TOMASZ SOLIS dreams of the day when the countryside round Lublin, on the eastern edge of Poland, turns into another Tuscany: a place where motorists or cyclists make leisurely tours, stopping to refine their palates by sipping a delicate drink which only the local terroir could produce. But the beverage would be cider, not wine.
Admittedly, there is still quite a long way to go. For older Poles, cider conjures up memories of communist times when people home-brewed alcohol out of any fruit at hand. (This was illicit but tolerated, perhaps because a plastered population was less likely to plot counter-revolution.) One housewife recalls that she used to make cauldrons of strawberry jam in the hope that its sweet scent would mask the reek of fermenting fruit that her husband was concocting.
But things have changed. All over Europe, cider and its pear equivalent, perry, are being promoted as treats for sophisticates; the up-market bars of Warsaw are no exception. And since last year, when Russia barred fruit from Poland, the country has had a big surplus of apples. If you can’t export them, locals reason, why…
