Featured Cider Makers
Meet 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…
Read MoreJack’s Hard Cider Launches Rosé Cider
The rosé cider train has left the station and it’s still going at full steam! This summer, more than ever before, we’ve seen new and exciting kinds of this fun, crushable category of cider on shelves. One of the newest rosé ciders to join the fam is Jack’s Hard Cider‘s Rosé. Semi-dry cider and bursting…
Read MoreNew Salem Preserves & Orchards Launches Hard Cider and Opens Cider Garden in Massachusetts
New Salem Preserves & Orchards, tucked amid the rolling hills of historic Western Massachusetts, has earned a reputation for its rich, sweet cider made from heirloom apples from century-old trees. (Its cider donuts are also not to be missed!) New Salem has just announced that it will debut its own small-batch heritage hard cider. This…
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 MoreAwestruck Cider Celebrates 6 Years
It’s been six years since Casey Vitti and Patti Wilcox founded Awestruck Ciders, based in Sidney, New York (about 85 miles east of Ithaca). In the time since, this company has made a name for itself with its handcrafted, complex and unique ciders. Its ciders have regularly shown up in our cider roundups, like our…
Read MoreBellingham, WA’s Lost Giants Cider Co. Celebrates 1 Year (June 15)
A year in the business is a big milestone for any cider company, large or small. Lost Giants Cider Co., in Bellingham, Washington, will celebrate this monumental day for their upstart with an anniversary party on Saturday, June 15, 2019. From noon to 9 p.m., Lost Giants will welcome its fans to enjoy some new…
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