It is the story of Kazakhstan’s incredible apple forests growing wild on the mountainsides above its former capital city, Almaty, whose name in Kazakh means, “Father of Apples”, that inspired the creation of Apple City Cider. Locals and visitors to Kazakhstan have long suspected that these unique-tasting apples could be perfect for cidermaking. With a passion for cider from time working in England’s world-renowned West Country cider-region, British cidermaker Alex Thomas and his wife, Aizhan, decided to put that theory to the test and formed Apple City Cider company. In 2010 a major scientific breakthrough was achieved when a team of global scientists sequenced the genome of the domestic apple. They confirmed that Kazakhstan’s Malus Siversii apple was the primary, wild ancestor to which all 7,500 different apple varieties around the world came from. A documentary follows the journey of Alex and Aizhan along with a group of world famous cidermakers, cider educators and food scientists into the wild apple forests to learn about Siversii’s history and properties. It is available to watch at: www.ciderinkazakhstan.com