You wake up and stumble into the kitchen. What's the first thing you pour? A stiff cup of coffee? Hot water for tea? OJ? How about a tall glass of hard cider?
For more than a century, cider was the beverage of choice in North America—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—and practically everyone drank it. Farm families, children and adults alike, washed down their eggs and bread with it. John Adams is said to have guzzled a tankard each morning too. Jefferson and Washington both made their own ciders and likely consumed it much more often than wine because cider was simply everywhere.
One reason for hard cider's popularity was a byproduct of fermenting. Heat and alcohol kill bacteria, and early European immigrants felt this made cider safer to drink than water, which they'd grown to distrust since it had often been contaminated in their homelands. So they drank it en masse. In fact, famed newspaper editor Horace Greeley said that a barrel of cider barely lasted his household for a week, with family and visitors filling their mugs again and again "until everybody was about as full as he could hold."
While most of us aren't yet ordering hard cider by the barrel full, it is making a big comeback. "Cider is the fastest-growing segment in the alcohol industry right now," said Diant Flint who owns the oldest cider making operation in the South, "the category grew over 60 percent last year.”
There might be a dozen reasons for this boom—cider has a romantic past, it's gluten free, it fits with our revived appreciation for artisanal products—but more than anything, cider just tastes good, and it has a great range. Some ciders are sweet as wine coolers while others are dry, drawing their flavor from apple varieties that are grown specifically for their tannins.
“If you want to make a really wonderful artisan hard cider, you need to start with excellent fruit,” said Flynt, who began her Foggy Ridge orchard in Virginia's Blue Ridge Mountain back in the 1990s, and she says that many of those apples would never be eaten. "They’re very bitter, and quite tart, quite acidic."
While bitter apples are bad for pies, they're great for area business. At least thirteen cider makers have popped up in the Appalachian South. They stretch from Maryland clear to Georgia, with the biggest concentration in Virginia, where cider has become so popular the beverage now has its own week.
Governor Bob McDonald declared November 15-23, 2013 as Cider Week. Events across the state give folks a chance to see what cider mania is all about. If you're in the area, you might swing by the festivities, and even if you are not, it's easy to pick up a pint of this appley libation. Below is a list of cideries I've spotted in the region. (Let me know if I missed anyone.) Many have their own tasting rooms, and they all sell to area bars and restaurants.
So are you a cider drinker already? If so, what's your favorite kind? If not, ready to give it a try? We all wanna know—how do you like them apples?

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Maryland

Virginia

Winchester Ciderworks, 2502 North Frederick Pike, Winchester: Stephen Schuurman and Joshua Ussel produce cider from apples predominantly grown in the Shenandoah Valley.
Old Hill Cider, 17768 Honeyville Road, Timberville: Launched in May 2012, this is the cidermaking arm of Showalter's Orchard. The tasting room is open Monday through Saturday from 9 a.m through 5 p.m.
Potter's Craft Cider, Free Union: Tim Edmond and Dan Potter produce farmhouse-style cider made with Virginia Winesap, Albemarle Pippin, and other local varieties. While the cidery doesn't have a tasting room, it does host tastings in area bars and restaurants.
Castle Hill Cider, 6065 Turkey Sag Road, Keswick: With roots and ties to Thomas Jefferson, this Charlottesville cidery offers four varieties of cider. The tasting room is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Sunday.