A Canadian strong, sweet dessert cider — the heat-concentrated counterpart to ice cider. Apple juice is boiled down, often caramelizing, before a fermentation that is arrested while substantial residual sugar remains. The result is deep gold to brown, rich with caramel, maple, brown sugar, and dried-fruit character. Typically 9–16% ABV.
In the glass
Origin
Fire cider — cidre de feu — is a modern Québécois invention from the apple country around Dunham, developed in the early 1990s as a heat-driven answer to ice cider. Where ice cider concentrates apple juice by freezing, fire cider boils it down — often in a maple-syrup evaporator — until the sugars caramelize; the concentrate is then fermented and arrested while still sweet, giving the deep caramel, maple, and dried-fruit character that defines the style. Long made by only a handful of cideries, with Union Libre foremost among them, it has remained a rare regional specialty.
Notes
Fire and ice are the two concentrated Québec dessert ciders, and the contrast is in the method: ice cider removes water by freezing and keeps a bright, fresh acidity, while fire cider drives off water with heat and gains a caramelized, lower-acidity richness closer to a tawny or a sherry. Fire cider is the rarer of the two, made by very few producers, and rewards slow sipping after a meal.
Defining examples
Union Libre Fire Cider·Cidrerie Milton Cidre de Feu·Domaine Labranche Cidre de Feu·Lacroix Feu Sacré·Petit et Fils Le Jaseux