Breton cider is the drink poured with galettes: dry cidre brut or gently sweet cidre doux, low in alcohol, cloudy, and served in a bolée, the wide handleless ceramic cup.

Cider replaced beer as the everyday Breton drink from the sixteenth century onwards as apple orchards spread across the peninsula, and by the nineteenth century Brittany and Normandy between them accounted for most of France's production. Breton cider is made from bittersweet cider apples rather than dessert fruit, fermented slowly and often bottled with residual sugar, which is why cidre doux can come in under 3% alcohol. The bolée, a shallow earthenware bowl with no handle, is still standard in Rennes crêperies. Cornouaille in Finistère is the one protected Breton cider AOC; most of what Rennes drinks is farmhouse cider from Ille-et-Vilaine.

Where to eat Cidre de Bretagne in Rennes

4 editor picks for Cidre de Bretagne in Rennes, ranked by editorial score. All Rennes signature dishes · Cidre de Bretagne across every city.

  • Crêperie du Pont-Levis

    Order A 100 percent Breton IGP buckwheat galette facing the medieval gates

    Crêperie du Pont-Levis faces the 15th-century Portes Mordelaises in Rennes, IGP Breton buckwheat galettes at the oldest crêperie address in the city.

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  • Crêperie Ouzh Taol

    Order The burger-galette, the house's cross of two comfort foods

    Ouzh Taol, Breton for at the table, folds burger-galettes and classic buckwheat rounds in a small room on Rue Saint-Melaine in Rennes, best booked ahead.

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  • La Gavotte

    Order The Guémené andouille galette with apples, camembert and mustard ice cream

    La Gavotte holds the crêperie corner of Rue Saint-Georges in Rennes, open seven days with an andouille, apple and camembert galette as its calling card.

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  • La Rozell

    Order A complète on the shaded terrace, one of the biggest in the old town

    La Rozell serves galettes non-stop from 11:00 under the beams of a half-timbered house in Rennes, with a shaded sixty-table terrace on Rue de Penhoët.

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Make it at home

Serves 8P60DAdvanced

Ingredients

  • 10kg cider apples, ideally a mix of bittersweet and sharp varieties
  • Cider yeast, or rely on the wild yeast on the skins
  • Campden tablets (optional, to control wild fermentation)
  • A demijohn, airlock and siphon

Method

  1. Leave the apples in a cool shed for a week to soften slightly, then wash and remove anything rotten.
  2. Mill or crush the apples to a coarse pulp and press it. Expect roughly six litres of juice from ten kilos.
  3. Let the juice settle overnight in a cool place, then rack it off the sediment into a sterilised demijohn.
  4. Pitch cider yeast if using, fit the airlock and ferment at 12 to 15C. Slow and cold makes a better cider than warm and fast.
  5. After three to five weeks the bubbling slows. Rack again off the lees into a clean vessel and leave a further month.
  6. Bottle dry for cidre brut, or bottle with a little unfermented juice for a lightly sweet, naturally sparkling cidre doux. Store cold and open carefully.

Editor tip. Dessert apples make thin cider. If you cannot get bittersweet cider varieties, add a handful of crab apples for the tannin the drink needs.

Common allergens: Sulphites.