Party Like It's 1799: Traditional Cider Makes A Comeback
Feeling extra American this week? Wanna keep that post-turkey glow going?
Well, how about a very American beverage: cider?
We're not talking about the hot mulled stuff that steams up your kitchen, or the sweet pub draft in a pint glass.
This cider is more like sparkling wine.
"This is a phenomenally funky, sour, even mildly smoky cider that had to be tasted to be believed," says Greg Engert, one of the owners of a bar in Washington called ChurchKey.
He's pouring cider from a tall champagne-style bottle that retails for around $15.
ChurchKey is a bar known for beer, but tonight, lots of people are drinking cider.
Tom Diliberto has celiac disease, so beer is out for him.
Cider, on the other hand, is gluten free.
Cider is still a small part of the overall alcohol market. But it's growing faster than any other category, according to Donna Hood Crecca, an adult beverage analyst with the company Technomic.
"In 2013, we're projecting that we'll end the year at 14 million cases," she says.
Most of that comes from major beer makers that have jumped into the cider game. The companies that brew Sam Adams, Coors and Budweiser have all gotten into the apple fermenting business in the last couple of years.
But just as craft microbrews have taken root in the beer market, artisanal ciders are now growing in the shadow of the big guys.
Vintage Virginia Apples and Albemarle CiderWorks is just around the bend from Thomas Jefferson's Monticello in Virginia. "If we were crows we'd get there very shortly, but it would take us probably 20 minutes by the way the roads go," says Charlotte Shelton, who with her brothers grows some 200 varieties of rare American apples here.
Fruit with names like Ashmead's Kernel, Arkansas Black, Burford Red Flesh and Geneva Crab.
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