Page 34 - Beverage Master December January 2020

Craft Beverage

about cider. Lastly, our recently-refreshed cider
lexicon project aims to curate a language for talking
to customers about cider. Having the same talking
points is good for any campaign—including spread-
ing the cider gospel.”

Refining cider lexicon is one way to lessen the gap
between what consumers currently understand
about cider and how makers want to communi-
cate flavor profiles and other characteristics. For
example, the USACM suggests “focusing on the
accepted scientific classifications of apples: sweet,
sharp, bittersweet and bittersharp.” There are also
grouping categories so consumers can more easily
select what taste appeals to them and have confi-
dence in that choice. So the USACM considers input
from producers to create classifications that might
include something like:

• Does it taste dry or sweet?

• Is it tart? Spicy? Sour? Floral?

• Is it fruit-forward or tannic?

• Is it light-, medium- or full-bodied?

This type of universal messaging helps all cider
producers continue to create beverages people
want. “Don’t make products for yourself unless
you’re planning to buy them all, or you are a social
media star influencer,” Glockner said. “Know your
market and cater production to the customer
base(s) you’ve researched and proven will trade
their hard-earned money for your product.”

Progressive success depends on customer rela-
tionships—it’s not a cliché when it’s true. “We
have a gold standard of treatment for all of our
customers whether they’re tasting room visitors or
on-premises licensees,” Larkin said. “Everyone in
our company in retail, sales and distribution know
the customer is always right and that we’ll bend
over backward to make them happy. I can’t over-
state the importance of this.”

“We have four core values: family, integrity,
generosity and fun. We don’t make any compa-
ny decisions unless they fit into this framework,”
Leadbetter said. “We run a business we can be
proud of, that strives to make our community
better, our guests happy, and makes our and our

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