Cider
Cider is an ancient beverage. No-one knows when or where it was first made, because the native distribution of its principal component, the apple, is so widespread, from the Near East to Northwestern Europe. In the cider market, ciders can be broken down into two main styles, standard and specialty. The first group consists of modern ciders and heritage ciders. Modern ciders are produced from culinary apples such as Gala. Heritage ciders are produced from heritage, cider specific, crab or wild apples, like Golden Russet. Historically, cider was made from the only resources available to make it, so style wasn't a large factor when considering the production process. Apples were historically confined to the cooler climates of Western Europe and Britain where civilization was slow to develop record keeping. Cider was first made from crab apples, ancestors of the bittersweet and bittersharp apples used by today's English cider makers.
Cider in the United States
California is a large contributor to the agriculture business in the United States, growing much of the nation's fruit and vegetables. Settlers coming west over the Sierra Nevadas brought with them their own seeds and saplings in covered wagons, especially to areas north of Sacramento. Very few of these young apple trees would have been of cider making provenance, however their introduction was crucial to intensifying agricultural production in what would become the western United States, contributing to the variety of citrus fruit, grapes, figs, and olives that Spanish settlers had begun in Southern California in the 1700s. New varieties of apples better adapted to the cool and rainy climate slowly were developed, most notably by breeders like Albert Etter and Luther Burbank. During World War II, California often produced the bulk of apples for consumption by troops using just one cultivar: Gravenstein, brought to California by Russian settlers in the 19th century. much of the production was centered around Sonoma and the trees were cut down to make way for vineyards in the subsequent decades.