry from the Perche and the Domfrontais, and Dieppe, Évreux and Le Havre complete the Norman list.

In the Basque Country, Saint-Jean-de-Luz puts Basque cider on its stalls. Across the border, San Sebastián serves it during the Santo Tomás fair on 21 December. Further north, Laval, Le Mans and Saint-Quentin sell it too, and in Deventer, in the Netherlands, it can be found at the merchants’ stalls next to the gingerbread.

Cider in pictures