As part of our cider maker series, we highlight some of the smaller or more unique US cider makers. 2 Fools Cider opened the doors to their Naperville, IL (a western Chicago suburb) tasting room in December 2016 (the 1st Northern IL craft cidery w/ taproom). The 2 Fools founders, Monte Summers and Jeremy Smith, met in college a couple decades ago. Jeremy …
Around Memorial Day, Sean and I traveled to Denver for The 2nd Annual Cider Week Colorado and The Pressed Conference. Denver is a relatively short plane trip (~2.5 hrs) from Chicago, but the mountains make it feel like it is the world away. While we didn’t get the chance to explore the wilderness we did get the opportunity to try several …
Women in Cider is a multi-part series highlighting female cider industry leaders. Eden Ciders, a reference to the Garden of Eden, have consistently won Best in Show awards at prestigious cider competitions including GLINTCAP. This is due in large part to Eleanor Léger’s clear vision and direction, enabling Eden to become synonymous with ice and lux sparkling ciders. After graduating from …
As part of our cider maker series, we highlight some of the smaller or more unique US cider makers. We are always excited when we find out about unique local cider options. So a few Sundays ago, we packed up the boys and went North to visit North Shore Cider Company (est. 2017) in Evanston, IL (across the street from Chicago). Chris …
After an amazingly long work week, Sean and I were excited to see a box from Angry Orchard on the doorstep. Inside were two of Angry Orchard’s Winter Seasonal Ciders – Tapped Maple and Spiced Apple. Tapped Maple The Tapped Maple is made from a dry cider base of Braeburn, Fuji, Granny Smith, Gala and Pink Lady apples. The sweetness primarily …
Note: This is only a small sampling of many of the excellent ciders we had an opportunity to taste. Becuase of a vast number of producers present we highlighted Cider Summit Chicago over two posts – Part 1 is here. Earlier this month SBS Imports and the Seattle Beer Collective put on the 5th Annual Cider Summit Chicago. This post highlights some …
Note: This is only a small sampling of many of the excellent ciders we had an opportunity to taste. Because of a vast number of producers present we will be highlighting Cider Summit Chicago over several posts. Last weekend was the 5th Annual Cider Summit Chicago put on by SBS Imports and the Seattle Beer Collective. This year there were 170+ selections …
Another exciting panel at CiderCon was the Tasting & Discussion of Ciders of the Northeast. Many of these ciders are not distributed in the Chicago area and typically uses different varieties of apples than others. Most of the cider makers are on the smaller side and grow their own apples Eden, Newport, VT – Sparkling Dry The cross vintage …
A late start to the day began with a French Perry tasting. The attendees in the packed room had the opportunity to taste perrys (poire in France) from two producers- Ghislaine Davy from Cidererie Daufresne (which we previously reviewed here) and Guillaume Drouin from Christian Drouin Estate in Normandy In the mid-1900s, Normandy, France had ~500k pear trees, but by 1999 only …
This past Sunday Sean and I went to Virtue Cider’s Stone Fence Competition at The Chicago Athletic Association’s Stagg Court – A renovated basketball court. Stone Fence is a simple cocktail that has been around since the late 1700s. More traditional versions are made with a couple of ounces of rum, brandy or bourbon mixed with hard cider. The cocktails we had …