What is cider made from? Of course we start with apples, which are presses to extract juice. The solid parts can be sold as animal feed or agricultural dressing.Most ciders also use additional concentrated apple juice – pressed elsewhere – and some other small ingredients like sugar and citric acid.The fermentation process is activated with special yeasts and causes the production of CO2 and a temperature rise which has to be controlled by using chilled water. The CO2 can be recovered and used in the product storage, though some will be lost to atmosphere.In this example the cider is filled into glass bottles. Glass production is energy intensive from the extraction of the raw materials through to actual glass-making. And as glass is heavy, the transport is relatively expensive compared to plastic bottles or cans – and as there are few glass bottle manufacturers distances involed may be significant.Packing is a relatively low energy process, and then the finished bottled product is usually wrapped in a cardboard sleeve to protect during transportation.As the product is heavy, significant transport costs and energy are used to distribute the product to the customer’s warehouse and then to the retail outlet. The product is often chilled at point of purchase in shops, bars, pubs, restaurants etc and the energy used for this should be taken into account. The consumer may also take home product and store in the refrigerator.In this example we have not considered what happens to the pack after consumption. In many countries, the bottle is disposable and may end up in landfill. IN some countries the bottles are recycled and sent back to the factory for washing and re-use. On average a single bottle makes 8 trips round the loop.