A refreshing, exciting twist on our classic sparkling Kentish cider range.
Perfect for summer, Biddenden Cider has launched three new flavours in their popular Biddies sparkling cider range. Continuing family cider making traditions, spanning three generations, Biddenden has combined their famous Barnes family recipe, honed and perfected over 40 years, with modern tastes and techniques to develop three new, fruity ciders.
With a lower ABV of 4%, this new range of refreshing, fruity ciders includes Biddies Berries, Biddies Elderpear and Biddies Spartaruss. Biddenden is all about their traditional strong, still 8.4% cider but this new range is keeping up with new trends and opening the Biddenden range up to a wider audience.
Showcasing the best of real fruits, Biddies Berries is a medium 4% cider made from Kentish apples, blended with blackberries from a local farm and elderberries harvested from the hedgerows at Biddenden. A flavour packed summer cider with a clean fruit flavour and the perfect amount of sparkle. Made from real fruits, not from concentrate.
Biddies Elderpear is a medium 4% cider made from Kentish apples, blended with Kentish pears and infused with elderflower picked at Biddenden. Our traditional cider is the headline act and pears and elderflower add to the party to make this refreshing and fruity addition to the Biddies range.
Biddies Spartaruss is a medium sweet, wine style 4% cider made from Spartan and Russet apples, matured for 9 months in tank with American Oak Staves to enhance and develop the flavours. A play on words and your taste buds, Spartaruss is a fun, fruity sparkling cider with strong apple flavours, capturing the sweetness of Spartan and delicate nuttiness of Russet.
Cider made by winemakers:
In 1980 Julian Barnes was working some evenings at The Smarden Bell Pub. Business at the vineyard was steady and Julian thought he’d like to have a go at making some cider, as apples were still grown on the farm- adding value is something that runs through the family generations at Biddenden. Ian the landlord agreed to trial a barrel, and if it sold it could stay. Challenge accepted! The cider proved to be extremely popular and the rest is history- Biddenden cider was born! From the Strong Kentish range of Dry, Medium and Sweet 8.4% still ciders to our bottle fermented Sparkling Cider and Biddenden Ice Cider, made using the cryoconcentration process, we have a full and diverse range ready to explore and something for everybody to enjoy.
Third generation, Tom Barnes, is now leading production and following in Julian’s footsteps. Tom says:
“Biddenden’s focus is still very much on our core range, the still 8.4% that we are best known for. Whilst sticking to tradition is our focus, there is huge demand for lower abv cider alongside flavours, which is a completely different market than we are in now. Whilst we might be late to the party with flavours, I felt it had to be right, real fruit, no concentrate and this takes time. I believe each of the three new ciders certainly express those flavours whilst holding strong to our core values. There are plenty of flavoured ciders on the market but are there many that taste like real fruit? Maybe it’s time to find out.”
These new flavours join Biddenden’s popular core Biddies range of Biddies 5, Biddies 8 and Biddies Red Love. The full range, including a mixed case of all 6 varieties, can be purchased from Biddenden Vineyards’ website from the 21st July 2023 and from the onsite Vineyard Shop.
