On Saturday I attended Pour The Core: A Hard Cider Festival at Peconic Bay Winery out east. I had ordered tickets at a discounted rate months ago, and was so thrilled to finally have an event I could attend where almost all drinks and food were gluten free. Needless it say… It Was… Gluten Free Hard Cider Drinking Heaven… Seriously, there is no other way to describe it. Upon arrival you were given a glass with a 2oz pour line, and were set free to roam around a field that housed tent after tent of over 50 hard cider tastings offered from over 30 companies, several beer companies, food, and merchandise. Fall flavors of cinnamon, pumpkin, and nutmeg were common themes, but rather than bore you with a review of every cider I am going to highlight some of what I (and my friends) thought were the best, the okay, and the questionable below for your hard cider tasting and purchasing reference. An almost full list of cider companies that were present can be found here. Enjoy!
The Best
CiderBoys: Each of the Ciderboy’s 6 flavors, with the exception of their First Press, combines a traditional apple base with a fresh fruit. For example, their Magic Cider was my favorite and was a mix of apples and strawberry. Overall these are so good, and are low on the carbonation scale. This was a new find for me, and I totally recommend it. They are sold locally at SuperStar Beverage. Link: http://www.ciderboys.com/
JK Scrumpy’s Hard Ciders: This is an oldie for me, but a hard to find product. It’s one of the only hard cider companies that is organic, a great selling point for many. They tend to sell in season, always selling their original Farmhouse flavor but matching it with two seasonal type flavors. The ones here were Winterruption and Northern Neighbor, both of which were outstanding! Link: http://organicscrumpy.com
Wood Chuck: This is one of my favorite brands, if nothing else because of it’s variety and wide distribution. It’s easy to find, and none of the flavors were new to me but the taasting reminded me of the love that I have for their Fall Reserve. It was absolutely amazing and tasted like a fall feast in a bottle. Overall each of their regular flavors is incredibly diverse and worth the try. Link: http://www.woodchuck.com/
Mckenzie’s: This was a totally new company to me, one which offered tastings of a seasonal reserve, green apple, black cherry, and original. Of course they had me at seasonal, which to them was pumpkin spice. I only wish they were available more on long island. Link: http://www.mckenziesbeverages.com/
Angry Orchard: If there’s one thing to know about hard ciders, it’s the Angry Orchard does it right. Although I find some of their flavors to be very similar in flavor their products simply hit the spot and are the perfect blend of carbonation, sweet, and spice. My current favorite: Cinnful. Apple and Cinnamon, the perfect pair always… Seriously, try it NOW. Link: http://angryorchard.com/
Other great companies there: Omission Beer, Steadfast Beer, Fox Barrel, Badass Cider, Ace California, and Crispen, Doc’s and Standard Brewing Company (Local Winery’s Cider).
The Okay
Anthem: Anthem is a smaller cider company, one that tries hard but for us missed the mark. We found their products watery, and their Hops Cider (a unique concept) just wasn’t good. It seems like their flavors didn’t pair well, or didn’t pull through as easily as they had wanted them to. Link: http://anthemcider.com
Harvest Moon: This company is small, and produces a variety of flavors from the typical (cherry, original), to the unique (Maple, and Blueberry). For us they were okay, they just seemed to fall flat with the flavor didn’t have enough of a kick. So, not bad but not good. I would however try them again if I was looking for something simple, AND they are ‘local’. Link: http://harvestmooncidery.com/
Rekorderlig: This is a Swedish cider company that just has too much going on. Their products are incredibly carbonated, which is just not my thing, and also very complex in flavor pallet. For example, some of their flavors include Strawberry Lime Cider, Wild Berry, and Pear. They were topped with mint, and tasted more like soda than cider. Just not for us… Link: http://www.rekorderlig.com/us/
The Questionable
There were a few companies present that were unsure of their gluten free status. The two I am totally sure about were:
Virtue Cider: In looking at their website it also doesn’t list it there, but in a facebook thread it appears that some are and some aren’t depending on how they are aged and flavored. So, no final answer there. Perhaps I will send them an email. Link: http://virtuecider.com
Aspall Cyder: This company, from the UK, made a variety of flavors of Cyder. However, as with Virtue they couldn’t confirm whether they were gluten free or not. Their website doesn’t discuss this detail, and a google search gives an inconclusive response. So, I avoided them. Link: http://www.aspall.co.uk/
Stella Artois Cidre: Although their website says their Cidre is naturally gluten free, they are made by a larger company that makes primarily beers and I have yet to find a conclusive statement about cross contamination. In addition, the one time I did try this I ended up feeling ill afterwards in that “I’ve been glutened” sort of way and this is the only questionable thing I had. It would be nice to have a concrete statement from them. Link: http://www.stellaartois.com/cidre
Celtic Celiac @ http://celtic-celiac.blogspot.com/