‘Intoxicating: Ten drinks that shaped Australia’ - Countdown to launch: third chapter

Countdown, day 3. Chapter three of ‘Intoxicating’ is ‘Peach cyder’: it tells the story of how, in the very early 1800s, there was a such a glut of peaches in Sydney that people were encouraged by the authorities to make their own booze from the excess fruit. The chapter’s about how different groups of migrants have brought their culture of fermentation and/or distillation with them when they travelled to Australia, and how making their own drinks can connect them with the place they have left. For me, an ex-pat Pom, that drink is cider. This is a picture of two ciders I made: the one on the left is produced from the fermented juice of crisp, sweet eating apples (Granny Smith, etc), the one on the right is made from chewy, tannic cider apples (Bulmer’s Norman, etc). They’re as different as chardonnay and shiraz. #IntoxicatingTenDrinks