
Black Mountain Cider + Mead is a small family business making real modern craft cider and mead using traditional methods. We chop and press local apples into the juice that becomes our cider, always fermenting in small batches and blending cider from heirloom varieties produced throughout the harvest. We embrace the terroir of our Southern apples—the sweet and the tart. And as mazers (mead-makers), we focus on meads that are lower in alcohol than high-gravity traditional ones, with unique flavors such as coffee, beet, and sorghum-pear.
Every batch is a small batch. In England a few years ago, we visited a town called Battle, enticed by the historical 1066 Battle of Hastings and William the Conqueror. As homebrewers, we made dry cider a few a times year but were not fans of the mass-produced cider on the market. In Hastings we attended a street fair where we drank real, country-style cider made from 100% apple juice. It was dry and still, standing in contrast to the syrupy-sweet industrial brands sold in the English pubs and much of the U.S. market. Our notion was whetted into conviction: cider needn’t taste like artificially-flavored apple candy, and when made with 100% juice—and without concentrates, “natural” flavors, corn syrups, or other undesirables—real cider is a pure, yet complex and palatable delight. This experience continues to inspire our own real North Carolina cider and North Carolina mead. Cheers, to your health and pleasure!
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