The Legend of the Cider Sisters

“Reader’s Digest” Condensed Version:

We make great cider and have since 2013.

Extended Play Version:

Once upon a time, three friends gathered to produce their favorite drink: hard cider. All had enjoyed the beverage, once so rare and hard to find, at various times and locales: one delighted in the drink as a student at Oxford University in the 1980’s and later at University College, Cork; one divined the delicious drink during a year spent painting rooftops in France; and one had the experience of enjoying Spanish cider with the actual makers of the product. Cider was becoming more prevalent in the marketplace, but the friends wanted something more delicious, less sweet, and more akin to the flavors they associated with the European drinks they had so enjoyed.

After rushing to try every new cider that debuted, these 3 thought to themselves, “We can do better than that.”

They began to meet regularly, gathering information and knowledge, next putting their craft to work. They were lucky to live in a land ripe with delicious apples and began to create their own beverage. They played with different combinations of juice, yeast, temperature and time, allowing the delicious elixir to develop on its own. They became Sisters of the cider.

It turns out these 3 sisters  shared a talent for helping the apple juice reach its ultimate incarnation as a dry, crisp cider. They forged a bond  as Sisters of the Cider. The cider they made was very, very good.

The Tale of the Lost Carboy

One day the sisters were busy tasting cider and making cider and cleaning up after cider. The sister who kept the records asked, “Where’s that one carboy of the really good cider?” A carboy, as you may well know, is the large glass flagon in which many delicious liquids are brewed, among them hard cider. The really good cider was the best they had made to date, a crowning glory of the fermentation process, and the cider that they most wished to replicate going forward.

There was a pause.

“We bottled that one already,” said one sister.

But they looked and there were no bottles.

“It’s still maturing in the cellar,” said another sister.

They looked for it in the cellar, but it was not there.

“I think it’s on the steps,” said a sister.

There was no carboy on the stairs.

The sisters looked high and low for this particular elixir, but there was no carboy to be found. Had it been taken, spirited away to be enjoyed by unknown others? Where oh where could it be?

As the search went on, the carboy and its contents took on an almost mythical stature. It had been the perfect cider, all of their labors come to fruition, and now it was gone. The carboy was lost, never to be seen again.

But the sisters had the next best thing:

They had the recipe.

We honor that Lost Carboy with each batch of our original dry sparkling cider.