Why You Should Drink Cider on Thanksgiving
If Thanksgiving is a holiday for thinking about food and American history, then the beverage that everyone should be pairing with their Thanksgiving dinner is cider.
For the first couple hundred Thanksgivings, cider was consumed more than any other beverage in North America. It was the drink of the pilgrims, colonists, farmers, homesteaders, and pioneers. Apple seeds and cider presses were brought on the Mayflower. Apple seeds were sewn across the country as colonists spread West. Nearly every small farm had apple trees, and nearly every small town had a cider press. Cider drinking was ubiquitous in early American history. As much as we all like beer and wine, they seem a little misplaced on the Thanksgiving table compared with cider.
The Thanksgiving meal also features flavors of the fall - turkey, squash, and pumpkin pie to name a few. What beverage speaks better to fall than cider? And to make it celebratory, choose a sparkling cider and serve it in a wine or champagne glass. If the cider is well made and true to the craft of cidermaking, then it will be nicely suited to the glassware.
Thanksgiving should also be a time for thinking about where your food comes from. In the case of a cider like ours, the apples are locally grown. Buying our cider means you will be supporting a small business in the community that in turn supports small farms in the community. Those farms likely also spend their money in the community, which is how we can help sustain more healthy and vibrant rural economies.
The Thanksgiving meal usually also contains more food than you can possibly eat. A dry cider (the kind we mostly make) is lighter than wine and most beers, meaning less calories and more room in your belly for all the other Thanksgiving gustatory delights.
You can play it safe and buy a standby wine or beer for your Thanksgiving meal, but we suggest you also do something interesting this Thanksgiving and pour craft cider for your guests. We think it will taste great, tell a better story, create conversation, and enrich your Thanksgiving meal.
