Apple Juice and Cider

At Tinkers Bubble we maintain 5 acres of orchards; a diverse range of mature trees that were mostly planted in the 1930s. As well as habitat biodiversity, this provides us with bountiful organic apples for products such as apple juice, cider, and raw cider vinegar.

Apple Juice

Our hand crafted organic apple juice is pressed by hand and pasteurised using a wood-fired pasteurising station. We produce 3 varieties of juice:

• Russet and Bramley (sweet)
• Cox and Bramley (medium)
• Pure Bramley (sharp, but sweet)

Because we believe in only putting the best organic ingredients in our juice, no sulphites or sugar is ever added.

We've been certified organic by the Soil Association since Tinkers Bubble started in 1994.

We're glad to share that we've been awarded a Best Buy category by the Ethical Consumer Magazine, the UK's leading ethical award body.

We sell the juice locally and wholesale further afield in pack sizes of 12. All our juice is sold in reusable 75cl glass bottle and deliveries within 20 miles are done by electric bike.

Cider

Cider is available in 500ml bottles or in 5 and 20 litre bag-in-a-box. We can supply to local shops and liscensed premises, within cycling distance. For some literary flavour, here's our organic brewer Phil:

I would love to have been there the first time Man ever decided to drink that apple juice he had left out over winter. I totally understand the excitement of fruit on a dark February evening. One of the joys of eating with the seasons is that first flash of sharp sweetness as you crack through the skin of an apple or that unadulterated sunshine explosion as you bite into Julys first tomatoes. Strawberries, blackberries, redcurrents. Phwoar! There's a reason you wait for that sweetness. You might be able to tell I am writing this accompanied by a cup of tea and one of Kirsty's summer fruit cakes.

Anyway, Cider. Yes, imagine the party that happened the first time someone discovered cider! Here at Tinkers Bubble Cider Productions we aim for that party every time we crack open the previous year's barrels to assess our bounty.

The same ethos we build into our apple juice goes into our cider which means there is nothing added, nothing taken away and there is no environmental impact. Not all our apples for the cider come from the land but the last couple of years has seen us introduce tree varieties such as Harry Masters Jersey, Yarlington Mill, Dabinett and Chisel Jersey to our orchards for the benefit of future Bubble crafters. Although not fully certified yet, the apples we use from a very friendly orchard owner along the road at Over Stratton are transitioning to organic. We hand pick them and bring them back to our cider house by bike or horse and cart.

The apples are then mashed with our big old wooden scratter which makes suitably cranky noises (and the handle often falls off) and the pulp sqeezed with the use of big wooden beams and even bigger solid metal screws. All by hand, of course. The juice is then sealed in 200L barrels to sit and do its thing. That's it, juice and wait. This small batch production means each barrel has it's own character and to reflect this each barrel is named by those that crank the scratter and haul on the arms of the press. No matter that this happens in the cold months of winter and your boots are sodden from the washing of the apples or your fingers are blue from the ice cold pulp, every pressing is accompanied by 'cider tasting', good music and better company.

The cider house is a bit of a willy-wonka affair with a fair bit of experimenting going on but we always have a firm favourite - The HEDGEWRECKER and a variety of other medium and dry ciders which are all available from local pubs or the local Norton village shop.

If you are in the area and would like to come have a look around you may be lucky enough to catch me down at the cider house or you may have to get hold of me through the forthcoming Facebook (eurgh!) page. Either way I love to show people how we make our juice and cider and have a good chat about making cider.
Thank-you for reading, next ones on you!

For wholesale juice and cider enquiries please email tinkersbubble@riseup.net.