Cider is the new trendy drink this summer, and former North Bayite Michelle Faris and her husband Steve are hoping their product, Ernest Cider will appeal to drinkers that want something, "Not too sweet, nor too tart; gently floral on the nose, yet rich and smooth."
Faris was born and raised in North Bay and went to high school at Algonquin, her parents, Lise and Gerry Gadoury, still live here.
"I've always wanted to run my own business," she told BayToday. "When I graduated from business at Wilfrid Laurier I had a passion for marketing and rose to be VP of some big corporations and craft breweries."
Then the Faris' visited Normandy France and developed a passion for cider.
"In my mind I said, 'I want to have a cidery one day.'"
When they both turned 40 on the same day last year, they realized if they were going to pursue their lifelong dream, it was now or never.
Michelle wanted to use 100 percent Ontario grown apples and local honey, and in fact they hope to soon be growing their own apples.
“Our goal is to have our own orchard one day with a destination cidery that employs people from our community,” says Michelle.
Special limited edition batches will also be made with all Ontario ingredients.
"It's part of what we build our business on. We very much care about the environment and farming."
“The Faris family has farmed in the Newmarket region for four generations,” says Steve. “We have a tremendous appreciation for the land and the farming community. Michelle and I decided we wanted to build a new family business, deeply rooted in agriculture and supporting Ontario farmers while at the same time giving food and drink lovers a sophisticated, handcrafted alternative, produced locally and responsibly."
"Our vision is to have a fully integrated, family run operation that delivers hand crafted apple products beyond cider," adds Michelle. "We want to support local agriculture, the artisans who turn the apples into delicious baked goods and preserves… even our own beehives with huge wildflower gardens.”
You will soon be able to buy Ernest Cider at the Algonquin Ave. LCBO store in North Bay. A shipment is expected on June 9th. The chic black and cream stripped 473 ml cans will sell for $3.25 each.
"We're planning on making some special road trips up north to be selling it into the LCBO's there," she explains.
Michelle describes her cider as, "dry and crisp with an aroma of wildflower on the nose, and when you drink it you think 'with honey it must be sweet' but it really isn't, it's really balanced. It's really a unique type of cider in our opinion and we'll continue to use local honey because it's what we believe in."
The final product has an alcohol content of 6.4 per cent and has two to three times less sugar than the mass-produced domestic or imported cider.
The Ernest Cider cidery is situated in the heart of York Region, in Aurora close to Newmarket where the Faris family farmed for more than a century. For more information visit www.ernestcider.com.
