“ ...the Old Testament warned against the temptations of the grape. But the bible didn’t have a bad word to say about the apple or even the strong drink that could be made from it. Even the most God-fearing Puritan could persuade himself that cider had been given a theological free pass.... Up until Prohibition, an apple grown in America was far less likely to be eaten than to end up in a barrel of cider.”

“ Virtually every homestead in America had an orchard from which literally thousands of gallons of cider were made every year. In rural areas, cider took the place not only of wine and beer but of coffee and tea, juice and even water. Indeed, in many places cider was consumed more freely than water, even by children, since it was arguably the healthier -- because more sanitary -- beverage. Cider became so indispensable to rural life that even those who railed against the evils of alcohol made an exception of cider, and the early prohibitionists succeeded mainly in switching drinkers over from grain to apple spirits. Eventually they would attack cider directly and launch their campaign to chop down apple trees, but up until the end of the nineteenth century cider continued to enjoy the theological exemption the Puritans had contrived for it.”

—from Michael Pollan’s recent book, The Botany of Desire (Random House, New York, 2001.) pp.21-22, paperback edition.