What is Perry?
Perry is a fermented-fruit-drink made of pears.
Just like how wine is a fermented-fruit-drink made of grapes, and cider is a fermented-fruit-drink made of apples. Not to be confused with pear cider, which even though legally speaking there is nothing separating perry and pear cider, to me they are very different things. One is, as discussed previously, a fermented-fruit-beverage made of pears. The other is more up to the maker's interpretation.
Pear cider could be mostly made of apples with a little pear addition, or it could be mostly made of apples with a pear flavouring, or it could be all made from concentrated apple juice and pear flavouring, or any combination of the three. Today I am focusing on the former, perry.
If you are new to cider, then there is a chance that you haven’t heard of perry, however you might have heard of BabyCham? Possibly the most famous perry ever, launched in the 1950s to rival champagne—which was a little like if I said I was going to rival Chef Éric Ripert with my one singular food tech GCSE. I do however have a big soft spot for blind confidence and trashy branding. BabyCham absolutely has its place, but I would urge you to not stop there, as there is so much to be explored.
As with apples or grapes, there are many different varieties of pear, meaning that you can get a beautiful array of flavours with perry. A lot of the trees that perry pears grow on have been tended to across the three counties (Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire) for centuries, with some of those trees still standing.
There is a legend that only perry trees in view of the famous May Hill will prosper. After drinking a lot of great perry from outside of this particular part of England, I would counter that this isn’t true, however I am rather fond of the magic that May Hill bears. There are a few variations to the story of how May Hill became held in such high esteem, the gist of it being that a being larger than humans, perhaps a God or a giant, stood on May Hill, bit into a perry pear and was so taken aback by it’s sharp and tannic nature that they spat it back out. Firing perry pear seeds over the surrounding areas.
Perry is not solely confined to the UK, around Domfront in Normandy there are over 100 varieties of pears cultivated, with the Plant de Blanc pear being the most popular in the production of perry, known in France as poiré. In Austria there has been great cultural significance to perry for hundreds of years, mostly in the region of Mostviertel, where it is held in the same esteem as white wine.
So what are the characteristics of perry?
As with all drinks, there are variations. Perry pears such as Gin and Thorn tend to have crisper qualities of lemons, limes, grass and elderflower. Blakeney Red is a very common perry pear, with a balance between acid and tannin that really emphasises it’s juicy fruit forward qualities. Whereas a pear like a Butt has much higher tannins, giving it a dryer and more textured finish.
There aren’t as many perry makers as there are cider makers, it’s a laborious process, the fruit is so temperamental and the trees are very susceptible to disease. Which means that the products that are made are very special, and have had a considerable amount of time and effort go into making them.
If you want to try some perry but are unsure of where to start, shoot us a message on social media or to education@burumcollective.com and we will help point you in the right direction to get you started on your perry journey.
