Biddenden Vineyards spreads the Red Love

Biddenden Vineyards has launched Red Love, the UK's first naturally red apple juice, produced by Biddenden from British-grown Red Love apples. The Swiss apple variety boasts a crisp and long-lasting taste and distinctive red skin and flesh which gives the juice its vibrant ruby tint.

The limited edition Red Love apple juice is available in 1 litre and 250ml bottles directly from the vineyard, and Biddenden is hoping to follow this with a naturally red cider in April 2016. The juice, which is clear not cloudy, is made using the juice pressed straight from the Red Love apples, with no added colourants, sugars or chemicals.

Julian Barnes, managing director at Biddenden Vineyards, says: "We are very excited to be working with AG Thames to create Britain’s first naturally red apple juice. Other red apple juices on the UK market tend to be coloured with ingredients such as beetroot, but the Red Love variety naturally produces a beautiful ruby red juice when it is pressed and filtered."

"Red Love juice has an incredible sweet and tangy taste, with a long lasting flavour from the good levels of tannins. A perfect base for cocktails, an exquisite non-alcoholic alternative at weddings and parties, ideal for children and diabetics, or just as an everyday drink, Red Love is a new vibrant twist on the classic, much-loved apple juice drink."

Already known for its award-winning Kentish apple juice, Biddenden's latest release is a collaboration with fruit grower AG Thames, which holds the exclusive rights to grow Red Love apples in Britain, and East Malling Research, where the trees are planted. Francis Wheatley, technical manager at AG Thames, said: “The first Red Love trees were planted at East Malling Research in June 2012 and we are thrilled to finally have the finished product. We chose to work with Biddenden to develop the juice because of the consistently high quality of all their other juices.”

The Red Love apple has been developed over the past 25 years by Markus Kobelt, founder of plant nursery and fruit growers Lubera. Mr Kobelt describes Red Love as complex and interesting and 'a real taste sensation'. His cross-pollination of a range of red-fleshed, sweet and disease resistant apple varieties has created this naturally red skinned and red fleshed apple.