Juice-making process

As the largest producer of fruit juice in Switzerland, RAMSEIER Suisse AG only ever uses Swiss apples and pears for juice-making. Around 80% of the fruit is turned to juice at the pressing stage.

Ramseier – a passion for juice-making

RAMSEIER Suisse AG is the largest processor of apples and pears in Switzerland thanks to its two pressing facilities – one in Sursee (Lucerne) and the other in Oberaach (Thurgau). State-of-the-art technology is used to turn the finest ingredients into delicious drinks.

Hesch Gwüsst?

  • RAMSEIER Suisse AG processes 50,000 tonnes of apples and pears a year on average.
  • 10,000 kilograms of fruit is pressed to create 8,000 litres of fruit juice.
  • The drinks we produce in a year would fill 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

Fruit press and juice production

Peak juice season

Autumn is a busy time for us here at RAMSEIER because it’s harvest season. Farmers based all over Switzerland supply us with their apples and pears from August to November.

Quality control

We perform quality checks on every delivery of fruit. Our overriding aim is to ensure that the fruit is in perfect condition, but the specific nature of the checks can vary depending on the labels. Apples with the ‘Bio Suisse’ label and apples with the ‘From the region, for the region’ label are checked and stored separately, for example.

80% becomes juice

Once the quality of the fruit has been verified, the apples and pears start their journey by water. The fruit is moved along in water channels and taken to the mill to be mashed. The mashed fruit is moved on to the press. 10,000 kilograms of fruit is used to produce around 8,000 litres of fruit juice in each round of pressing. Up to 160 tonnes of fruit is processed per day, per press. This process takes place at our pressing facility in Sursee (Lucerne) and at the largest juicing centre in Switzerland, which we operate with LANDI Aachtal in Oberaach (Thurgau).

Beautiful blend

We select the varieties of apples and pears carefully to achieve the perfect balance between acidity and sweetness that has come to be known as the distinctive taste of RAMSEIER products.

The differences between varieties extend beyond acidity and sweetness to yield, harvest time and pressability.

Zero waste

Here at RAMSEIER, we use all the residue that is left over after pressing the fruit for juice – even though most of it is solid. Every last bit of pomace, which includes the skins, pulp, seeds and stems, is used as animal feed.

Production process for RAMSEIER Cider

We’ve been using the same process to make our signature RAMSEIER Cider since the very beginning. We start by fermenting apple juice to create cider. The fermentation process ends once we’re happy that we’ve achieved the right balance between the alcohol content and the sweetness. This way, we can avoid having to sweeten our cider later on. When we’re producing our alcohol-free cider, we gently heat the fermented cider until the alcohol has evaporated. We’re proud that these products have received so many awards over time.

Tea production

Production process for RAMSEIER Huus-Tee

We take great care when preparing our apple mint tea. Tea leaves are briefly submerged in hot water. The high temperature releases the flavour content to perfection. After being brewed, the tea is strained to remove the tea leaves.

The next step is to centrifuge the tea. This process separates the fine particles that made it through the strainer. Once the tea has cooled, it is sweetened with the finest RAMSEIER apples and pear juice. And that’s how we make our RAMSEIER Huus-Tee.

Processing and packaging

From juice to concentrate…

Any juice that isn’t going straight to production after being freshly pressed is turned into concentrate by us here at RAMSEIER. This process involves removing the typical flavourings and then the water from the fruit juice until a thick concentrate is left behind. The concentrate is stored in huge stainless steel tanks, where it can be kept for a long time without the need for any preservatives.

…and from concentrate to juice

When the concentrate is needed for fruit juice production, our specialist juice makers mix in the removed flavourings and fresh water to make our signature RAMSEIER products. This allows us to harness the power of nature in our delicious drinks all year round.

Taste testing

Nature is unpredictable. Tobiässler apples can be super sweet one year and Sauergrauech apples can be slightly less acidic the next. Our specialist juice makers are tasked with the challenge of ensuring that our RAMSEIER products always taste delicious. They’re constantly adapting the fruit juice blend so that our signature taste stays consistent.

Storage and delivery

Pasteurisation and packaging

We know that different consumers have different wants and needs, so we sell our RAMSEIER products in plastic, glass and swing-top bottles, cans, soft packaging solutions, bag in box packaging and even keg tanks for the hospitality sector. RAMSEIER Suisse AG produces around 40 million litres of RAMSEIER fruit juice products a year on average. That volume of liquid would roughly fill 16 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Our products are pasteurised just before they’re packaged. We take great care with this process to ensure that none of the vitamins and minerals are lost.

Ready for the journey

While they’re waiting to be distributed across Switzerland, we store our packaged products in our fully automated high-bay warehouse. Our state-of-the-art logistics centre in Sursee was built in 2013. It has space for almost 17,000 pallets and around 1,000 are handled every day.