Is Woodchuck cider?

[Claude Jolicoeur]

I am having an argument with a journalist here in Quebec, who claims
Woodchuck is the most sold cider in the US. I would like to know if
Woodchuck is cider or a glucose based apple flavored drink...
Claude

[Dick Dunn]

Your journalist should first check whether Angry Orchard has passed
Woodchuck (which I heard, rumor-like, recently). Also, which Woodchuck?
That is, Woodchuck is a brand name covering a number of labels/styles.

That said, and probably more to your point, my understanding is that
Woodchuck is substantially made from apples; it's just that it's not
cider fruit. (Maybe seconds?) A sample ingredient list from one of
their labels:
"Fermented apple juice or apple juice from concentrate (water, apple
concentrate), and malic acid, sugar, natural apple flavors, caramel
color, sulfites and sorbate to protect flavor. Lightly carbonated."
FWIW, note that they're NOT using the dodge that many other six-pack
cidermakers use, where the first ingredient is "hard cider", and that's
where the glucose-wine aspect is hidden in those ciders.

Others please note: I am merely reporting! I am neither deprecating nor
advocating!
--
Dick Dunn rc...@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA

[Claude Jolicoeur]

Dick Dunn wrote:
> That said, and probably more to your point, my understanding is that
> Woodchuck is substantially made from apples; it's just that it's not
> cider fruit.  (Maybe seconds?)  A sample ingredient list from one of
> their labels:

Thanks Dick,
I think some of you will appreciate the context of this...
This journalist wrote an article about the new "Cider" introduced in
Canada by Molson-Coors. (We all know here how those are made when they
are sold by large multinational beer breweries.) And he was
complaining because this drink will be available in all of Canada
except in Quebec, because Quebec regulations do not allow the name
"Cider" to be used for such drinks. And he was saying, poor us in
Quebec, we'll have to go in Ontario to be able to buy this "cider"..

So I was a bit mad to read this, and I wrote to him explaining this
was not cider, but a glucose based apple flavored cooler really, and
that it's perfectly normal that it can't be sold under the name
"Cider", and that we should consider ourselves lucky to be in one of
the few places of the world where the name "Cider" is protected.
Finally I asked him if his reaction would have been the same if it had
been a glucose-based grape flavored cooler which would have taken the
name "Wine"...

He did answer me, and that's where the Woodchuck cider came. Anyway, I
hope he got the message!
Claude