Winery Wednesday - Blue Toad Cidery

Before you say anything, I know this says Winery Wednesday and I KNOW that this place is not a winery. We are just all going to be OK with this post being a Winery Wednesday feature because, let’s face it, none of the days of the week start with a “C” and alliteration just sounds better.

Now that we’ve addressed the elephant in the room – let’s move on to the good stuff. Cider! A couple of weeks ago, we were on one of our many trips to Carter Mountain and we needed a place to stop for lunch. My first choice was Pippin Hill Winery but let me tell you guys a little secret…apparently EVERY WINERY IN VIRGINIA is closed on Mondays! Not cool.

We ended up at this little pizza joint right across the street from Pippin Hill called Dr. Ho’s Humble Pie. It was DELICIOUS y’all. Since it was my day off from work, I figured that I deserved to have a drink with lunch. I spied a local hard cider on their menu that I had never heard of before called Blue Toad. They had a seasonal on hand called Festy that is a fall blend with cinnamon and cloves. Yes, please!

This cider did not disappoint. Thanks to modern technology and Google, I was able to look them up while we ate lunch. Guess what? They had a tasting room about 20 minutes up the road from where we were at! Of course I said we had to go. So we went.

Upon further investigation, it turns out this place is based out of New York and has just recently opened this location in Virginia. It was a cute little place all rustic and comfy. The location we were at also partnered up with a local winery called Well Hung (yep…you read that right) so it’s the best of both worlds. Cider and wine all in one place!

We got a couple of flights so we could try all their different varities. I had their Peach, Caramel Apple, Black Cherry and their Irish Dry. The Festy and the Black Cherry were hands down my favorites. I was excited about the prospect of caramel apple but it was just WAY too sweet for my taste. It was literally like I was drinking carbonated caramel. The Irish Dry was also really good. It’s made with all Granny Smith apples so it’s super tart.

If you get the chance, go check them out. And if you can’t make it to their tasting room, you can find their cider at your local Wegman’s. Now, excuse me while I go stock up on the Festy Harvest blend before it’s gone!