The search for unpasteurized apple cider and juice

Speaking of the apple season which is just getting underway, every year a lot of people go on the hunt for unpasteurized apple cider and apple juice. It's not easy to find!

Pasteurization is a near-magical process that kills all the harmful bacteria in something like apple juice. Unlike things like milk, there are no federal regulations that require apple juice and cider to be pasteurized. However, there was a tragic incident in the 90s where a child died due to an e. coli infection from drinking unpasteurized apple juice, and ever since, most juices have voluntarily been pasteurized in order to allay consumer fears.

In that particular case, the infection happened because the producer was picking fallen apples off the ground in an orchard where cattle were grazing, and didn't clean the apples well. Cow poop got into the cider, and from there it bred quickly in the batch to a lethal level.

However, as a general rule, bacterial contamination is not a big issue with apples. And although I am a big fan of pasteurization in general - it has saved millions, maybe billions of lives - when it comes to apple cider, unpasteurized is the only way to go.

The process of pasteurization is basically heating your substance until it kills the bacteria. And sadly, heating apple cider also kills a lot of the flavor. If you have only ever had pasteurized apple cider and apple juice, you owe it to yourself to try some unpasteurized cider at least once.

You probably won't find unpasteurized juice for sale at the grocery store. I'm lucky to live in a farming community where many people grow and press their own apples. Unpasteurized juice can be found at many orchards and farm stands in the fall.

Just be sure to buy it from a reputable source. When I was in college at Evergreen (a hippie college) in the early 90s, there was a guy who would set up shop on the quad with an apple press and a bucket of apples. Just some random hippie dude. And guess what? A lot of people got sick from his juice. Buyer beware!

Image courtesy Flickr/mhartford