Must fruit

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An autumn classic

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Good juice starts on the tree

Some of the fruit used for must is fruit that doesn’t meet up to the high quality standards for dessert fruit. It’s either too small or too large or has blemishes and can’t be sold in the shops. At the same time, there are also varieties that are grown specifically for must, such as Spartan, Boskoop and Gravensteiner. To achieve a good must, these acidic apple varieties are often mixed with sugary dessert apples. The above varieties are now hard to find in the shops and many people prefer crispy-sweet Gala apples for direct consumption.

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Must encourages woodpeckers and the dormouse

While dessert fruit (i.e. fruit that is cultivated for direct consumption) is generally grown in plantations today, fruit pressing businesses still obtain most of the fruit they use for must from high-trunk orchards. These are important for biodiversity and provide a valuable habitat for insects and birds. The green woodpecker, little owl, hoopoe and tit use sturdy trunks as breeding places, while nuthatches and tree creepers feed off all kinds of small animals on the trunks. And, if you’re lucky, you might even find a dormouse or a bat in close proximity to the trees.

Sweet or sour?

Must is sold in either a naturally cloudy or a clear form. After pressing, it is thus either clarified (filtered) or left in its natural state. The fresh juice can only be kept for about a week, however, which is why it is generally pasteurised afterwards, i.e. heated to just under 80°C for 20 minutes. It will then keep for a year in a sealed bag-in-box container without any problems.

Did you know? Large fruit pressing plants store part of the apple juice as concentrate in order to save space and preserve it. To do this, the water and aroma substances are removed from the must. To make up the juice again, water and aroma substances are mixed in with the concentrate.

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Enjoyment without a guilty conscience

Must contains a great deal of fructose and not very much «normal» sugar. It doesn’t cause the blood sugar level to rise rapidly but still produces an energy boost.
Apple juice also contains large amounts of potassium, which is important for the nerves and muscles. Together with calcium and magnesium, potassium counteracts hyperacidity of the stomach.
The pectin in the cell walls of the fruit binds toxins in the intestine and stimulates it.

All this is reason enough to drink must or to experiment with it in the kitchen! Use it to sweeten your tea for a fruity touch. Or replace the white wine in a fondue with must to make it child-friendly. The imagination knows no bounds!

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