Been poking around looking for a nice cider recipe and found this one. Freezeblade was clever to use black tea and lime to reproduce the tannins and acid in English cider apples. However, I'm wondering why not just use tannin powder and malic acid? You can buy both from your local HBS or online.
Indeed, Gremlyn's recipe is based on Freezeblade's recipe but substitutes tannins for black tea and malic acid for lime juice.
Is there something special about black tea and lime juice? Do they add a flavor not found with tannin powder and malic acid?
It would just seem more repeatable to use the tannins and malic acid, but I'm fairly new to all of this so I definitely could be wrong.
Thanks.