As Faith reminded us a few weeks ago, hard cider was the true drink of the early American settlers. How appropriate for Thanksgiving! And as it so happens, we also think that hard cider would pair particularly well with the turkey and all our favorite Thanksgiving sides. Do you have a hard cider to recommend?
The hard ciders we've tried all have a similar effervescent quality and slight sourness that really wake up our taste buds. When we're eating a lot of rich and heavy foods, this is the kind of quality we want - something that freshens our palate and get us ready for the next bite of turkey with stuffing!
Ciders also tend to have a lot of caramel and fruit flavors that compliment the roasted flavors in the meat, the dried fruit in the stuffing, and the sweet flavors in all those Thanksgiving pies! They are also interesting and complex enough to enjoy on their own either before or after the meal.
With hard cider making a resurgence, we've had a lot of luck finding locally made bottles. Try to find a wine-seller that specializes in unique finds and ask if they have or could find you some local hard cider. Look for the word "dry" on the label - this will indicate a drink that is (theoretically) less sweet and more suited for drinking with meals.
We also recently tried an organic hard cider from Samuel Smith that we liked quite a bit. It was still rather sweet, but had a nice sour twang and a pleasant fizz on the tongue.
What hard ciders have you tried and liked recently?
Related: Alternative to Apple: Anyone Making Pear Sauce?
(Image: Flickr member Jo Jakeman licensed under Creative Commons)
5 Things Paris Taught Me About Travel
Recipe: Ham, Cheddar & Chive Egg Bakes
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Bacsac Bacsquare 04...
Apartment Therapy's Sofa Shopping Guide
Nikki’s Sweet and Cheery Print Studio
ooo - this sounds like a fun option for Turkey day! i'll have to pick some up!
We like our local Blue Mountain Cider Company (they have a website and ship by the bottle, 1/2 case, or full case). They make a few different apples--sweet, dry, and in between. Plus Cranberry hard cider, that would be perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But the best? A Cherry hard cider that tastes JUST like cherry pie. Yum!
I love Johnny Mash hard cider and Furnacebrook Winery's French style cidre, made in the Berkshires. It's available in Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.
You can order online too: http://www.furnacebrookwinery.com/wineshop.html
Hard Core Cider, from Cincinnati, Ohio.
I just make my own...bottled up a batch of holiday cider flavored with citrus, ginger, clove, nutmeg, cinnamon and maple syrup
Ooh, Woodpecker if you can find it or Strongbow. Yum!
Two Rivers Cider from Sacramento, CA. The Pomegranate cider is THE BOMB!
You can find them here:
http://www.tworiverscider.com/
Eric Bordelet, a former Parisian sommelier, makes exquisite, bone-dry Normandy apple and pear ciders:
http://www.ericbordelet.com/
Cooked with cider last night- Nigella's pork chops with cider/cream/mustard sauce and gnocchi. Yum
Spire from Washington State is awesome. Their spiced hard cider is the best, but they also make plain apple cider and pear cider.
I won't be serving hard cider, but there is some in my brine and I reduced some into a syrup for my gravy.
J.K's scrumpy hard cider. Made in Michigan. Organic.
DELICIOUS!
I'll second the call for Scrumpy's. Absolutely the best cider in the U.S.!
I just tried the Samuel Smith's organic cider the other day, and quite liked it. I too, am a fan of the not-too-sweet but really great apple flavor ciders.
Ace http://www.acecider.com/ is wonderful!
Thanks again for supporting the growing craft cider movement. Lots of folks have thrown out some good suggestions in the comments however many of those are made from concentrate. I urge people to seek out the small quality operations that handcraft their ciders straight from the apples. More over look for the ones using traditional cider varieties of bittersweet and bittersharp apples. The "bitter" these apples provide are equal to the tannins found in good wines.
Check http://www.oldtimecider.com for more on craft ciders.