View source for A Brief History of Cider in Asturias

[[File:Que-tien-esta-sidra.png|alt=¿Qué tien la sidra?|thumb|580x580px|Garrido, Antonio. ''¿Qué Tien La Sidra?'' 1979. ]]
It is no exaggeration to say that everything in [[Asturias]] revolves around apples. As many as five hundred varieties are grown here, twenty-two of which are approved for use in traditional Asturian cider by the [https://sidradeasturias.es/en/ Regulatory Council].<ref group="Notes">The Regulatory Council is the official body established to certify that a cider qualifies for the “''Sidra de Asturias''” [[Designation of Origin]]</ref>

How that came to be is a fascinating story. Read on for the very briefest story of apple cider in Asturias. This is a topic I could probably write a book on. Perhaps I will one day.

==Ancient Origins==
The ubiquitous apple has been a part of the human story for all of human history, as far as we can tell. Crab apple pips have been found in sediment layers in Britain and Ireland dated to the neolithic.<ref group="Citations">Treasure ER, Gröcke DR, Caseldine AE, Church MJ. Neolithic Farming and Wild Plant Exploitation in Western Britain: Archaeobotanical and Crop Stable Isotope Evidence from Wales (c. 4000–2200 cal bc). ''Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society''. 2019;85:193-222. doi:10.1017/ppr.2019.12</ref> In the Caucasus mountains, crab apple halves were stored for winter, and rudimentary selection was already taking place before the arrival of the modern apple.<ref group="Citations">Zohary D, Hopf M.  Domestication of plants in the Old World. New York: Oxford University Press; 2000. 316</ref> But the apple we know and love today has more definite origins, specifically from the densely forested Tian Shan mountains near [http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20181120-the-birthplace-of-the-modern-apple Almaty, Kazakhstan]. The name of the place is the adjective form of the word "apple", making it a pretty apple-y place indeed.<ref group="Notes">There is a popular belief that the soviet-era name for the city, Алма-Ата (Alma-Ata) translates as “Father of apples,” from “alma” (apple) and “ata” (grandfather). Unfortunately, there isn't really any evidence for this.</ref>

Being on the Western side of the mountains, the apples of Almaty were well positioned to join the great migration of Central Asian produce towards the Middle East and Europe.<ref group="Citations">Spengler, Robert N. ''Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat.'' pp 197. UNIV OF CALIFORNIA Press, 2020.</ref>

The Silk Road carried those future cider apples to ancient Greece and Rome. As travelers on the route ate and discarded apples, the seeds grew and cross-pollinated with local crab-apple varieties. This happened across the length of the Silk Road. For more on this process see [https://phys.org/news/2019-05-exploring-history-apple-wild.html this 2019 article] from the Max Planck Society. It is an excellent overview of the ancient history of the apple tree.

Along with the ancient apple itself comes an ancient etymology. The best understanding of the etymology of the words sidra and cider are thus:

From the hebrew שֵׁכָר (''shekar'' - meaning any strong fermented drink) it enters Septuagint<ref group="Notes">The Septuagint is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament) and used by the early Church.</ref> Greek as ''sikera'', retaining its meaning. From there it enter Latin as ''sicĕra'' and the meaning narrows to "liquor made from the juice of fruits".<ref group="Citations">F. Corriente: "Los arabismos y otras voces medio-orientales del ''Dicionário Houaiss da Língua Portuguesa''", en ''Filologia e Linguística Portuguesa'' (São Paulo), 15 (2013) 69-184, pág. 174</ref> <ref group="Notes">Isidore of Sevilla writes in ~625 in his ''Etymologiae:''

"16. Sicera is any drink apart from wine that can inebriate a person. Although its name is Hebrew, it still has a Latin sound because it is made from the juice (sucus) of grain or fruits, or the fruit of palms is squeezed to a pulp; and the liquid, thick with the cooked produce, like juice, is strained, and the resulting drink is named sicera."</ref><ref group="Citations">Barney SA, Lewis WJ, Beach JA, Berghof O, eds. (Provisions and various implements). In: ''The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville''. XX.iii.16. Cambridge University Press; 2006:395-406.</ref>

==Rome, of Course==
Once the apple arrived in ancient Greece and Rome, it was an instant hit. Apples were so popular in Greece that the stories of the origins of the Trojan War [https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/JudgementParis.html begin with an apple].
[[File:Still-Life-With-Apples-Ancient-Rome-300x203.jpg|left|thumb|Still life with fruit. Roman painting from the House of Julia Felix in Pompeii, 63-79 CE.]]
The Romans, too, quickly became obsessed with the apple. They began planting orchards and making cider as early as the first century CE. Virgil, Cato and Pliny knew dozens of varieties of apple. As the Roman legions marched, so did the apple. In this way, it spread to every corner of Europe and North Africa. Indeed the Spanish word for apple; ''[http://dle.rae.es/?id=OItjStD manzana]'', comes from the Vulgar Latin (Iberian dialect) ''mattiana''. That term is  from the Latin ''malum'' ''matianum'', a kind of apple, literally ''apples of Matius''. Matius was a Roman horticulturist and author of cookbooks, and a close friend of Caesar.

As the Romanization of Asturias slowly happened, apples became more widely planted. Strabo mentions it in book three of '''''Geographica''''', in the first century BCE. In the thousand years following, cider replaced ''[[zythos]]'' beer as the favored drink in Asturias.

==The Middle Ages==
[[File:Apple-history-01-214x300.jpg|right|frameless|300x300px]]
During the middle ages, peasants made cider (and most everything else) for themselves. This imprinted the image of the ''pumarada'' surrounding the ''[[casería]]'' indelibly on the collective mind. This is the era in which cider becomes one of, if not the, most important products in Asturias. But, in addition to the farmstead cider, a quiet revolution was taking place in cider making. 

Monasteries throughout England, France, and northern Spain began refining and codifying the art of making apple cider. They became known for their cider making throughout Europe. In 781, the monastery of San Vicente (which will later give rise to the city of [[Oviedo]]) is founded. In the founding documents is a plan for the ''pumaradas'' that will surround the monastery. Again, in 803, the ''Ego Fakilo'' (the last will and ''Testament of Fakilo'') records the orchards given to support the Cathedral of San Salvador, also in [[Oviedo (City)|Oviedo]]. 

As the middle ages wore on, they began the wholesale transition away from "seedling" orchards in which every tree was grown from seed and cider was made from whatever apples were deemed too tart to eat<ref group="Notes">"''Apples display 'extreme heterozygosity,' meaning that they produce offspring that look nothing like their parents. Plant an apple seed, wait a few decades, and you’ll get a tree bearing fruit that looks and tastes entirely different from its parent. In fact, the fruit from one seedling will be, genetically speaking, unlike any other apple ever grown, at any time, anywhere in the world.''"

Stewart, Amy. ''The Drunken Botanist: The Plants That Create the World’s Great Drinks''. pp 17. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2013.</ref>, and towards cloned orchards, in which the techniques of grafting (known since ~50 BCE) faithfully reproduced individual cultivars of apples. By the late 16th century more than 65 named varieties of apples existed in the monastery orchards from Normandy to Asturias. 

In addition to the propagation of true to type apple scions, the medieval monasteries also introduced the cider press (which design is still easy to find in Asturias) and chestnut barrels for controlling fermentation. The wooden cider press replaced the earlier stone crushing wheels and the barrels replaced the open stone vats previously common. In this time, those who made cider as their vocation became known as ''siceratores'', a term that continues to be used unchanged in Asturias, particularly in the gastronomic society known as ''La Buena Cofradía de los Siceratores de Asturias.'' 

==Industrial (Cider) Revolution==
The 18th century was one of rapid expansion and change across Asturias. Cider production expanded and became more industrial during this time. The ''[http://ridea.org/catalogo/archivo/fondosocecoamigosasturias Sociedad de Amigos del País de Asturias]'' formed, and spread new harvesting and processing techniques throughout the territory.
[[File:Gijon-fabril-300x216.jpg|thumb|''Gijón Fabril'' – the factory that changed everything, capable of making 200,000 cider bottles per day.]]
Gone were the small farms with personal orchards. Now the ''pumaradas'' were enormous, and the small producers were rapidly expanding. Whereas local farmers had produced almost all cider previously, by the end of the 18th century, more than 100 commercial manufacturers were operating in Asturias. A staggering 64 of them were in the town of Infiesto alone. Indeed, at the end of the 18th century, there are no agricultural exports from Asturias of note except for apples and cider.

The 19th century marks another huge turning point in cider culture in Asturias. The Industrial Revolution brought intensive manufacturing to the cities of [[Gijón]], Oviedo, Avilés, and Langreo. Like all things, this industrial might was put to work in the service of cider, and in 1843, ''La Industria'' opened in Gijón, making glass bottles and cider glasses.

This proved to be a huge turning point for cider, as it allowed the drink to move from the farm to the city. As a result, it was rapidly adopted by the growing industrial working class as the everyday drink. In 1880, Asturians produced 26 million liters of cider, according to commercial records.

==Modern Cider Culture in Asturias==
So now we arrive at the modern all-pervasive cider culture in Asturias. Asturians are rightfully proud of their most famous beverage. Because, at the end of the 20th century, Asturias produced 50 million liters of ''sidra natural''. Also the number of ''sidrerías'' was higher than ever, and growing every year. Gijón hosts an enormous cider festival every year, with 30,000 liters drunk over the course of the week.

Drinking cider is now, as it has been for a long time in Asturias, a daily occurrence for many, if not most, Asturians. It has become both a commonplace, and a slightly baroque ritual. For more on navigating the actual pouring and drinking of cider in Asturias, check out [[The Cider House Rules]].
== Notes==
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==Citations==
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[[Category:Cider]]
[[Category:Food History]]
[[Category:Cider Culture]]