Sour apple cider due to white canker?

[Don Peters]

One of my favorite drinks is apple cider. I mean "unpasteurized" apple cider, which by
law (here in New Hampshire) can only be sold at farm stands. I've been drinking it for
years because it has such a rich, sweet and intense flavor.

But not this year. The sweetness seems to be missing. At first I thought the reason was
that I bought it too early in the season. But the taste of it didn't seem to change
from early to late fall. I almost decided not to buy it in the future.

Puzzled about why the sweet flavor should be missing, it occurred to me that I might
already know the reason - white canker.

To build a nice sweet apple, the tree must supply the apple with plenty of sugars. These
sugars come from photosynthesis, which takes place in the leaves. The sugars have to
be transported from the leaves to the apples. This is done via the phloem layer, which is
a thin layer of tissue just under the bark. It is this tissue which is rich in nutrients.

But check out all the microscope photos of white canker. You'll see that white canker,
like any successful organism, goes right for the food supply, using this food for its
own growth. So the sugars, instead of feeding the apples, are feeding the white canker instead.

Consequently, we don't get the sweets - the white canker does.

Now, I can't be sure this is the cause of the non-sweet apple cider. More research will
have to be done. But the damage done by white canker sure seems as if it is a likely cause!

[Don Peters]

Here's an update, since the Fall 2009 apple cider season is now here. I picked up two different brands of apple cider at the local Hannaford's supermarket and tried them both.

The first, from Ricker Hill Orchards in Maine, was the most tasteless apple cider I've ever had. More specifically, it tasted like apple cider that had all the sweetness removed, leaving a watery, tart, woody taste. In fact, I dumped about half of it down the drain rather than finish drinking it.

The second, Rudy's Blend, from Carlson Orchards in Harvard, Massachusetts, was better, with more of the expected flavor. I had bought this brand for the past few years and found it to have a good flavor. But this year again its flavor was lacking, as if a good amount of the natural sweetness was missing.

Because both brands were bought in a supermarket, I assume they were both pasteurized. I find non-pasteurized apple cider to have a more natural taste, but you can only buy it at farmstands that sell directly to the public. I hope to try some in the next month or two.