Hard cider is a fall favorite, but it screams summer, too

Apple picking is a quintessential part of many American autumns, stretching back to colonial days in orchards across the Mid-Atlantic and into New England. And for many, there’s nothing quite so refreshing or seasonally appropriate as a tall glass of cider after an afternoon of reaching, grasping and pulling the choicest fruit from the branches.

The tradition of drinking apple cider during apple harvest is a boon for cidermakers. It’s a core (pun intended) memory for many that can go back generations, and a charming activity orchards and cideries can tap into for a bump in seasonal sales.

“People are going to buy cider because they’re picking apples,” said David Glaize, a fourth-generation apple farmer and co-owner of Old Town Cidery and Glaize & Bro. Juice Company in Winchester, Virginia.

But while cider is, to many, inextricably tied to autumn, it also happens to be an ideal choice for hot summer days, said Matthew LaRubbio, co-owner of Western Cider in Missoula, Montana. “ (Cider) is usually a bright, light, bubbly beverage, and that’s what goes best in the summertime,” he said, explaining that while seeing apples picked might inspire someone to pick up a pint of cider, it really is a year-round beverage. “There’s no real reason for it to particularly fit in the fall,” he said.

Glaize and LaRubbio both point to cider’s crisp mouthfeel, light body, sessionable alcohol-by-volume, moderate carbonation and fruit backbone as characteristics of a classic summer drink. Plus, as consumers increasingly look for locally grown and locally made food and drink, ciders with local fruit added can scratch that itch, according to Glaize. He uses summer produce in several of Old Town’s ciders, including Virginia-grown raspberries for the Raspberry Rosé hard cider.

On the West Coast, where Washington has long led the country in apple production, cider has already begun to establish itself as the summer drink of choice for many. Adam Chinchiolo, founder and managing partner at Far West Cider Co. in Richmond, California, said the company’s biggest predictor of sales is the weather. “We can literally plot the sales with temperature,” he laughed, saying every degree the mercury rises means more cider sold. And anything rosé-inspired or with tropical fruit added, such as pineapple or guava, blends well with cider apples and fulfills consumers’ expectations of what summer drinks “should” taste like, he said.

Glaize agreed, noting that Old Town’s strawberry and peach ciders can be hard to keep in stock when the Virginia heat hits, thanks to their fruit-rich bodies, low ABV and effervescent finishes – ideal for summer sipping. “[Cider has] such a nice bite, it breaks the heat,” he said.

He said he believes the Virginia cider industry would do well to shift marketing campaigns from mid-November to the summer months to shake off cider’s only-in-autumn stereotype. “Virginia Cider Week, where we do the most promotion of cider in the state, is right in the middle of harvest season,” he pointed out. “People are already excited about apples. We need to do more promotion during [other] months.”

Spikes in cider consumption generally mirror other segment trends, like beer, that tend to rise in early summer, when alcohol consumption increases across all categories, and maintain popularity through the autumn months.

Between May 22, 2022, and April 23, 2023, the highest period of off-premise hard cider sales in the United States was a four-week stretch from June 20 to July 17, exceeding $43 million squarely in the middle of summer. The next best-selling period, just over $40.1 million, occurred between Oct. 10 to Nov. 16, during prime harvest time, according to Chicago-based market research firm Circana.

“Cider mimics beer really closely,” said Mary Mills, a consultant for 3 Tier Beverages, which works in partnership with NielsenIQ. “You actually see a pretty big spike in the summer holidays like Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day.” Glaize said this is true for Old Town, describing a jump in sales as summer starts, but “fall is more consistent, more steady.”

Summer hasn’t always been cider’s time to shine in the United States. Mills pointed to hard seltzer’s rise and subsequent fall in popularity as leaving a void ripe for cider to take its place. “(Hard seltzer) created opportunities, broadening people’s considerations of what they want to drink in that peak (summer) selling season,” she said.

Cider’s quest to become a summertime go-to began in earnest 10 years ago when the first World Cider Day launched on June 3, 2013, to celebrate the drink and raise awareness of its year-round appeal. But in some European countries with more established cider traditions, they’re working in the opposite direction – trying to get consumers interested in cider after summer.

In 2022, Little Pomona Orchard & Cidery in Herefordshire, England, launched the “Cider is Not Just for Summer” campaign in an attempt to entice consumers to enjoy cider even as a cold-weather beverage. Susanna Forbes, Little Pomona’s co-founder, said she hopes that the short window of summertime popularity eventually leads English consumers to stick with cider across every season, especially as an underused beverage to pair with holiday feasts.

In Spain’s Basque region, cider season officially begins in mid-January and runs through April or May. Known as txotx (pronounced “choach”), it’s a cultural celebration and invitation to partake in the region’s signature tart, dry and flat ciders poured in small amounts from great heights to invigorate bubbles and be gulped quickly. Many cider houses across the region are open only during this period, although there are a few that operate year-round.

These regional differences of consumer purchasing habits may be partially attributed to confusion between apple harvest season and cider-making months. Apple harvest in the United States tends to start in late summer and runs through autumn, depending on the region and apple varieties. But cider apples, unlike wine grapes, can be kept in cold storage for months or up to a year at a time, allowing cidermakers to make cider all year.

“We harvest apples in the fall, and people think apple growers are done when that’s done,” Glaize said. “But it’s a year-round job for me.” LaRubbio agreed, adding that certain ciders, including those that undergo the laborious Champagne process of fermentation, might not be ready for up to three years after harvest. Thanks to cold storage, both unprocessed apples and bottles waiting to mature can wait until the time is right, any time of year.

Cidermakers across the United States are beginning to see the fruits of their labor. “The cider consumer is evolving,” LaRubbio said. More people are trying cider, and more people are sticking with it.

The biggest hurdle the American cider industry faces, he said, is simply educating consumers on what cider actually is, regardless of when they first come across it. “But once you turn them onto it … it clicks pretty quick.”