USVI-On-Line

Juicy Times for Cider
The Hard Stuff's Getting Easier to Come By

(Michael Temchine - For The Washington Post)


"Last year, they had a great crop of Kingston Black," home-brewer Rick Garvin says as he plucks purplish-red fruit from one of 3,000 semi-dwarf apple trees at the Distillery Lane Ciderworks in Jefferson. "It makes a nice, balanced single-variety cider."

Garvin, a McLean resident, meant hard cider -- the alcoholic kind. In America, we have to use an adjective to distinguish it from sweet cider, which is fresh, unfiltered apple juice. But in England, where every 12th pint slung over the bar contains cider, the term always denotes strong drink.

Rick who?
I doubt he knows anything about alcohol!

i recently purchased soem hard cider and am unsure how to enjoy it- room temp, iced, warm, hot, with rum ...

rick- any suggestions?

For anybody who lives in Southern New England...We have a great place here called Clyde's Cider Mill in Mystic, CT. It is completely packed on the fall weekends, and is a great place to take the kids. They still make the cider with the old mill, and they allow you to go in and watch the process of the mashing of the apples, etc.

website: http://www.bfclydescidermill.com/

clyde's is excactly where i bought my cider wine. or hard cider. now i forgot what i bought .

do you know if cider wine is to be chilled? warmed? drunk strasight from the bottle ?

I love cider-in fact I'm sitting here drinking the "soft" stuff as I check out the forum. I like to buy a lot of it during season and freeze it to enjoy during the winter. If you're in the finger lakes area of central NY there's a hard cider place near Trumansburg that we've shopped at for several years: http://www.cidery.com/index.html
NY has MANY places that sell cider due to their big apple production. Interesting site here: http://www.nycider.com/ I didn't realize there were so many hard cider producers. Enjoy!

Good eye Chet! So thirsty.... Mmmm, cider. We have 30 gallons working and drank our 20 gallons from last year by June. It's a great wine alternative at less than half the alcohol - same acidity and balance as a sauvignon blanc the way we make it.

You can actually see Sweet Christine and I in the framed in the background in the black and white shirts.



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00407.html

Cheers, RickG

the best thing about drinking cider?

the accompanying cider donuts! sugared of course!

LysaC wrote:the best thing about drinking cider?

the accompanying cider donuts! sugared of course!

Yes! Had one at Clyde's last weekend. Still very warm, right out of the oven. Or, fryer. Whatever, it was GOOOOD!

soxfan22 wrote:

LysaC wrote:the best thing about drinking cider?

the accompanying cider donuts! sugared of course!

Yes! Had one at Clyde's last weekend. Still very warm, right out of the oven. Or, fryer. Whatever, it was GOOOOD!

We visited the Fly Creek Cider Mill while visiting Cooperstown; enjoyed my first cider donut - YUM. Read there are a few places in the Essex, MA area that may warrant a day trip this fall - I guess that means soon.

In Ipswich MA, there's Marini's farmstand. They sell a local cider donut- I think from Smolack Farms? Is Smolack Farms in Essex? Dude- best cider donuts ever!

Marini's Farmstand also sells their own produce, locally made products (breads, pastries, cheeses, etc) and has one of those uber corn mazes that are so popular these days.

I heart Marini's!

I think it referred to Russells Orchards in Ipswich; I guess I meant Essex County.

Essex is right next to Ipswich and they are both in essex County so, six of one, half dozen of the other!

Ipswich is a great place to visit in the Fall. Russell Orchards should be beautiful this weekend. Take a jaunt over to Maudslay State Park in Newburyport too ($2.00 pareking fee I think) and stroll around there. Used to be my favorite place to roam on a beautiful fall day.

Cider Hill farm in Amesbury is also a great place to take in the fall. Lotsa kids though. They have several orchard areas, hayrides, chickens, goats, pumpkins, mums and... drumroll please... FRESH MADE WHILE YOU WATCH SUGARED CIDER DONUTS! There's a line but it goes fast and it's totally worth it!

Come on up!

Is that Big Red? Hi, Big Red!

- Ruth

Cider donuts...yum!! They sell those at my farmer's market. I only buy them once a year...so good.

There was a recipe in this month's Martha Stewart magazine for a cocktail made from hard cider and calvados that sounded interesting.