Nearly 25 years after having contributed to the design of the first ice cider, a cider maker from Montérégie is still innovating by creating black cider. The drink, dark, with a slight taste of burnt caramel, is produced from roasted apples.
François Pouliot, co-owner with his wife Stéphanie Beaudoin of the Verger Hemmingford cider house, formerly known as La Face Cachée de la Pomme, is not his first innovation. After perfecting the process for making ice cider with Christian Barthomeuf in the mid-1990s, the cider maker continued his research.
PHOTO COURTESY / Verger Hemmingford
“We brought out the still cider, without effervescence, then the orange cider, obtained by skin maceration. We are a creative cider house and it is in our nature to think outside the box,” Mr. Pouliot told us.
The idea for the cider made from roasted apples came to them from a resident of Cap-Rouge, in the Quebec region (who does not wish to see his name published).
“He was a man who had a cider house project that had just fallen through,” said François Pouliot in an interview. He told me that he had been following us for 25 years and that he trusted us to develop the procedure he had created. I had already received recipe ideas in the past, sometimes wacky, but this one seemed to hold up to me, so we tried it.
As with ice cider in the past, several tests had to be done. The research, under the direction of Mr. Pouliot and Daniel Brongo, cellar master, took a whole year to complete. “Developing a recipe in your kitchen is one thing, but developing it in industrial mode is something else!” launched the cider maker.
PHOTO COURTESY / Verger Hemmingford
The process is completely new. Apples, first roasted like coffee beans, are cold infused in a base of regular cider, more or less long, so as to give it flavor and color.
We tasted it, the result is surprising. The product, which contains only apples, is light and not very sweet. It is 6% alcohol.
“We wanted to make a version of amber cider, a bit like a dark beer or an old cognac, with a subtle flavor of sponge toffee or burnt caramel. It may look like an iced tea, it’s very refreshing!” assures François Pouliot.
When marketing the product, Mr. Pouliot received a call from the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ).
“As in the days with ice cider, they were wondering about this new product. They asked me where my ingredient list was on the label. I told them I couldn’t tell it’s an apple flavored cider! It’s apple and only apple. They told me it’s true, you’re right.
Black cider from Verger Hemmingford is sold at the SAQ and in several grocery stores.