The bourbon barrel-aged semi-sweet hard cider is part of Blake’s Hard Cider’s Kinder Series, ciders that stand for kindness and are paired with nonprofits that share the same morals and values as BHC. Saint Cheri is paired with the Empowerment Plan, which employs and trains homeless single parents to manufacture a garment that serves as both a coat and a sleeping bag. These coats are then distributed back to homeless individuals across the globe, at no cost to them.

Saint Cheri is made with Michigan-grown Montmorency cherries and features a slight tartness upfront but smooth finish. A seasonal cider with 6.9% ABV, Saint Cheri will be available from early November through March and is available on draft and sold in 12-ounce six-pack cans in 19 states and throughout Blake’s distribution footprint.

“Saint Cheri was one of our most popular ciders last year and we are excited to bring it back for the second year and continue supporting the vital work done through the Empowerment Plan,” said Andrew Blake, owner and founder of Blake’s Hard Cider. “The Blake family and BHC have always been dedicated to giving back to our community and helping those who need it most.”

“We are grateful for the continued partnership with Blake’s Hard Cider. Through their generous donations last year, we were able to provide job readiness training and distribute our unique coat/sleeping bag to many throughout the nation experiencing homelessness,” said Veronika Scott, CEO and founder, Empowerment Plan.

Source: Blake’s Hard Cider

Inspired by Blake’s Farms hand-dipped cider mill caramel apples, Caramel Apple is a dessert-like semi-sweet hard cider and marries smooth caramel sweetness with tart green apples. Apple Lantern pairs the refreshing taste of hand-picked apples with the oven-roasted richness of pumpkin creating a crisp and perfectly spiced hard cider. The hard ciders feature 6.5% ABV.

Lantern flavors five years ago exclusively in the Blake’s Tasting Room on the farm in Armada, Michigan, a popular destination for autumn activities. Always a fan-favorite, every year both flavors have sold out within the first few weeks.

“Growing up on the farm in Michigan, cider has always been synonymous with cool fall days, tailgates with friends, bonfires and pumpkin carving,” said Andrew Blake, owner of BHC. “Our Caramel Apple and Apple Lantern hard cider flavors bring fall to you and evoke those childhood memories. These flavors have been extremely popular at the orchard’s tasting room for years. We listened to our fans and are now proud to share them with the rest of America.”

Like Blake’s full line of hard ciders, Caramel Apple and Apple Lantern are all-natural and gluten-free made from a five-apple blend of fresh-pressed Michigan apples grown and harvested on Blake’s Orchard with no artificial flavorings or sweeteners.

Blake’s Caramel Apple and Apple Lantern flavors will be available in 6-packs of 12 oz cans or ⅙-½ BBL. The ciders are sold throughout the company’s 15 state footprint through Blake’s Hard Cider distribution partners and at most major independent stores and grocery chains.

Source: Blake’s Hard Cider

Free Spirits, with the HQ in Tel Aviv, is an innovative independent craft beverage importer and distributor. The founders, industry veterans David Zats and Asaf Ivanir, have assembled together a world-class portfolio of international craft brands such as Ocho Tequila, Mancino Vermouths, G’vine Gin, Tempus Fugit and WhistlePig and a wide selection of premium rums.

Free Spirits’ owners commented: “The cider as a category has all the credentials to tap into the trends towards natural and craft, yet the Israeli cider market remains to be dominated by concentrate based and sugar-filled industrial products. There is a real void for a genuinely high-quality, 100% natural and organic cider offers – and this is exactly why we are so excited to introduce Galipette Cidre to the Israeli consumers.’’

Cider Supply Company’s Ilkka Soini said: ‘’The cider market is gathering momentum in Israel as consumers are getting familiar with the more refreshing alternative to beer. We are excited to partner with Free Spirits and are confident that the Israeli consumers, both female and male, are ready to discover what the real cider, made of 100% pure juice, has to offer.’’

Source: Galipette Cidre

1. What’s the story behind Armada Cider 1588? How did you come up with the idea of the cider brand?

The original apple cider which we have replicated was once made by King Philip II (Rey Felipe II) of Spain under his “Imperial cider” brand. He was the instigator of the “Invincible Spanish Armada” from 1588. My Father had this recipe/ownership document in his family and when he died in 2010 it was always in the back of my mind to replicate the cider and the story having spent many years myself selling various alcoholic brands including ciders in the British touristic market here in Mainland Spain, Canaries, Balearics and Portugal.

The story goes that King Felipe II put 300 small Imperial hundred weight casks of our natural apple “Craft Apple” cider on his lead ships to celebrate the victory over the English and the re-establishment of the Catholic Faith (and possible wedding with Elizabeth I). But of course because of bad weather and Sir Francis Drake’s battle tactics the 130 ship strong Spanish Armada was forced to escape from Calais back to Spain via Scotland and the Faroe islands and down the west coast of Ireland. However due to severe bad storms, 24 of the ships were sunk and wrecked on the Irish coast near the County of Sligo, Galway, Grange and “Spanish Point” and the casks together with the potato arrived for the first time to Ireland rescued from the lower decks of the Armada ships in September of 1588! It’s an incredible story!

2. Armada Cider 1588 is a cider line with 3 different flavors. Can you tell us more about each? Which one is your favorite?

Our goal is to succeed in both the apple but also the new emerging fruit cider sectors. No other brand until now has been able to cross over between both sectors and also offer credible liquids at the same time (classic cider sector being apple and/or pear and fruit cider sector being classic cider flavoured with black currants, strawberries etc.). Armada Cider 1588 ticks all the boxes; the refreshing taste, the colour, the smell, the history and the marketing plan, no one can touch us for quality and originality.

My personal favourite is the Black Currants SKU mixed with wild strawberries but also black carrot juice! Ever heard of a cider with black carrot juice? Well now you have, yet another point of uniqueness to our brand.

3. Creating a beverage line can be a challenge. What kind of difficulties have you faced?

Creating a brand from an idea has been a huge personal challenge. Putting into practice experience from the last 25 years helped but wasn’t enough either. Pooling together ideas from all people around us, brainstorming as we call it is the key. From the name to the logo to the liquids to the packaging to the product sourcing to the route to market to the end consumer to the publicity and Marketing to the website… to the …to the… Everything had to be thought of from “Scratch”! It has been a brilliant learning curve and we are still learning!

There have been many anecdotes; one regarding the logo itself will always stick in my mind. We had several ideas from different professional designers but something wasn’t quite right when I looked back at the finished images individually. The answer was to cut up all the logos into parts and play around with them like a jigsaw and finally there it was a mixture of 3 different logos made into one!

4. Where can consumers purchase this beverage?

We are slowing creating a niche for ourselves in the Spanish market edging ourselves in with all the top mainstream leading brands here in Spain. We are currently selling in approx 100 outlets across the 7 islands in the Canaries, but also another 200 outlets in Catalonia and Malaga.

We have introductory plans for Alicante and the Balearic Islands & Algarve Portugal this year 2019.

In the UK we are currently selling in the Brighton and Hove area in 20+ outlets. We have sold into Genova in Italy as well but we also have prearrangement for exports with a dozen countries which we are talking to right now so watch this space over the next coming months fingers crossed!

5. Being unique is the key to success. What makes Armada Cider 1588 differ in the beverage market?

We are a semi-sweet but also semi dry cider.

We are gluten free, why? Because we don’t add caramel additives or burnt sugar compounds which might contain traces of gluten. We don’t add any sugars or sweeteners either. Cider can be 10-15 teaspoons of added sugar per 500ml bottle so 50-60g! Ones daily limit of added sugar as an adult is 30g on everything we eat and drink!

We are Vegan friendly why? Because we don’t use animal gelatin or egg whites in the filtration process. These are 2 elements commonly used to filter wine albeit apple or grape and although they don’t mix with the liquids they come into contact with them.

We have EEKosher certification. This is yet another quality control in the cidery of non-contamination of raw materials. Our apple cider is 85% apple juice, part fermented to make the cider and part filtered to give back a semi sweet edge to the finished cider. Ciders can be as little as 35% apple juice, just enough to be able to call it cider in fact.

We are the only brand of alcohol we believe on the planet who dares to put the nutritional values in the labeling! How many calories in an alcoholic drink! 45 or 49 calories per 100ml as opposed to 90-150 calories per 100ml, if the label doesn’t say then now you know why.

Even the sulphites in our cider are not added sulphites! The potassium sorbate and the potassium metabisulphite are naturally occurring during the apple wine fermentation process and not added posterior to fermentation!

And now the World Revelation News. We use what is known as “6 point anchored water” in our mix! Ever heard of this? Why is a snow flake always drawn with 6 main spikes? Why not 4 spikes or 8 spikes? What is the connection with the molecular structure of water, the human body and ultimately our cider? Has anyone ever stopped for a second to question this phenomenon about snowflakes and water molecules? Every human cell has 6 anchor points! This allows the spikes of the water to lodge and anchor themselves into the cell and so hydrate us! Unfortunately the water we drink from the tap and even most bottled waters only have 2 or 3 spikes activated.

The other spikes are withered and disabled as it were – we are drinking disabled water!! Ever noticed how some snowfalls stick together better than others to make snowballs? It is all to do with how many activated spikes there are. The more spikes there are the better the snow sticks together! Now you know.

On our planet there are very few places that have naturally occurring 6 spiked water but one of the places is where we make our cider, very high mineral and super low sodium deep well water t’boot! Ultimately what does drinking 6 spiked water mean? Well better hydration for one thing, we sweat less and can absorb more corporal body heat! The benefits of this we don’t need to go into here but they are numerous!

Of old we still see some cider brands putting too much added sugars and actually putting now recently artificial sweeteners into their liquids. This is not the way to go. More natural juice and reduce the added sugars and just get used to the natural sweetness is the key. When you eat or drink something sweet your body doesn’t know if it is a naturally occurring sugar, a refined sugar or an artificial sweetener, it throws out insulin whatever to deal with the sweetness triggered by your taste buds.

3 years ago me the co-Owner of Armada Cider 1588 just a few days before my 50th snapped a bicep picking up a 30 litre keg in the warehouse. The most horrendous injury that you can’t imagine! An Agro Bio Engineer friend who works for a corn transformation Corporate and specializing in corn syrup transformations and its effect on the human body told me that this was due to the”Insulin Effect”. My reaction of “what do you mean mate”? was met with mind blowing info which is being swept under the carpet from the end consumer.

The issue is Insulin not necessarily the sweeteners themselves although their medium to long term consumption effects are still relatively unknown. He documented that unabsorbed insulin which can’t deal with some refined sugars and artificial sweeteners just goes around your body trying to find the sweetness, eventually it gives up and becomes stagnant within your muscles. Stagnant insulin behaves similar to a lactic acid and over a period of time turns your muscles “brittle”! This is not scaremongering this is real documented science I’ve seen it with my own eyes and also heard it from the horse’s mouth. So if you do physical work or exercise you are more likely to tear a muscle and injure yourself!

Not only this but wait for it, over a period of time unabsorbed insulin transforms into the nearest substance resembling wood fiber! This just blew me away and is yet another reason and inspiration to push against the use of too much added sugars and artificial sweeteners. Let it just be said that we are the true Pioneers in our cider sectors!

6. Every milestone is very important. What would you say is Armada Cider 1588 biggest achievement so far?

The recognition by market leading Corporate Companies regarding our brand’s quality after only 2 years in the market is a great achievement. We just started this last week selling Spain wide in the prestigious Spanish retailer “El Corte Ingles”(120 outlets!). We have also had positive interest to be listed in the biggest national chains too with over 3,500 outlets! Just need to add cans to our portfolio and we will be listed!

7. What advice would you had given yourself before you started out in the beverage business?

No new advice here really to be given only keep going and doing what you are doing! Keep your ego down and your respect level high! Keep listening to those around you, keep following the market trends and try to predict the future tendencies ahead of the rest! Never compromise on quality but above all be patient, Trust that what is to come will come at the right moment!

For more information visit Armada Cider 1588 website.

Blake’s Rainbow Seeker is a delicious specialty cider featuring a semi-sweet blend of Michigan-grown apples infused with real pineapple and a hint of sage. The all-natural, gluten-free cider features a 5.5% ABV and it arrives in stores in May across all 19 states of Blake’s distribution footprint. Customers can find the tropical cider in most Midwest Meijer locations and all Michigan Kroger’s. Proceeds from Rainbow Seeker, the first of Blake’s Kinder Cider Series, will fund a $40,000 direct donation to advance civil rights and equality programs spearheaded by HRC. The cider will flow from taps across Blake’s footprint on Friday, April 27.

“Rainbow Seeker is the first installment in what I believe is a kinder cider platform for Blake’s,” said Andrew Blake, owner and founder of Blake’s Hard Cider. “Our brand has grown quickly, and with that evolution comes opportunity to make a difference and to bring awareness to social and environmental issues that have great personal and communal meaning. As with everything we do at Blake’s, we’ll do what we believe is right.”

Rainbow Seeker will be sold in 12-ounce cans in six-pack form and on draft throughout Blake’s distribution network for the duration of the summer. Each six pack has a suggested retail price of $10.99 – $11.99 per with a portion of program proceeds going directly to HRC. The brand is currently sold in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Kentucky, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey and Florida. It will be launching in Virginia and Washington D.C. this Spring.

The HRC is America’s largest civil rights organization. Its three million members and supporters work to advance a future where LGBTQ people are ensured of their basic equal rights, and can be open, honest and safe at home, at work and in the community.

“We are grateful to Andrew and the Blake’s team for their generous support of LGBTQ equality,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “This is a fun concept that we can all embrace, yet it comes at a serious moment in time when we are working harder than ever to push back against anti-equality sentiment.”

Blake’s will partner with distributors, retailers, restaurant and bar partners to host events during June Gay Pride Month and in the fall for National Coming Out Day.

“We’ll produce 120,000 cans and we’ll distribute those cans to 19 states,” said Blake. “We see it as 120,000 great opportunities to encourage people to be kind, support equality and simply be good to one another.”

Rainbow Seeker is the first installment of the Blake’s Hard Cider Co. Kinder Cider Series – a series that will bring awareness to social and environmental issues that directly impact Blake’s small farm community. If you would like to get involved in this movement, visit blakeshardcider.com/donate.

Source: Blake’s Hard Cider

Van Bieren, with HQ in Utrecht, is an innovative and fast-growing independent craft beer importer, distributor and retailer, representing both Dutch and international craft beer brands such as Sweetwater, Brouwerij De Molen and The Flying Dutchman.

CSCo’s Ilkka Soini commented: ‘’Cider category has started to gather momentum in the Netherlands over the past few years. We are therefore excited to announce our entry to the Dutch market today in partnership with Van Bieren and their passionate and talented team.”

“Van Bieren’s unique omni-channel business model and innovative route-to-market are providing Galipette with an ideal platform to execute against our on-trade led seeding strategy. While the consumer trends are shifting towards natural and craft, the Dutch cider market remains to be dominated by artificially sweet, concentrate based industrial products – it is our believe that the Dutch consumers, both female and male, are ready to discover what the real cider, made of 100% natural pure juice, has to offer as an alternative.’’

Van Bieren’s Jeroen Welten said: ‘’Galipette Cidre sets a new standard for the cider category with its pure juice offering. The product is not only clean from added sugar, artificial sweeteners and concentrate, but it also delivers the unmistakable, natural taste of real apple. Demand for natural and organic products by the increasingly conscious and knowledgeable consumers have never been higher, which is exactly why we believe that Galipette range offers us – and indeed our trade customers – a hugely relevant commercial proposition.’’

Source: Galipette

DCNBeers, with HQ in Porto, is regarded as the leading independent craft and speciality beer importer and distributor in Portugal, representing brands such as Duvel, Grolsch, Erdinger, Staropramen, Boulevard and Birra Del Borgo.

CSCo Managing Director Ilkka Soini, who has recently joined from the drinks giant Diageo, commented: ‘’We are excited to announce our long term agreement today with the DCNBeers. The tremendous work they have done over the years to create the international premium and craft beer market in Portugal is truly impressive. DCNBeers are the ideal partner for Galipette Cidre as we are entering the market to challenge the incumbents of the category by bringing new, exciting and quality news into cider.”

DCNBeers Managing Director Pedro Pimenta said: ‘’The cider as a category has all the credentials to tap into the trends towards natural and craft, yet the Portuguese cider market remains to be dominated by concentrate based and sugar-filled industrial products. There is a real void for the genuinely high-quality and 100% natural pure juice cider offers, and we are delighted to fill that void by setting a new quality standard for the category with the Galipette Cidre product range’’.

Source: Galipette Cidre

Tell us the story of Opre’ Cider.

Well, the story of Opre’ starts back in spring 2013. I just returned home from marketing internship in Cape Town. I have a tradition that wherever I travel I try to bring local cider and products home. That time brought south african Savanna Dry cider for my brother and he just loved it. We got curious how cider is made and whether we would be able to produce it on our own. We saw an opportunity to make the first cider ever in Slovakia and decided to give it a try and start our own company. We are in business for 3 years already. I’m in charge of marketing & sales and my brother who is a biologist is the main cider maker. This is I think perfect combination that works very well inside the company.

There are three different flavours in the Opre’ line. Are you planning to release more flavours? If so, what kinds?

We started with classic apple cider, later released dry hopped cider with help of our friend homebrewer Padre Craft Brews. Last year we introduced Perry made from 100% pear juice. We are planing to introduce one more product and that should be enough for educating Slovak consumers about cider culture.

Besides cider, we are currently working on a new craft herbal lemonades sweetened only by honey.  We plan to fill a gap in Slovakia for crafted non-alcoholic beverages.

Right now, Opre’ Ciders are available in Denmark, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic. Are you planning to spread distribution further in the near future?

We also just started selling in Estonia and there is Austria too. Currently we are in contact with a distributor in the Netherlands and we are also testing market in China. All current contacts found and contacted us which is an important element of our company. Instead of knocking on people’s door we are making quality products and customers are searching for us.

Opre’ has a nice packaging design. However, Opre’ Hoppy is the one caught my eye and my heart. Why astronaut cats?

When I was studying in Denmark, I met a great estonian designer Kärt Koosapoeg from EETER. They created a visual identity for Opre’ in a simple and modern way. Crazy product such is our dry hopped cider Hoppy deserves a crazy design. Astronaut cats were inspired by old Czechoslovak cartoon “Pa & Pi” which we transformed into “Hop & Py” and everyone just loves it.

Every road to success has its own downfalls. What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since you first started Opre’?

The biggest challenge was to even start. We started our cider business when I was 21 and my brother was just 19 while we were both full-time at universities. We managed to get the right recipe for cider, find financing, create a business & marketing plan, establish a company, set up own production and introduce Opre’ Cider in Slovakia. We didn’t have any investors or mentors and we financed the whole beginning  with student loans and own savings.

Another challenge was to overcome the period before breakeven. We learnt most of the experience by doing mistakes and trying again and again. Once we purchased a capping machine from China which was a terrible mistake that costed us lots of time and finances. Overall I would say that we face challenges every day and how we react to them defines where we get.

Before starting Opre’ Cidery, what did you do in your life?

I was studying Marketing & Business Administration at Aalborg University in Denmark and didn’t know what to do with my life after school. Before I tried to travel every time I had an opportunity and enjoyed my life to the fullest. My brother was just studying biology. We are just writing our life story.

Every positive reaction to your product must be very heartwarming for you. Can you tell us about the most pleasant feedback you’ve received about Opre’?

We are very happy when we hear positive feedback about our products. What most satisfies me is when our loyal customers that were among the first one are still buying our cider and sharing with their friends. Also I’m very happy when I see customers trying our cider for first time and seeing their surprised face that even they didn’t expect to taste so good.

What is your advice to other beverage startups?

One advice that I recommend for every beverage start up is to think about how to you spend your finances. We always ask this question: “Can we make it ourselves cheaper?”. And the answer might surprise you. For example my brother has a talent to create a machine out of nothing. Once we needed a filling machine and the cheapest ones costed about 5000€. He googled “how to make a filling machine” and watched some youtube videos, went to DIY shop and bought materials and made the whole filling machine that works perfect until now. It just costed 150€. We applied it for our machinery and since then my brother made rinsing, filling, carbonating, shaking, pasteurizing and labelling machine himself. If we had to finance all this machines we would be in deep debt or not here at all.

Another advice is to have generic growth. We see it in Slovakia with some startups that got an investor didn’t end up well. We are avoiding investors and want to keep it as family business and have total control over what we do and how we do it.

Running a beverage business is not easy job but if you love what you and work hard for it the results will show soon or later.

For more information visit Opre’ Cider website.

Opre’ Perry

A light, low alcohol cider made by fermenting pear juices. This drink has a beautiful amber colour and is crystal clear. Just after opening the bottle, you can smell the sweetness of pear with a hint of sourness coming from the fermentation. The taste is sweet but not irritating; you can definitely feel sweetness coming from the pears. Slight natural carbonation provides a slight kick. The alcohol level is only 3.1% vol., so it is best suitable for women. The label on the bottle is very informative: clean and white, with a stylish picture of a pear.

Opre’ Hoppy

This is a dry hopped cider. According to the producers: “cold hopping of Galaxy hops in apple cider makes it. Hop addition enriched the cider with passion fruit and peaches notes”. The beverage is definitely something unique. The aroma of the cider is much stronger the Perry. You can smell the fruity notes from the hops, which combines well with the characteristic flavour of apple cider. Hoppy is a sour and dry cider. The main note in the flavour is apple, and the fruity notes come after a while; the taste is very well balanced. The alcohol level is 4.3 % vol. The beautiful and creative label shows two cats, which is exciting.

Apple Cider

Immediately after opening the bottle, you can smell fermented sweet apple. The apple note is present in the aroma. You can taste the flavour of real fermented apple cider, with strong fermentation notes and a sourness and fizziness. The sweetness of the apple and the sourness are very beautifully connected, and overall the taste is very well balanced. Regarding the colour, it is a characteristic clear gold shade. The label on the bottle is very informative and has a picture of an apple, so the consumer will not be confused about what type of cider this is. The alcohol content is the highest in the line: 4.7% vol.

In conclusion, the whole line does not scream ‘trend’; it is tasteful and tasty, but also provides the picture of a high-quality product. It is definitely worth trying out. The cider will match anyone’s taste, from a sophisticated woman to a cider lover. As the producers state: “Best served ice cold! Cheers!”

For more information visit Opre website.