Apple cider vinegar is the latest thing. Well, not the latest in terms of age. Because apple cider vinegar comes from (you guessed it) apple cider; it was probably first discovered just a few weeks after the first apple cider was pressed.

Like any other sugary beverage, apple cider will naturally ferment when exposed to the elements. Yeast from the air colonize the cider, gobble up the sugar inside, and cast off ethanol and carbon dioxide in the process. Ethanal is the alcohol in alcoholic beverages that contributes to intoxication. But it’s not a stable substance. Left to ferment indefinitely, ethanol will always degrade into vinegar, an acid. Apple cider fermented long enough always produces, apple cider vinegar, and the resulting vinegar possesses some of the nutritive and flavor characteristics of its parent fluid.

It’s pretty cool stuff. Because of its provenance, apple cider vinegar is thought to be very good for the human body. Different sources tout numerous purported benefits of apple cider vinegar, including effects on blood pressure, weight, circulation, respiration, and other essential body processes and systems. These effects, combined with apple cider vinegar’s affordability and accessibility (you can buy it almost anywhere for not very much money) make it a popular folk remedy for the modern age. If you want some high quality pure apple cider vinegar of your own, Enzymedica and Natural Factors have exactly what you’re looking for.

Let’s imagine that you’ve ordered your ACV, you’ve waited patiently, and your precious bottles of lifegiving juju have finally arrived. How does one take apple cider vinegar? Well, as you might expect, drinking an acid, however mild, is terribly unpleasant. You might try to “be a man” and just toss the stuff back, but this is not at all recommended. ACV is a strong enough acid that this will burn the sensitive tissue of your throat and tongue, and you’ll have harmed yourself more than any vinegar tonic could have helped.

It’s best to dilute your Apple Cider Vinegar, either in water or in some other drink that you enjoy. If you don’t like the taste of the ACV (people who dislike pickles usually hate it), toss yours into a sweet drink. If you don’t mind the flavor, just mix it into a few ounces of water. Don’t mix your vinegar with hot drinks. ACV keeps best at room temperature or colder, and this is the temperature your mixers should be when diluting your vinegar.

There are many drinks that you can buy ready-made with just the right dose of apple cider vinegar already mixed in for ready consumption. These are available anywhere healthy food is sold, and you can even find it in conventional grocery stores these days.

Apple cider vinegar isn’t just for drinking. If you have persistent dandruff, you can mix ACV with water (dilute at least 50%) and apply directly to your scalp. The vinegar will kill the fungus that lives on all of our scalps. Some of us are allergic to the metabolic waste this fungus produces, and this contributes to the inflammation and flaking associated with dandruff. Killing back the fungus with the acid from the vinegar can give even the worst dandruff sufferers a few days of relative flake-free living.

Apple cider vinegar also has numerous applications for cleaning. An acid, it can easily dissolve all kinds of kitchen grease and grime. And just as it helps fight off fungus on the scalp, ACV is a powerful disinfectant on all surfaces.

Apple cider vinegar has been a friend to man for millennia, and it’s just as useful today as it ever was to our most distant ancestors. Drink it, bathe with it, wash your kitchen - however you use apple cider vinegar, we hope you enjoy it for many years to come.