Apple Cider and Fall's Bounty

[HostDave]

While it might seem a bit early to be thinking about autumn, but it’s not too soon to make plans to join the American Queen for a 9-day Fall Foliage voyage between St. Louis and Minneapolis/St. Paul. Viewing the autumn landscape and playing in piles of colorful fall leaves conjures up fond memories. Once you have taken a Fall Foliage journey, you may have new favorite fall memory: sipping a mug of hot spiced apple cider on the deck just outside the American Queen’s Front Porch Café, comfortably seated in one of the porch swings or rocking chairs, watching the world slide peacefully by.

We need to clarify something for our European guests and our travelers from Down Under. The American term cider does not necessarily mean an alcoholic beverage as it does in London on Sydney. Here in the United States, we use the term hard cider if there’s alcohol involved. The beloved tradition of hot apple cider is therefore enjoyable for all ages.

The difference between standard apple juice and apple cider is both in the spices added to the cider and in the appearance. Apple juice is usually very nearly clear because it has been filtered of any particulates whereas proper apple cider is normally translucent to opaque thanks to the bits of apple suspended in the liquid, the key to its more robust flavor. Unlike apple juice which is available in grocery stores all year long, apple cider (particularly the spiced variety), is usually only available in the fall. And even though it’s a staple of an autumn journey on the Mississippi River, it’s the state beverage of New Hampshire!

Another key distinction is that apple juice has a long shelf life because it’s usually been pasteurized. Apple cider is served fresh, much like the cuisine on the American Queen where quality ingredients are delivered regularly throughout the voyage. If you want to make your own apple cider at home, you’ll need plenty of apples. It takes nearly five pounds of apples and a lot of muscle to make just one quart of cider. After the apples are thoroughly cleaned, they are chopped into pieces and covered with cloth where a press smashes the apples so that the tasty juices drain through the cloth. Modern factories use a hydraulic press but if you want to make your own batch, it’s going to take plenty of elbow grease and biceps to get the same result.

Before modern technology, stone wheels were employed, often powered by horses or a farmer’s brute strength. If you want a deep, hearty flavor, be sure to use a variety of different apples. Cider made entirely of green apples will produce cider that is too tart and all red apples might produce a beverage a bit too sweet.

The art of making apple cider the old-fashioned way is almost lost. Everything sold in grocery stores has been pasteurized and it is usually only country orchards that make their own unpasteurized apple cider which, of course, has to be sold and consumed quickly to avoid fermentation which can begin in just a few days.

But the basic apple cider is only the beginning. Our guests love hot apple cider and that is achieved by doing far more than just heating up the basic ingredient. To create a bold flavor, spices such as cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon and orange peel are added. If you don’t know of the end result by its common name of “hot apple cider,” then you may have heard it referred to as “mulled cider.”

Perhaps the greatest appeal of sipping some mulled cider is not the taste but the surroundings. It’s the perfect fall hot beverage and when you’re surrounded by the reds, yellows, oranges and golds of nature’s autumnal carpet draped across the hills and towns of the Mississippi River, it’s a positively magical moment. A mug of hot cider in your hands, an attentive all-American staff anticipating your every need, the sparkling authenticity of the American Queen’s Antebellum décor and the elegance of a vacation that is like no other are the hallmarks of one of our Fall Foliage voyages. If you want to do more than just read about the joys of a fall journey on the American Queen, then choose from one of the voyages below and click on the departure date for all the details.

ST. LOUIS TO MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL
September 27 – October 5, 2013
October 11-19, 2013
Spectacular Ports: Hannibal, Dubuque, La Crosse, Red Wing

MINNEAPOLIS/ST. PAUL TO ST. LOUIS
October 4-12, 2013
October 18-26, 2013
Spectacular Ports: Red Wing, La Crosse, Dubuque, Davenport, Burlington