Cider has got a bad rep. It's the stuff you chugged in two-litre bottles at university before graduating to lukewarm tinnies at your first festival. For the duration of the summer, pub garden tables are stained with slicks of sticky Magners residue and the smell of warm Strongbow lingers in parks everywhere.But, as fine cider connoisseur Felix Nash notes, the fermented apple beverage wasn't always so low brow."My favourite description of cider is from the real heyday of cider and perry in the 1700s and 1800s from John Evelyn, a famous diarist and botanist. He described it as 'the native wine of England,'" says Nash. "When cider is made well and properly, it's far closer to wine than beer. You take apple juice and it turns to cider. You're not adding heat or other ingredients. But it's fallen so far from grace because it became so industrialised in the 1970s and 80s."Nash is the founder of The Fine Cider Company, a London-based business that supplies restaurants with high-end, artisan ciders from UK producers. From his office and cider store in Hackney, he explains what divides the good, the bad, and the ugly bottles.read more on MUNCHIES