2020 (and now 2021) certainly don’t make having fun easy! So we decided to help with that.
I’ve been dabbling in virtual tastings this past fall and it’s been a lot of fun. Come February, celebrate your bestie or your love with a night of cider and chocolate. We have two virtual tastings on the calendar - February 11th and 13th! Pick the day that works best for you and sign up!
When Talia and Colleen from Behind The Rind did their in-person cheese and cider tasting in February, they left that evening super inspired. They decided to start a podcast about cider and cheese but COVID put the brakes on it for a while.
This week, they finally launched their podcast!
Check out From Apples To Fromage. It's a journey into cheese and cider, how to pair them together, and just a good time hanging out with a 'curd nerd' and an 'apple nerd.' Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts!
This moment in time is unprecedented. Honestly, it needs no introduction and no flowery language. As we face a community health crisis, we face an economic one as well. When the dust settles and the last patients leave the hospital, our community will not look the same. As small business owners, we face a very challenging time. We want to be here when everyone comes out of isolation. We want to support our amazing employees in this moment. We want to see our friends in the hospitality industry thrive.
So, I really didn’t keep up on my blogging this past year for the cidery… but I meant to! In fact, Megan (our tasting room manager) even gave me writing prompts and ideas… but I have just been too busy. Our tiny newborn has grown into a very independent little girl full of her own opinions. Our young son started to ask every night “let’s talk about the cider business.” (No joke… he’s 4.5 and even he knows we have a lot going on!!)
We have met amazing people in our tasting room and at events. We’ve been invited to pour cider in the middle of a farm field, in an abandoned warehouse, next to a ski slope, and in a tiny hotel room with all the legends of our industry. As someone very well-known in our industry said to Dan last year at CiderCon - he really didn’t f*ck up those apples.
We were especially busy over the late spring through summer. Here’s a quick recap (of just the late spring/summer). We:
Did in-store tastings with Pearl Wine Company, Boulder Wine Merchant, and The Cellar at The Milk Market.
Poured at the Pressed Fest in Longmont.
Traveled to GLINTCAP and won the most gold medals of any commercial cidery in the WORLD.
Hosted a cider and cookie pairing with Good Sugar Baking and a cider and cheese pairing with Mondo Market.
Did staff education with a number of our wholesale accounts.
Took countless meetings adding nine new wholesale accounts to our company.
Served our ciders at an exquisite dinner with Mondo Market in the Stanley Marketplace.
Did two events at Slow Foods Nation - This Is Cider, a panel with three other cider makers and our apple grower, and Meet Your Maker, an intimate salon with Steve Ela and Dan drinking and talking.
Dan talked to Ira Flatow of Science Friday about historic Boulder apples and how you should drink them to save them.
Did a dinner with our Colorado Springs account - Juniper Valley Ranch (GO! Try their fried chicken. It's amazing).
Poured cases of cider in the middle of a field at Fruition Farms Creamery at a dinner hosted by Outstanding In The Field - It was a spectacular event!
Dan travelled to DC to launch our brand there at ANXO - an exceptional Basque style restaurant that serves incredible cider and amazing food.
And that was just the summer! Since then, we partnered with The Buffalo Theory and Via Alba for an awesome dinner IN the cidery (it was incredible), hosted a bunch of private events, study classes, and parties. We did a paired dinner at both Bird and Jim and Mercantile. Plus many more in-store tastings and conversations with lots of you all!
This year, in our tasting room, we sold 3700 bottles of cider (300 more bottle than last year!), 1350 flights, 3600 glasses of cider. And we had 2000 customers come join us in the tasting room (many of you multiple times)! We added 30+ new wholesale accounts around the Denver/Boulder area (plus one in DC!) and DOUBLED our club members.
WHEW! It was a heck of a year. And all thanks to you, our customers. Please join us on Saturday February 1, 2019 from 5-10pm (only) to celebrate. Dan and I are looking forward to it!
Join us for our second anniversary party!
2/1/2020 from 5-10pm
Special menu for the party including a rose on tap!
Special library release bottles (limit 1 per person - many are very SMALL quantities!)
Celebrate two awesome years with Dan and Talia!
This is a question we are asked constantly. And it's probably the hardest question to answer. How do you describe how it all came together?
First of all - when we did start making cider, in our tiny living room in our townhouse in Stapleton, we never dreamed we would build it into a business. It was just a fun hobby that we enjoyed pursuing and a tasty drink that we enjoyed drinking.
The first time we heard about Arcana, we knew it was a restaurant we wanted our cider in. For one, they have one of (if not THE) best cider lists in town. We knew these people really GET cider. They have some excellent and interesting ciders on their menu. But it wasn't only their appreciation for cider that caught our attention - their focus on early-American food history and the hyper local focus on ingredients really jives with our approach.
