They say things happen a little more slowly in the South. Perhaps that’s why, despite Virginia being home to a near-perfect climate for growing apples, the first modern hard cider producer didn’t come on the scene until 2007. It’s surely not because the fermented fruit juice — consumed for centuries and ranging from bone dry and nuanced to candy sweet — is something new.
Cider was first imported from England by colonists as a way to quench their thirst when safe water was scarce. They quickly planted apple trees and began pressing their own, and cider became one of the most common beverages in Colonial America, consumed by everyone, including children. Apple varieties from Arkansas Black to Wickson have been thriving here since the state’s beginnings, and the first named variety of Southern apple, in 1716, was the Virginia White.
Read more at Richmond Magazine.