Buyer's guide to cider

This is a free buyer's guide from Ethical Consumer, the UK's leading alternative consumer organisation. We research the social and environmental records of companies.

More detailed versions of this guide are available. See the links at the bottom of the page.

Best Buys as of July/August 2007

As our ratings are constantly updated, it is possible that company ratings on the ethiscore website may have changed since this report was written.

Best Buys are the Luscombe and Dunkerton's brands followed by Heron Valley.

Brand	Rating
Dunkertons Organic Cider [O] [A]	16.5
Luscombe Organic Cider [O] [A]	16.5
Heron Valley Organic Cider [O]	16
Westons Organic Cider [O]	14
Biddendens Cider	13
Sheppys Organic Cider [O]	13
Stowford Press Cider	13
Thatchers Cider	13
Gwatkins Cider	12
Magners Cider	12
Merrydown Cider	11
Addlestons Cider	9.5
Blackthorn cider	9.5
Diamond White cider	9.5
Gaymer's Olde English cider	9.5
Bulmer's cider	7.5
Scrumpy Jack	7.5
Strongbow cider	7.5
Woodpecker Cider	7.5

The higher the rating the more ethical the brand. This whole scorecard was last updated from our database on 14 October 2009 but some individual company ratings may have changed since then. Up to the minute information can be seen by subscribers using Ethiscore.
Learn more about our ratings.

Cider - mini report

Once the preserve of teenagers, street drinkers and ruddy faced farmers, cider's recent renaissance owes much to the success of Magners, which is produced by the Irish company Bulmers. Confusingly this is a different company to HP Bulmers of Hereford, owned by Scottish and Newcastle Plc, which produces the Scrumpy Jack, Wodpeckers and Bulmers brands.

There is a growing availability of quality organic and farm produced ciders. We've included three varieties recommended by CAMRA, which publishes a Good Cider Guide — Thatchers, Biddendens and Gwatkins (which has won CAMRA's national championship twice).

The makers of both Gwatkins and Sheppy's are also farmers who produce meat. Heron Valley, Luscombe and Dunkertons produce only organic products. Luscombe's and Dunkertons products are marketed as vegan. Some other cider varieties may use animal derived products in production.

� www.vintageroots.co.uk (tel: 0800 980 4992) sell Dunkertons Black Fox, Weston's and Sheppy's
� www.vinceremos.co.uk (tel. 0800 107 3086) sell Dunkertons and Weston's
� www.ciderstore.com (tel: 01453 759057) lists over 150 ciders from 28 artisan cider makers.

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