When the juice of apples is fermented, the product is known as hard cider. When this is subjected to distillation, apple brandy is produced, very commonly known by the phrase "Apple Jack." This is a true brandy, and has the characteristic properties imparted to it by the congeneric substances produced during fermentation of the ethyl alcohol and developed on ageing. It does not take a connoisseur to distinguish at once between apple and grape brandy, for both have characteristics exclusively their own. Apple brandy has been very extensively made in the United States, especially by the smaller farmers in New England, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, and other parts of the country, where apples grow in great abundance. Unfortunately it is usually consumed in rather a fresh state, and thus does not have the proper age which it should have, and which would convert it into a very delicious liquor. Freshly made brandy is a rather rank tasting article and, like other freshly distilled spirits, it is very much more injurious than those distillates which have been softened and modified by age. When an apple brandy has been long matured in wood, it acquires a deliciousness and fragrance of character which is not much inferior to that of grape brandy.