Our Apples

All the apples we use in our ciders are grown by local orchards using environmentally sustainable practices. In our own Eden Orchards, we grow over 50 biodynamically (naturally organic) varieties. We work with the same growers year after year in a long-term partnership; you can learn more about our growing partners here. Together we cope with what mother nature provides in the way of weather and help each other to ensure quality fruit and quality ciders.

When you buy our ciders, you are supporting all of us and our working landscape.

Explore Our Ciders

Apple Varieties

Cider makers classify apple varieties into 4 broad categories based on their level of tannin and acid. Many ciders are blends from all four categories, but in a few cases, individual apples have enough balance among these characters to create a single-variety cider – like our Northern Spy Ice Cider. With our growing partners, we foster apple trees in our local bioregion using holistic, sustainable agricultural practices. We make unique and innovative ciders, respecting the rare and expensive apples we use, and refrain from aggressive manipulation and industrial beer and wine processing techniques. It all starts with apples, and we’d love for you to learn more about these fantastic fruits.

Sharps

Characteristics: Low sugar, high acid, low tannins

Biting into a sharp apple is sometimes like sucking on a lemon – they’re highly acidic apples that balance out our sweet apples. Some sharp apples are juicy enough to eat off the tree, like Honeycrisp and Esopus Spitzenberg, but many are too dry and astringent for the grocery store. In cider, they lend layered aromas and citric flavors like pineapple, lemon, pear, and other tropical fruits.

Rubinette Apple

A balanced, delightful apple that doesn’t see grocery shelves because of it’s succeptability to perfectly harmless apple scab. Packed with intense tangerine flavoring with notes of vanilla and lemon – the Rubinette brightens every cider it joins.

Spartan Apple

The Spartan has a distinct almost wine like flavoring to it. The vinous flavors fade in storage so it’s best used right at peak ripeness – making it an ideal cider apple for Eden!

Winesap Apple

A vinous apple, the Winesap is aromatic and slightly bitter. Winesap became popular in the 1800s for it’s ability to grow in less rich soil and still produce lovely apples. This apple was widely available in stores across America until the advent of nitrogen storage, after which Winesap sales plummetted in favor of the Red Delicious.

Zabergau Reinette

Sweet, nutty, with notes of apricot the Zabergau Reinette originated in Germany and is quickly becoming popular in New England cideries.

Bittersharps

Characteristics: High acid, High tannins

The celebrities of the cider world, bittersharp apples like Kingston Black are balanced enough to create a single variety cider. Bittersharps are aromatic, and help balance out a cider.

Binet Rouge

A star of the cider community the Binet Rouge originated in France. A late and long bloomer, it thrives in our Vermont soil.

Kingston Black

Sweet, tart, bitter, and majestic Kingston Black is one of the very few apples that doesn’t need friends to make a delicious cider. The flavor profile starts with rosy flavors and ends in a smooth butternut – the veritable “it girl” of the cider world.

Sweets

Characteristics: High sugar, low acid, low tannins

Sweet apples are by and large the kind you find in grocery stores, but not all are suitable for cider making. When you’re making cider, the amount of sugar in the apple is very important. A sweet apple will create a sweeter cider and because the yeast used to ferment cider feeds on sugar – a sweeter apple blend will create a stronger cider. Cider makers calculate the percentage of sugar in juice in Brix, a measurement that calculates how much dissolved sugar is in a mixture. But sweetness in cider doesn’t only refer to the amount of sugar in a mixture. Perceived sweetness when drinking cider is also attributable to personal palates and fruitiness – a highly aromatic cider with lots of fruit flavor may taste sweeter than a cider that has a lot of acid and sweetness, since the acid balances out the sweetness in the mixture.

Roxbury Russet

The oldest American apple, the Roxbury Russet has been delighting the palate of New England with flavors of guava, honeysuckle, and cherry since the 1600s.

Sheep’s Nose

The “secret ingredient” for Scott Farm Ciders, Sheep’s Nose can taste like cloves to those with a particular recessive gene. A very dry apple Sheep’s Nose is an oddball even among the cider world.

Snowsweet

Snowsweet is a cold hardy variety with a rich, buttery sweetness and vinous notes.

St. Edmunds Russet

Another asian pear look alike, you need to pick St. Edmund’s Russet quickly as it comes and goes in only a couple of weeks. It has rich flavors of vanilla pudding and pear.

Bittersweets

Characteristics: Low acid, High tannins, High sugar

Bittersweet cider apples dry tasting apples without a lot of sharpness. Bittersweet apples add high sugar and high tannins to a cider. Tannins, as with grapes, are compounds found in the skin and flesh of a fruit. Tannins give your cider a bitter flavor and drying sensation in your mouth. Bittersweet apples lend a vinous, musky, and earthy quality to cider.

Muscadet de Dieppe

A cold hardy and vigorous tree this apple is used only for cider making. It lends flavors of melon and pear, producing a fruity but bitter juice.

Stembridge Cluster

Originating in Summerset, England this hardy apple has been adding it’s delightful flavor to ciders for many years. The resiling of the bittersweets, the Stembridge Cluster is aromatic, balanced, and bitter. One the favorites in our own holistic orchard.

Tremlett’s Bitter

An imposter apple the Tremlett’s Bitter was accidentally sold as another apple variety but was quickly favored due to it’s strawberry aroma and lovely sweet flavor.

Yarlington Mill

Aptly named after being found growing out of a water mill in Yarlington England. This highly popular English transplant is a star in the American cider making world. Clean fermenting, highly aromatic, with a hint of…bubblegum?