cider

The Co-operative Tillington Hills premium dry cider is one of our most popular products. It is made entirely from traditional English apples grown on our very own farm at Tillington, in The Wye Valley.   

In 2004, Tillington Ladies Finger, the rare variety which has been growing at Tillington since the 1800’s, was about to disappear from the English countryside when a contract to grow them ended. 

To save these and other rare apple varieties, we worked with our beers, wines and spirits department to develop this special cider for our Co-operative Food stores. By combining Tillington Ladies’ Finger with Bulmers Norman, Mitchelin, Dabonnet and Yarlington Mill, we discovered the perfect recipe for a crisp, refreshing premium dry cider.

Available in store all year in 75cl bottles.

planting

The slopes of the glacial and alluvial hills of Herefordshire make it an ideal location for fruit growing. The temperatures are generally warm thanks to the Gulf Stream, which comes to an end at the top of the valley.

We have 800 acres of orchards here and we are continuing to plant more trees due to the increasing demand for our premium cider. This is also good news for our local wildlife population, which flourish in this special habitat.
  
William Barnet, Farm Manager, has been growing fruit for over 30 years. He devised our unique blend of apple varieties and continues to lend his considerable experience to producing the very best crops for our cider.

tending

The apple trees flower in mid-May and the orchards come alive with the pale pink blossom.
 
The blossom is needed to attract bees to pollinate the apple trees as they cannot all self-pollinate.
 
Plenty of sunlight is needed in late summer to put sugars into the apples so they can later ferment to produce the unique taste of our premium cider. 

harvesting

The fruit begin to ripen in late summer and are ready for harvest from October up until Christmas.  We carefully test the apples to make sure they’re at exactly the right level of sweetness. They are then shaken off the trees and go straight to the mill for pressing.   

We aim to get all our apples pressed within 24 hours of picking to capture the fresh and crisp taste. The apples are put through a roller press at the Knight’s Cider plant and the juice is then clarified and allowed to mature for around 3 months before being fermented and filtered to produce our premium cider. 

drinking

Our unique blend of English apple varieties are blended to produce a crisply refreshing cider which can be drunk on its own or over ice. Tillington Hills premium dry cider is produced using 100% fresh apple juice from our own farm- no concentrates, flavourings, artificial sweeteners or colourings are added.
 
Tillington Hills is a dry cider, with a dark golden colour. The Co-operative Truly Irresistible Lincolnshire Pork Sausages would form the perfect accompaniment, with some mustard mash and dark green vegetables.