Thurgau apples
Thurgau, which the Swiss nickname “Mostindien”, is the canton of orchards, with its dessert apples, its pears and its fruit pressed for juice. In spring, its orchards blossom right down to the shore of Lake Constance.
In spring, Thurgau changes colour. The “Bluescht”, the blossoming of the fruit trees, covers it in white and pink as far as Lake Constance, and a “Madame Bluescht” tells callers by telephone where it is at its finest.
Origin
The canton has a nickname: “Mostindien”. Most is the juice pressed from apples and pears; “Indien” is said to come from the outline of the canton, which supposedly resembles that of India. According to the canton’s brochure, wild apples, presumed ancestors of today’s varieties, were already eaten here 5700 years ago. The orchards took off in the 19th century: according to Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, industrialisation drove them out of the towns, and the countryside, which had to feed the town dwellers, planted more. Thurgau then became the heart of Most production. At the beginning of the 20th century, pasteurisation made it possible to keep the juice without it fermenting, and the Federal Council promoted this unfermented juice to curb alcoholism.
Growing
In 2009, the Thurgau government put the canton’s share as follows: a third of Swiss dessert apples, one pear in six and one plum in ten. Dessert fruit, apples and pears, covered about 1500 hectares, worked by some 550 farms. Fruit for pressing grows mostly on the high-stem trees of the meadow orchards, about 210,000 in the canton, which then supplied nearly half of the country’s cider apples. According to the fruit industry association, these tall trees also shelter many beneficial organisms.
At the table
A Thurgau apple is eaten as it is or ends up in the press. According to Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, 100 kg of fruit yields about 78 litres of juice. Fresh juice straight from the press is only available in autumn and starts to ferment after a few days; pasteurised, cloudy or clear, it keeps for about a year. A little pear juice softens it.
Today
According to the canton’s brochure, one Swiss apple in three comes from Thurgau. In 2025, according to the fruit industry association, cider mills processed about 59,200 tonnes of apples for pressing, 31,700 of them from Thurgau, the leading supplier among the cantons. Picking peaked at the end of September and the beginning of October.
Sources: Canton of Thurgau, brochure “Wir sind Thurgau” and reply of the Cantonal Government of 19 January 2009; Fruit-Union Suisse, press release of 18 November 2025; Culinary Heritage of Switzerland, entries “Süssmost” and “Saurer Most”; Thurgau Tourism, press release of 26 February 2026.