Kent Cider of the Year Finalist: Kentish Pip High Diver

Kentish PiP - We’re a small team with a big ambition: challenge the status quo, push aside the mediocre and reignite your love affair with cider.

Cider is a story of people, places, variety and discovery with a rich heritage, diverse culture and a bright future.

We combine the best ingredients with innovation, style and a pinch of tradition so you can discover beyond your cider expectations.

It all starts with apples. Kentish Pip is based at Woolton Farm near Canterbury, where the Mount family have been growing apples for four generations.

Our products are a window into the lifestyle and ethos of our family business: working with nature and never satisfied to settle for second best

Kent is historically known for growing dessert and culinary apples (eating and cooking) just like we do at Woolton Farm.

In 2014, Mark planted four new orchards with a selection of nine heritage cider apple varieties. These varieties bring the bitterness and astringency familiar to traditional craft cider drinkers.

We source dessert and culinary apples from our own farm and a handful of trusted growers in Kent and Sussex. In combination with our unique range of heritage cider apples, this is the first stage in creating our distinctive style.

All production takes place at Woolton Farm. We press the fruit in its optimum condition and ferment largely in single varieties.

Through many trials we have paired the specific yeast strains with different varieties to maximise our desired outcomes.

For us it's about promoting the individual character of each variety. We only ever ferment the natural sugars in the fruit and we don't chaptalise any of our products

Great cider takes time, especially when tannin is involved.

Our fresh, fruit forward ciders can be ready within a few months of pressing, where others require 24+ months' maturation before they are in optimum condition. During maturation the activity takes place on a microscopic level, with the molecular structure of different compounds evolving and the taste and aromatics of the cider changing at the same time.

The only real way to tell when the cider is ready is to taste, taste and taste again

Blending is the art and science of creating the finished product from the base ingredients.

The styles of our ciders are distinguished by the apple varieties used. We combine culinary apples, dessert apples and heritage cider apples.

Our house style is fresh and fruit forward, with most ciders falling into the distinction dry to medium dry.