You may not realise it but you can actually use any type of apples to make cider. What you use normally depends on what you have growing in your garden. For us here in Suffolk it is a combination of the dessert and cooking apples which we have growing in our back garden. The blend of their juices gives us what they call an “Eastern Counties” cider that has a clean, sharp taste (as opposed to the richer “West Country” style which is made from cider apples). As it takes 20lb or 9kg of apples to produce enough juice to fill a 4.5 litre or a gallon demijohn it is a good way of using up any surplus fruit, particularly as you can use windfalls
