Featured Cider Makers
Son of Man: An Oregonian Homage to Spanish Cider
Wild, unexpected, untamed, complex … these are just a few of the words we’ve heard people use to describe Son of Man‘s Sagardo cider. Funnily enough, it’s the same palate-electrifying, head-scratching experience that this Oregon-based cidery’s founder, Jasper Smith, had when he first tried Basque cider, a moment that would change the course of his…
Read More6 Solar-Powered Cideries
At its core, cider is an agricultural product. Without healthy land and productive orchards, this beverage that we love so much isn’t a possibility. Whether a cider maker is growing their own fruit or sourcing from nearby farms, they understand as well as anyone who is making a living off fruits and vegetables, the true…
Read MoreCider Travels: Drinking Cider in Charlottesville, Virginia
Cider drinkers owe a great debt to Virginia. As the site of the first permanent settlement in the New World, early settlers quickly planted apple trees so they could make hard cider, since barley and hops for beer were much more difficult to cultivate. Years later, some of the most important people in Virginia’s —…
Read MoreJack’s Hard Cider to Open New, Expanded Production Space and Taproom in Gettysburg, PA
Jack’s Hard Cider is making some big moves this year: The well-known Pennsylvania cider brand is leaving its pretty hilltop tasting room in rural Cashtown, PA to a grand space in The Outlet Shoppes in Gettysburg. Its new home will be a 36,000-square-foot former movie theater, which will allow for a large production facility and…
Read MoreLearn About Pét-Nat Ciders with Botanist & Barrel
Pét-nat: What is it and why is it popping up on bottles of wine and cider everywhere? Besides from being a fun phrase to say, it’s really a description of a method that can create carbonation in alcoholic beverages without the addition of extra yeast and sugar. For wine or cider to be bubbly, most…
Read MoreMeet Pennsylvania’s Newest Craft Cider: After the Fall
Maria Kretschmann grew up on Kretschmann’s Farm, founded by her parents Don and Becky Kretschmann in 1971 in Rochester, PA, about 35 miles north of Pittsburgh. She spent her childhood surrounded by vegetables and fruits and learning the ins and outs of organic farming (the farm was Western Pennsylvania’s first to be certified organic). And…
Read MoreHow to Pair Cider with Halloween Candy
Halloween is my favorite holiday, because I love celebrating all things spooky, ghostly and costumed. The candy certainly doesn’t hurt, either! Whether the candy comes from the pre-Halloween parties or it’s discreetly snatched from a sugar-crazed child’s hoard, you can enhance the candy experience with a skillful beverage pairing or two. As a cider lover,…
Read More5 Ciders to Drink to Celebrate the Harvest
If you’re part of the Instagram cidersphere, over the next few weeks, your feed is going to be rife with harvest photos. Though the perfect time for apple picking varies a bit from region to region, autumn is when farmers and orchardists are out there, harvesting apples in epic numbers. What better way to celebrate…
Read MoreQ&A with Ronald Sansone of Spoke + Spy Ciderworks
Ronald Sansone of Spoke + Spy Ciderworks has been a tireless advocate and energizer around craft cider. He’s a supporter of the annual Franklin County Cider Days (now in its 25th year!), a member of the board of directors for Cider Institute of North America, the founder of the Connecticut Cider Association and a contributor…
Read MoreWomen Making Waves in the Cider World 15: Graft Cider
There’s a lot to love about Graft Cider, the modern sour cider company that’s based out of Newburgh, New York. Its ciders, ranging from slightly sour and adventurous to totally wild, are such fun, modern expressions of what cider can be. The can design is always eye-catching, and its merch game is beyond on-point. Since…
Read MoreMeet the Terroir-Driven Ciders of Willow Oaks Craft Cider
For 30 years, Lori Leitzel Rice and her husband, Eric Rice, have been growing fruit at Country Pleasures Farm, the oldest organic farm in the state of Maryland. Inspired by the complex, dry ciders he’d tasted during travels in Europe during his grad school days, Eric had always hoped to make cider from some of…
Read MoreSanta Cruz Cider Company Opens Apple City Tasting Room (Aug. 24)
In Watsonville, California, about 18 miles southeast of Santa Cruz, exciting things are happening! On Saturday, August 24, Santa Cruz Cider Company opened its first tasting room, which it is dubbing Apple City Cider Tasting Room. The name of this comfy, semi-industrial space pays homage to the fact that, a century ago, Watsonville was the…
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