Wingman Cider – 6.2% – Norfolk Raider

Description

Paul and his wife Beth began making various apple based desserts around 4 years ago, Terry then mentioned he had an old cider recipe. Paul then began to cut the apples by hand and crush them with a rolling pin. The first batch made 8 gallons, Paul then offered this to his neighbours and friends, they enjoyed it very much. One of Pauls neighbours offered him some apples in exchange for some of his cider, Paul then made 20 gallons.

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Word quickly spread around the village that Paul was making cider, he then noticed apples suddenly turning up at his door (as they still do). Paul then began to make 100-gallon batches. This year they’ve made 7,000 litres. To get to this 7,000 litres of cider a year stage Paul needed more apples, a lot more. Paul found an apple orchard and asked the owner if he could have all of their windfalls (an apple or other fruit that has blown down from a tree or bush by the wind). The owner told Paul that he was going to pull up all of the apple trees and plant something else. Paul cut a deal with the landowner which lead him from a few trees from around his local village to 1,000 trees.

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With this number of trees, it allowed Paul to begin developing new delicious flavours of cider. Today there are four different flavours. Dolly Pink (4.2%) a pink fruity cider, Honey Belle (4.2%) smooth tasting honey cider, Wingman (6.2%) a refreshing clear strong cider and the Original (8.5%) a strong cider but not lacking in taste. Paul claims there are more secret flavours in the works.

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‘Norfolk Raider’

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When Paul was younger he knew an older gentleman who told him a story about some airmen who would come down to the local pub to have their final drinks before going on bombing raids the next day. The locals referred to these men as ‘The Norfolk Raiders’. They flew out from Norwich airport which at the time was the B24 bombing base. Paul wanted to tie his cider to a piece of history and this noble story was exactly what he was looking for. Thus born The Norfolk ‘Raider’ Cider.