Chicago Cider Week Presents: Why We Cider with Darlene Hayes
Cider is experiencing a renaissance in the US. Unbeknownst to the average American, before Germans immigrants changed beer drinking in the 1800s, we were a nation of cider drinkers. Due to a little thing called Prohibition, we lost our cider apples and thirsty citizens had to get their fix elsewhere and cider was relegated to the past. Lucky for us, cider is abundant and growing as an industry once more!
As tasty and fun as it is to drink cider is, we're just as excited to more people learning about cider. Whether that's its history here and abroad or how varied and different hard cider can be as a beverage, we love sharing cider knowledge.
Darlene Hayes is one of our featured educators and the subject of today's 30 second profile!
Darlene is a cider expert and author of Cider Cocktails — Another Bite of the Apple and has interviewed cidermakers. at home and abroad. She is a well regarded cider judge and teacher specializing in classes in cider appreciation, sensory perception training, and ciders of the world. Darlene also makes a bit of cider of her own from apples grown in her historic northern California orchard and writes about cider for various publications as well as at allintocider.com.
Get to know a little bit more about Darlene’s cider-loposhy below.
What cider would you introduce to someone who is new to cider and why?
Darlene Hayes: I would depend entirely on the person and what I know of their tastes in other drinks. For the beer drinker I’d probably start with one of the lighter, more sessional modern ciders such as Two Towns Ginja Ninja for the pilsner drinker, Reverend Nat’s Hallelujah Hopricot for the happier beer drinker, or something from Millstone Ciderworks for the sour beer fan. For the wine drinker I’d start with a heritage cider like Liberty Ciderworks Kingston Black or Porter’s Perfection single varietals, Uncle John’s Melded, or Eden Specialty Cider’s Dry Sparkling.
What do you wish was better understood about cider here in Chicago or the US in general?
DH: The astonishing variety of styles of beverage that come with the name “cider”. You can use the words “beer” or “wine” as a collective nouns while still understanding that the words embrace a many, many possibilities. It’s the same with cider, and there’s a cider style for every drinker.
What’s got you most excited about cider right now?
DH: For me, the most exciting thing happening in cider right now is how so many consumers are interested in expanding their knowledge and trying new things, whether it be a cider style they’ve not tried before or leaning about some of the ciders made in the historic cider making regions around the world. In fact, I’m going to be sharing ciders from the area around Frankfurt, Germany with a group of enthusiasts at Chicago Cider Week! It’s not a well known cider area, at least in this country, so it’s a real privilege for me to introduce Chicago cider drinkers to something unique and otherwise hard to find.
Join us for the Chicago Cider Week Education Series: The Apfelwein Traditions of Germany with Darlene Hayes. Tickets are $20 and can be purchased online. You can also follow Darlene on Facebook and Instagram at @allintocider.
