I thought some of you in the United States might be interested in this, just to know more than the average person about commercial cider. My qualifications here include the fact that I work for a licensed winery and distillery and spend lots of time cuddling with tax paperwork. You can look all this up yourself on TTB's website. I've simplified it greatly.
Hard cider, as defined by TTB, must be still and below 7% ABV (and at least 0.5% ABV). It cannot be AT 7%, it must be below. It cannot sparkle. It cannot have fruit other than apples. It should not have flavor other than apples (no cinnamon, no spicing), though it can be made from concentrate. I believe products that fall outside of these qualifications may still be named hard cider but for tax purposes they are not considered hard cider.
-Tax rate is ~23c/gallon for still ciders below 7% ABV.
-Tax rate is $1.07/gallon for still ciders at or above 7% ABV, up to 14% ABV.
-If it sparkles, regardless of ABV, it's either taxed at $3.40 (naturally carbonated) or $3.30 (artificially carbonated. Yes, you read that right, it's very obnoxious).
-If it contains other fruit or non-apple flavoring, it gets taxed like wine does at $1.07/gallon, provided it does not sparkle.
-Every state has a different tax structure and I won't get into those here.
Small wineries get a reduced tax rate on their first 100,000 gallons. As a rule, labels for anything below 7% are controlled by FDA, not by TTB, and the label designs tend to be a bit ugly because they must follow FDA rules (and yet still follow certain TTB rules, which adds too much information). Labels are also supposed to have nutrition info and ingredients, but I notice a lot of small cideries skip that. Though cider is technically controlled by FDA as well as TTB taxes/fees are paid to TTB and facility licensing must happen through TTB. Producers must follow FDA rules for food production facilities, as well as state guidelines/law.
There is currently a legislative initiative introduced by Patrick Leahy called the CIDER Act which would make the tax structure and cider definition to be a lot more reasonable, and it would apply to perries and all other pome fruits. Hasn't passed yet. Will be brought up at CiderCon, and though it is very beneficial legislation I do expect big bonuses/benefits to be written in for large producers.
As far as I know, something defined as cider can't have other fruit at all in it. In practice, it seems to happen frequently.
Hard cider, as defined by TTB, must be still and below 7% ABV (and at least 0.5% ABV). It cannot be AT 7%, it must be below. It cannot sparkle. It cannot have fruit other than apples. It should not have flavor other than apples (no cinnamon, no spicing), though it can be made from concentrate. I believe products that fall outside of these qualifications may still be named hard cider but for tax purposes they are not considered hard cider.
-Tax rate is ~23c/gallon for still ciders below 7% ABV.
-Tax rate is $1.07/gallon for still ciders at or above 7% ABV, up to 14% ABV.
-If it sparkles, regardless of ABV, it's either taxed at $3.40 (naturally carbonated) or $3.30 (artificially carbonated. Yes, you read that right, it's very obnoxious).
-If it contains other fruit or non-apple flavoring, it gets taxed like wine does at $1.07/gallon, provided it does not sparkle.
-Every state has a different tax structure and I won't get into those here.
Small wineries get a reduced tax rate on their first 100,000 gallons. As a rule, labels for anything below 7% are controlled by FDA, not by TTB, and the label designs tend to be a bit ugly because they must follow FDA rules (and yet still follow certain TTB rules, which adds too much information). Labels are also supposed to have nutrition info and ingredients, but I notice a lot of small cideries skip that. Though cider is technically controlled by FDA as well as TTB taxes/fees are paid to TTB and facility licensing must happen through TTB. Producers must follow FDA rules for food production facilities, as well as state guidelines/law.
There is currently a legislative initiative introduced by Patrick Leahy called the CIDER Act which would make the tax structure and cider definition to be a lot more reasonable, and it would apply to perries and all other pome fruits. Hasn't passed yet. Will be brought up at CiderCon, and though it is very beneficial legislation I do expect big bonuses/benefits to be written in for large producers.
As far as I know, something defined as cider can't have other fruit at all in it. In practice, it seems to happen frequently.
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