K. P. Cecala
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July 2019: Cider of the Month:
Aaron Burr Cidery’s Homestead Locational Cider: Neversink Highlands ​

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Last week, I had to drive up to the Southern Tier of New York State, and I decided to take the Delaware River road out of the northwestern highlands tip of New Jersey, stopping in the storied town of Callicoon. I say storied, because this is a fond and familiar town to many older Franciscan friars, who remember St. Joseph’s novitiate house which used to stand on a hill outside town, but no more. So in addition to being a cute little town on the Delaware, it is also a place where many fine young men dedicated themselves to God, and so for me, an apt place to find a really great cider.


The Callicoon Farmer’s Market is on Sundays, and there are several cider-makers there, and I hope to try all their wares eventually. I settled on the vendor at the very end of the row, which turned out to be the Aaron Burr Cidery (Sorry, Alexander Hamilton fans),  and since the narrator of my audio book is a Barr, and because I’m always seeing signs and omens in everything…I decided to give it a go. The free sample was an additional incentive. I don’t usually care for dry cider (and this is quite dry), but it was so interesting when it hit my tongue, I decided to splurge on a bottle (and at $17 for about 16 ounces or so (500 ML), it’s a bit pricy, but worth it) to share with my husband back home.

The Burr cidery uses foraged, abandoned apples for this particular cider, likely from trees planted in earlier centuries, and it’s beautifully bottled and corked. The brewer, Andy Brennan (also, as it turns out, an author; I just ordered his book about cider, Uncultivated) is a serious cider-maker, and from the label, I even picked up a new bit of cider-vocabulary: lees, which refers to the remains of the used-up yeast in the fermentation process. This cider certainly has lees, and decanting is suggested, but we just poured the cider into our glasses willy-nilly, and the lees are pretty much stayed at the bottom of the bottle. It’s wonderfully champagne-fizzy coming out of the bottle and has a rich apple-y aroma. The taste is quite distinctive, like no other cider I’ve had before, almost feral, wild and a touch on the funky side. But delicious, and probably very close to the “cyder” our ancestors drank in the good old days. It’s like a meat-and-potatoes cider, and a very good cider to drink with dinner (as opposed to sipping it on its own), and especially complements old-fashioned comfort food—like, meat and potatoes. But I think vegans, such as my beloved daughter, would like it, too.

The cidery is located not in Callicoon (though you’ll find it at their weekly Farmer’s Market) but in the not-too-faraway Catskills town of Wurtsboro. For more information, check out their website, AaronBurrCider.com.   
​A

August 2019: Cider of the Month

8/5/2019

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Mercier Orchards Grumpy Granny
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Now my late father is responsible, in part, for this month’s selection of hard ciders: He and my mother had retired to Florida, over a thousand miles away from even the closest of their children; and when he passed away recently, my mother decided she simply could not live in Florida anymore and insisted that we move her back North immediately: She was convinced that he had taken to haunting her at night in the hallway of their condo, but this was not something she found comforting. So my sister and I headed south in an old blue pick-up truck on an involuntary road trip. Since my parents lived in far western Florida, instead of a more convenient Orlando or Fort Lauderdale or even Tampa,  we took the interstate 81 all the way down through the Blue Ridge, into Georgia, then Alabama and Florida.
In Georgia, we came upon the quaint town of Newnan, where we had lunch on the town square, then walked around a bit to stretch our legs. And here we happened upon the Ace Beer Growlers shop in a little brick building, where the proprietor kindly let us sample some genuine Georgia hard ciders. I ended up with a half-growler of a delicious concoction called ‘Grumpy Granny.’ Which seemed just about perfect, considering the task at hand. It had been brewed in Northern Georgia, at Mercier Orchards, and was perfectly sweet (for me), sparkly and fresh. My sister, who is more fond of the grape, said it was like a good sipping wine, and I agree, although it went very well with the Alaskan crab my mom boiled up for us at the very end of the trip. And the growler was finished before we even left Pensacola.
On the return trip, my mother in tow along with what remained of her earthly possessions, we stopped just off 81 in Kingsport, Tennessee, to visit the Gypsy Circus cidery just outside town. And while it was a fun and convivial experience—we sampled four different kinds of cider, but I have to say it’s mostly a ‘novelty’ cidery specializing in unusual flavors, and I prefer plain, classic stuff. But the one I liked best was their Orange Blossom cider, which tasted closest to classic cider, though it was a bit too sweet even for me. It had a beautiful amber color, however, and went down very easily, no weird aftertaste that the others had. So I guess the Gypsy Circus Orange Blossom is the runner-up for this month,
Next month I’ll stay home, and will feature some local New Jersey favorites, my usual ‘go-to’ ciders for everyday life. But I’m looking forward to my next road trip—whatever that might be—and the chance to try some interesting new brew.    


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