The drink that once fuelled America is being revived, as craft cider farms spring up all over New England. A perfect excuse to try some, says Pete Brown
One thing I've always loved about America is the way each state has a slogan of pride on car licence plates. New Hampshire's dramatic intent reads "Live free or die". Crossing over the border into Vermont, "The Green Mountain State" seems a little tame by comparison ? until you see those mountains rolling away into infinity, densely wooded and shaded with green and blue, and you realise that there's no need to be any more dramatic than that.
That green is merely their summer wear, though. From around the beginning of October until mid-November, these hills will be a blaze of orange, red and yellow ? the New England Fall, one of the most famous sights in nature.
But if travelling 3,000 miles to look at some nice trees strikes you as unjustifiable, I've discovered a deal changer.
The period between Labour Day (first Monday in September) and Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November) is apple season in the US. Traditionally, families take their kids to orchards to pick their own fruit, and buy fresh apple juice, doughnuts and irresistible apple pies. But in the last few years another apple-based attraction has started to grab headlines. The success of the UK's cider revival is being mirrored in the US, but in some ways the story in the States is far more dramatic. Saved from the point of total extinction, cider is now becoming a sought-after craft beverage, and starting to reclaim the importance it once had, as the drink America was built on.
Alongside Davy Crockett and Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed is one of the central figures of the nation's creation myth. According to American legend, this saintly wanderer planted orchards on the frontier to feed the pioneer families that arrived. But the truth is that Johnny's apple seeds were gathered from Pennsylvania's cider mills. The fruit from the trees he planted was inedible, but made good cider ? a clean, sanitary drink in a place where fresh water may not have been available, that also gave a warming buzz in a brutal life.
In the late 19th century, Temperance campaigners took axes to Appleseed's cider trees, and with Prohibition from 1919, America's apple growers appropriated the word "cider" for the fresh, unfermented apple juice. After Prohibition there was something nasty that came in six packs called "hard cider", which held little appeal for the mass market.
But in a country that in the past three decades has mastered both fine wines and excellent craft beer, it was only a matter of time before cider was rediscovered. In the Great Lakes and New England, apple growers, wine makers and craft brewers are all converging on cider as the Next Big Thing. Magazines are celebrating it, and Manhattan's top restaurants are stocking it on their wine lists. And from a small base, cider volumes are growing 25% year on year.
I travelled there in September to tour the producers and learn more about the dramatic rebirth of US craft cider. This trip requires a car, really ? and an agreement over sharing the driving ? but the jaw-dropping scenery means the long journeys between stops are never boring.
New York State, and the New England states of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, are dotted with craft cider makers, and more are springing up all the time. What separates them from many of their English counterparts is that they welcome visitors. Some are wineries that have diversified, others are family orchards, and others still buy apples in for brand new cider mills that invariably come with a shop and a tasting room attached.
My trip took in several cider makers, with two or three hours' drive between each. I started at Farnum Hill Cider and Poverty Lane Orchards (+1 603 448 1511, povertylaneorchards.com), in Lebanon, New Hampshire, two hours from Boston (where I flew to) ? a beautiful old farmstead with high gabled barns, and orchards overlooking green valleys that have barely changed since the first white settlers arrived. It is run by Steve Wood, widely considered the godfather of modern American craft cider, whose ciders sell in New York City restaurants and at the cheery farm shop on site. Packaged in 750ml cork and wire sealed bottles, they're clearly positioned against wine rather than beer. Crisp and cool, sparkling and structured, they're a perfect low-alcohol substitute to accompany food.
Next I headed north, to Eden Ice Cider (+1 802 895 2838, edenicecider.com) in the town of West Charleston, north Vermont. Ice cider is made by freezing apple juice prior to fermentation: this concentrates the sugars to create a stronger drink that's vibrant while young, acquires warm, mellow, honey notes as it ages, and trounces dessert wine at its own game. As we tasted, we watched porcupines and wild turkeys venture out of the woods to munch fallen apples. Eden is not set up as a family visitor centre, but this was entertainment enough.
Slyboro Ciderhouse (+1 518 642 1788, slyboro.com) in Granville, a Welsh-settled community in New York state, has welcomed people to pick their own fruit for more than 100 years. The beautiful new winery and tasting room (cider is classed as wine under state law) catches and turns people as they leave the well-stocked farm shop, and the farm runs tastings and cheese-matching sessions throughout the day.
You could be less ambitious with the driving and visit places that are closer together. Along Vermont's Highway 89, for example, every highway rest stop is full of leaflets suggesting taste trails (see vermontagriculture.com), and there are plenty of B&Bs and inns. Those familiar with the British B&B experience would recognise the price only: these "B&Bs" are palatial wooden edifices, brightly painted with towers and long verandahs, with names like Applehill and Applebutter. They nestle in pretty streets alongside cafes, bookshops and restaurants in the small towns and villages such as Sherburne and Burlington in Vermont, whose proximity to both the Green Mountains' blazing glory and the beautiful Lake Champlain make them popular places for New Yorkers to get the buzz out of their system.
In the evenings, when the day's driving is done, and accompanied by few of the best bottles from each cidery, you would retreat to one of those long wooden verandahs, to sit outside and listen to the crickets, and watch the trees as they take on the rich, vibrant colours of the cider itself.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2011/sep/23/cider-trail-new-england-usa
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