Zeffer in NZ (Slack-ma-Girdle)?

[Dick Dunn]

Anyone here associated with Zeffer in NZ, or close enough to know about
this?:

Zeffer had exported a cider to the US, fairly standard stuff, some months
back. Now they are exporting a label they call "Slack Ma Girdle" cider.
I know well that Slack-ma-Girdle is an apple variety, a sweet. But the
Zeffer web site notes "Slack Ma Girdle is a premium cider made from a
combination of over 50 different specialised cider apple varieties" and
saith no more to suggest that the Slack-ma-Girdle apple might even be one
of those 50+, let alone the main variety.

So...is this as nefarious as highjacking a curious apple variety name for a
cider which has nothing to do with it? Or is there some more reasonable
explanation?
--
Dick Dunn rc...@talisman.com Hygiene, Colorado USA

[Trevor FitzJohn]

Hi Zeffer is an Auckland based company that sources dessert apples locally but also brings in some dessert and mixed cider apples from Christchurch area for Slack Ma Girdle their premium carbonated product. Tastes OK. I have tried it. However I do not know the percentage Slack Ma Girdle apples if any in the mix. They are available in NZ. I grow them. Cheers Trevor

[Alex Slater]

Trevor,

What's your view on Slack Ma Girdle? My impression seems to be that it's not that good here (in NZ) as a cider apple - yet it's certainly offered pretty much everywhere as a cider apple.  I've not got any planted myself though  - hence the question! :)

[Dougal]

Sorry to dig up an old post but I saw some unanswered questions.

 

Zeffer's Slack Ma Girdle is made (mostly?) from cider apples and, in conversations with the cidermaker, he said most of his cider apples came from an orchard in North Auckland.  The orchard owners intend one day to make their own cider.  When I asked whether Zeffer had planted trees in anticipation of this day they said that they were not interested in orcharding and the blend would likely disappear.  I was very surprised as I rate their Slack Ma Girdle in the top two NZ commercially-available ciders I have tasted (the other being Peckhams).  Regarding the name, I gather it is used for its 'quirkiness' rather than the proportion of the same-named fruit in the blend.  This is very much at odds with grape wine where wine must have 85% minimum of a named single variety by law.  I very much doubt there is 85% Slack Ma Girdle in Zeffer's cider!  That said, they are good guys doing some good stuff (in a country full of cider cowboys!).

 

How the cultivar goes here is not really worth the debate.  NZ is a long country with diverse soil types and climates; Trevor's alluvial soils in Wairarapa are very different to the volcanic soils in muggy North Auckland, which are different to the clay loams in dry Hawke's Bay.  In these relatedly early years of the NZ cider industry, we must take a punt and plant, record and share results in order to build up a bank of knowledge.

 

 

 

On Wednesday, September 18, 2013 11:17:35 AM UTC+12, Dick wrote: