Apple juice is typically made from the filtered juice of pressed apples. In the United States, apple cider is often made using the unfiltered juice of pressed apples, usually causing it to appear darker than apple juice. When comparing the two, apple cider is more likely to be unpasteurized.
Apples are a delicious snack that you can make tasty drinks from, such as apple juice and apple cider. But are these two apple drinks really all that different?
In this article, we will explain the most common differences between apple cider and apple juice.
apple juice vs. apple cider
Apple juice is a drink made from the juice of pressed apples. In the United States, commercially sold apple juice is usually filtered to remove leftover apple parts and sediment. Additionally, the juice is pasteurized to remove bacteria and other potentially harmful microorganisms. As a result of these processes, apple juice usually has a long shelf life and is somewhat transparent. Apple juice sometimes has sweeteners added to it as well.
Apple cider is also made from the juice of pressed apples. In the United States, apple cider is typically made using unfiltered apple juice. Apple cider is often less transparent because of the leftover apple sediment, and it doesn’t usually have any added sweeteners in it. As a result, apple cider tends to taste sharper than apple juice. That is, it has a stronger, slightly tangy apple flavor to it.
Traditionally, American apple cider was often unpasteurized. This meant that it had a much shorter shelf life than most apple juice because of the higher likelihood of containing microorganisms. Nowadays, though, it is more common for producers to pasteurize apple cider to avoid foodborne illnesses that might spread through the cider. If apple cider is unpasteurized, American law requires that this be indicated on a product warning label before it can be sold.
In the United States, the term apple juice is typically not used to refer to any beverage that has alcohol in it. The term apple cider, though, may be used for certain alcoholic beverages. However, it is more common to refer to apple cider that has been fermented into an alcoholic beverage as hard cider or just cider to avoid confusion. Legally, any beverage that has alcohol in it and is sold in the US must be clearly labeled as such.
