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 …

Every December we go down to Orlando to escape the start of the often brutal Chicago winter (During our trip Orlando was 80+ degrees warmer than Chicago). We typically stay for a week and since going to an amusement park 7 days in a row is a bit overwhelming, we’ve adopted a kids’ day/parents’ day approach. For our parents’ days, …

Cider Summit Chicago is one of our favorite cider events. The 5th Anniversary Cider Summit Chicago (presented by Binny’s Beverage Depot) is scheduled for Saturday, February 11, 2017, in two sessions – 11am-3pm & 4pm-8pm, at the at the Aon Grand Ballroom at Navy Pier. The strictly 21 & over event, which was co-founded by Alan Shapiro, celebrates local, regional and international …

This summer we had a chance to be part of some amazing cider experiences. With the summer ending we are getting back into our daily routine (including blogging more). In June I had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco for work. My parents took the boys to Michigan and Sean was able to join me after the conference to visit …

During the third (and final) part of our spring break trip we drove up the Leelanu peninsula and visited several wineries and cideries including 45 North, Black Star Farms,  Tandem Ciders, Brengman Brothers, and Chateau de Leelanau. 45 North Winery is located on the 45th parallel north – often called the halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole. The winery, which was established …

During the second part of our spring break trip we were able to visit some of the cider spots in Traverse City proper – Cidermaker Left Foot Charley and Cider House Taproot. We were introduced to Left Foot Charley a few years ago at Cider Summit Chicago (see more here & here). While we were there, we really enjoyed their two …

Usually we go to Florida for spring break, but since this El Nino winter was relatively warm we decided to spend a relaxing week in Traverse City and visit several cideries and wineries. Traverse City is bit over 4 ½ hours from Chicago, so we broke the trip up a bit and started in the Fennville/Grand Rapids Area. We visited …