Back in October, I attended this year’s Pour the Core event at Peconic Bay Winery for the second year in a row. Last year’s event added several new ciders to my repertoire, so I was thrilled to again attend this year’s gluten free friendly event. As with last year each ticket holder who wasn’t a DD received a tasting cup with a 2oz pour line, and was welcome to taste any of the ciders available from over 30 companies. Unlike last year, I got to be a server for several minutes while one of the vendors rushed to give something to someone! It was entertaining!

While many of the good old reliable brands were present (WoodChuck, Angry Orchard, Scrumpy, etc.) what thrilled me most of all about this year’s vendors was the number of smaller cideries represented, especially those that were local. Apparently Long Island is becoming a bit of a cider making mecha, with many individual cideries popping up and wineries taking on the challenge of making cider. So for my review, rather than share everything that was there, I’m going to share the Long Island Local ciders as well as my top three new favorite ciders and three least favorite. I hope this helps you find a great new cider to add to your list for imbibing!

Woodside Orchards– Located out east on the Island this company makes four styles of cider, as well as a limited edition fall cider that is pumpkin spiced flavored.

Standard Cider Company- This company is a genuine local company. They grow their apples in the Hudson Valley, and mill their ciders on Long Island. In ‘mom and pop’ style their were offering their tastings right out of their truck! No Website available. 

Leib Cellar’s Rumor Mill- This local winery, like many others, is making a move into the cider business. So far they only make one cider, which comes in a larger bottle worth sharing.

Bad Seed Cider- This company is just out of the 100 mile range (111 miles) but is still worth mentioning.

I’ll also add that while they weren’t present at this event Wolffer Estates winery makes GREAT cider, their  being my favorite. I love everything about this one from the taste to the packaging! Hopefully they’ll attend next year’s event.

New is the key word here, as I want to Highlight some of the new to me flavors, and not my favorite stand bys. I will say my favorites are still Ciderboys, Strongbow, Angry Orchard, and Wood Chuck Ciders but these newbies are certainly contending for the role:

Pure Cider- Produced by Possmann in Germany, this was hands down the favorite cider of my entire group. They offered a tasting of their traditional cider and mulled cider. There was no messing around here… at all… The ciders had no hint of excessive flavoring or sugar that other brands have, or awkward after tastes. The mulled cider was our favorite of the two. Spiced with nutmeg, cinnamon, and cloves it tasted exactly like an apple pie even when chilled so I cannot imagine how great it tastes when warmed as suggested. It would be great for baking I am sure!   

Downeast Cider House- This company out of Massachusetts had three ciders available: Honey, original, and cranberry. These flavors were bold and bright, without leaving a lingering flavor on your tongue. Specifically, I loved the honey cider because it tasted exactly like mead (something I’ve missed since the local mead company closed). Overall they were clean tasting ciders with full bodies without the nagging after tastes.

Standard Cider Company- A local company, this vendor offered 3 flavors straight out of the back of their SUV which included: True Beliver (Sparking), True Companion (Ginger), and True Thirst (Dry). The ciders came in larger share-worthy bottles and the servers were doing a bit of mix and matching at their station. The best pairing had to be their dry cider missed with spiced wine. It was a unique flavor that was very holiday friendly. The ginger was also good, having a bit of a kick to it of natural tasting ginger. It would be a prefect cider to pair with some Asian food. No website was available.

The below ciders just didn’t cut it for me, whether it was the entire selection those brands had to offer or a specific cider in their line.

Harpoon- This cider is made by the well know brewing company Harpoon Brewing, and they had a tasting of their plain cider available at this event. From the first sip to the after taste I was just turned off. The cider tasted like beer, a gluten filled beer. One would assume that this might bedue to cross contamination, but the company claims the product has been tested to be under the 20ppm threshold. This isn’t on I would be buying again.

Ace Pineapple- Ace’s had a variety of their ciders available for sampling, including my least favorite of the entire event: Their Pineapple cider. Now, I am sure I didn’t like this due to my own personal tastes. I do not enjoy fake pineapple flavoring, and usually not pineapple itself. To be a bit generic I found this cider too ‘tropical’. It just didn’t sit well with me as a cider.

Maeloc- Maeloc is an organic cider from Spain which recently became available in the USA. Being organic and made with no added sugar I was looking forward to this, but was truly disappointed. Samples of their strawberry and sweet organic ciders were available, and I found both to fall flat. They were limited in taste and sweet, each having a unsatisfying and lingering after taste.

Overall, I loved the variety that was offered at this year’s event! It grew from last year, and offered a diverse variety of products from local to foreign. It was also great to see the strong presence of local brewers, and of course have a variety of seasonal tastes that rock your socks.

Best of all though I am happy to see the creativity of these cider companies. The mixing and matching of different ciders as well as ciders with wine, Champagne, and other beverages really takes cider to the next level and shows it’s versatility. I have several mixed drinks in mind for the holiday season thanks to this event, and I can’t wait to attend next years! 

Celtic Celiac @ http://celtic-celiac.blogspot.com/