Cider Trivia
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49 free Cider trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Cider is fermented apple juice, and the British drink more of it per head than anyone on earth, so this quiz starts in the West Country: scrumpy, wassailing the trees, the Long Ashton apple classification, Percy Bulmer's first press in a Herefordshire rectory, Strongbow's Norman knight, and the white cider that became the cheapest alcohol in the country. Then it goes abroad. Asturian sidra poured from head height, Basque cider houses and the shout of txotx, Normandy's Calvados and pommeau, Frankfurt's tart Apfelwein, Quebec's ice cider, Laird's applejack in New Jersey, Johnny Appleseed's sour seedlings and the American meaning of 'apple cider' that has nothing to do with alcohol. Perry, Babycham, snakebite and the Wurzels get their turn, along with the chemistry of tannins, keeving and racking, and the legal minimums for apple juice in Britain and the US. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on cider, its regional traditions and the brands and drinks around it, so the dates, percentages and names are solid.
30 of 49 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which region has the world's highest per-capita cider consumption?
The British Isles
The British Isles: the United Kingdom has the world's highest per-capita cider consumption and is home to the largest cider-producing companies, with the West Country its historic heartland.
Q 02The word 'cider' traces back through Latin and Greek to which language's word for 'intoxicating liquor'?
Hebrew
Hebrew: 'cider' descends from Latin sicera and Greek sikera, which rendered the Hebrew shekar, 'strong drink', a word the Bible uses for intoxicating liquor in general.
Q 03Which Roman's 55 BC invasion of Britain is traditionally credited as the first record of cider?
Julius Caesar
Julius Caesar led the 55 BC expedition to Britain; the traditional account has his legions finding Celts fermenting crab apples there, the story usually told as the starting point of cider history.
Q 04Under UK law, cider must contain at least what percentage of apple juice?
35%
35%: HMRC's definition for duty purposes requires cider to contain at least 35 per cent apple juice, whereas CAMRA's 'real cider' standard demands 90 per cent fresh juice.
Q 05What is the name for the dry apple pulp left after pressing, traditionally fed to farm animals?
Pomace
Pomace is the pressed-out pulp of skins, flesh and pips; in traditional farm cider making it was fed to pigs and cattle or spread back on the orchard.
Q 06Cider is fermented at a relatively cool 4-16°C; what advantage does this give?
Slower fermentation and less loss of aroma
Slower fermentation and less loss of aroma: the cool 4–16°C range is low for most fermentations but suits cider, keeping its delicate apple aromas from being driven off.
Q 07What is 'racking' in cider making?
Siphoning the liquor off the yeast into a clean vat
Racking means siphoning the liquor off the yeast into a clean vat, leaving the spent lees behind; the vats are then filled to the brim to keep out the acetic bacteria that would turn cider to vinegar.
Q 08The Long Ashton Research Station classified cider apples in 1903 by tannin and the level of which acid?
Malic
Malic: the Long Ashton scheme splits varieties into sweet, sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp by tannin and malic acid content, with 0.2 per cent tannin and 0.45 per cent acid as the dividing lines.
Q 09Which of these is a classic bittersweet cider apple variety?
Dabinett
Dabinett, a Somerset variety, is a classic bittersweet: high in tannin and low in acid, it gives body and soft astringency to heritage ciders.
Q 10West Country cloudy, unfiltered cider is called scrumpy, from a dialect word 'scrump' meaning what?
A small or withered apple
A small or withered apple: 'scrump' is West Country dialect for such fruit, and scrumpy came to mean the rough, cloudy farmhouse cider made from windfalls; labourers were once part-paid in cider.
Q 11Devon colic, which plagued cider drinkers in the 17th and 18th centuries, was a form of what?
Lead poisoning
Lead poisoning: physician George Baker showed in 1767 that Devon colic came from lead in cider presses and vessels, and the disease faded once the lead parts were removed.
Q 12Percy Bulmer made his first cider in 1887, aged 20, using apples from the orchard of what?
His father's rectory
His father's rectory: Percy's father was rector of Credenhill, a village in English cider country, and its orchard supplied the apples for his first pressing in 1887; brother Fred soon joined him.
Q 13Bulmers is based in which English city?
Hereford
Q 21What is the drink made by fermenting pear juice rather than apple juice?
Perry
Perry is fermented from pear juice, traditionally from small tannic perry pears; enthusiasts object to the marketing label 'pear cider', and the French call the drink poiré.
Q 22Babycham, launched in Somerset in 1953, was the first alcoholic drink to do what?
Be advertised on British commercial TV
Be advertised on British commercial TV: Francis Showering's sparkling pear drink, made at Shepton Mallet, ran its first television commercial in 1957, two years after ITV began broadcasting.
Q 23West Country orchard wassailing hangs cider-soaked toast in the branches for which birds?
Robins
It has held the Royal Warrant since 1911 and is now owned by Heineken.
Q 14Strongbow, launched by Bulmers in 1960, is named after which figure?
A Norman knight, Richard de Clare
A Norman knight, Richard de Clare, the 12th-century Earl of Pembroke who led the Norman invasion of Ireland in 1170, bore the nickname Strongbow, which Bulmers borrowed for the brand.
Q 15By 1970 Strongbow was Bulmers' second-best-selling cider behind which stablemate?
Woodpecker
Woodpecker, Bulmers' sweet flagship cider, outsold the drier Strongbow through the 1960s before Strongbow overtook it to become Britain's best-selling cider.
Q 16The Irish cider sold at home as Bulmers is sold in every other market under which name?
Magners
Magners: William Magner began making cider in Clonmel in 1935, and the export brand took his name because the Bulmers trademark belongs to H.P. Bulmer outside Ireland; serving it over ice is its marketing hallmark.
Q 17Which non-alcoholic apple soft drink, popular in Ireland, began life as a version of the Clonmel cider?
Cidona
Cidona, first made in Clonmel in 1955 as a non-alcoholic offshoot of the local cider, became an Irish soft-drink staple; C&C sold the brand to Britvic in 2007.
Q 18British white cider such as White Lightning and Frosty Jack is made mostly from what?
Pomace and concentrate
Pomace and concentrate: white cider is fermented from the leftover pressed pulp plus apple concentrate and water, then filtered almost colourless; its low duty rate once made it the cheapest commonly available alcohol in the UK.
Q 19Before the 2023 UK duty reform, above what strength did cider pay a higher duty rate?
7.5%
Under the old regime still cider between 1.2% and 7.5% paid the low rate and 7.5-8.5% a higher one; by volume of alcohol, cider duty was lower than on any other drink.
Q 20Ciders from which three English counties share an EU Protected Geographical Indication awarded in 1996?
Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire
Gloucestershire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire ciders each gained Protected Geographical Indication status in 1996, covering traditional ciders made within the three counties from locally grown fruit, with the same protection granted to their perries.
Robins are seen as the good spirits of the orchard, so cider-soaked toast is hung in the boughs for them while shotguns are fired through the branches to scare the bad ones away.
Q 24On which date in the Christmas season does orchard wassailing traditionally take place?
Twelfth Night
Twelfth Night, 5 or 6 January, is the traditional date, though many West Country orchards wassail on 'Old Twelvey Night', 17 January, by the pre-1752 calendar; the aim is to wake the trees for a good crop.
Q 25The Wurzels' 1976 hit 'I Am a Cider Drinker' was a rework of which song?
Paloma Blanca
Paloma Blanca: the Wurzels rewrote the George Baker Selection's 1975 hit 'Una Paloma Blanca' as 'I Am a Cider Drinker', reaching No. 3; their No. 1 'The Combine Harvester' had likewise reworked Melanie's 'Brand New Key'.
Q 26A snakebite is a drink of cider mixed in equal parts with what?
Lager
Lager and cider in equal measures make a snakebite; add a dash of blackcurrant cordial and it becomes a 'snakebite and black', also called a Diesel.
Q 27Which Spanish region produces more than 80% of the country's cider?
Asturias
Asturias produces around four-fifths of Spain's cider, mostly sidra natural from its own apple varieties, and its per-head consumption is among the highest of any region in Europe.
Q 28How is Asturian sidra traditionally served?
Poured from a height into a wide glass
Poured from a height into a wide glass: the escanciador holds the bottle high overhead and the glass low, so the falling stream aerates the uncarbonated sidra for a fleeting sparkle, drunk at once as a culín.
Q 29In a Basque sagardotegi, what happens when someone shouts 'txotx'?
Everyone goes to the barrels for cider
Everyone goes to the barrels for cider: the cry 'txotx' announces a kupela being opened, and diners leave their cod omelette and steak to catch the thin jet in their glasses.
Q 30Germany's tart Apfelwein is chiefly produced and drunk around which city?
Frankfurt
Frankfurt: Hessian Apfelwein, called Ebbelwoi in the local dialect, is served from a ribbed grey jug called a Bembel in the taverns of the city's Sachsenhausen district, at roughly 5.5 to 7 per cent alcohol.