Switch-el up your fall libations

Hops and suds might wash over our region like liquid gold, but for people who prefer non-boozy brews, there are plenty of options.

Try non-alcoholic cider made fresh from New England apples, or wash down a long day’s hiking, biking or running with a sip of Vermont-born switchel.

Mark Casavant, production manager at Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury Center, says the owners of the business are careful about the flavor profile of their apple cider, since it’s been around much longer than the company’s Barn Dance hard cider.

Hand-picked apples from orchards and packing houses are cleaned and ground up into a fine mash. Sixteen layers of mash, separated by a fine cloth, are pressed together until all the juices run into a bin, which is further separated from any apple grounds that remain, so the finished product will be smooth.

The cider goes into storage, and then it’s pasteurized and bottled, and distributed as far north as Swanton and into New Hampshire.

“The owners like McIntosh. We try and use McIntosh as much as we can” for apple cider, mixed with Cortland and Empire apples, Casavant said.

“Later in the season, we’ll get into some honeycrisp. It’s real sweet. Pasteurized, it tends to ferment pretty quick, so we can’t run anything more than 10 percent honeycrisp. That’s not the flavor profile that the owners are looking for.”

Instead, honeycrisp apples are a larger component of the Barn Dance hard cider, since they ferment quickly.

“The hard cider guys usually like something that’s highly acidic and tannic,” Casavant said. Those varietals have been grown in Vermont only for the last four years, since they’re not as good to eat.

“Hard cider is a relatively new thing here in Vermont,” Casavant said, but apple cider is part of the Vermont way of life.

“It’s about as healthy as you can get, I think, except for someone who’s highly diabetic. It’s like eating an apple, or green vegetables. It’s a healthy lifestyle choice, I think. It’s important for us because it’s a big piece of the puzzle here, and it’s what the story, the Cold Hollow Cider Mill story, is based on,” Casavant said.

Switch to switchel

Switchel was most common in New England, but according to the Farmer’s Almanac, it was also popular with the United States Congress during the hot summer days of its first meetings.

The recipe for switchel varies, depending on which haymaker or farmhand you talk to, but it usually contains ginger, vinegar and apple cider, along with some other additives.

Susan Alexander, who owns Vermont Switchel Co., makes hers with a recipe that belonged to her husband’s grandfather, a dairy farmer in Glover.

“It was handed down to us,” she said. “We make it with traditional ingredients like maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, ginger, blackstrap molasses and lemon juice. It makes everything pop a little better.”

Alexander founded Vermont Switchel Co. in 2012, but has been drinking switchel for about 30 years.

“I just felt it was so healthy and flavorful and such a great alternative for any kind of hydration beverage that I can still distinctly remember that first sip. It was love at first sip. I knew right then and there I was going to bottle it at some point. Two kids and two careers later,” here she is, she chuckled.

She warns people switchel might come as a shock to those used to sipping soda.

“As a society, we’re so used to drinking super-sweet carbonated beverages. It’s not carbonated. It’s got a nice, snappy ginger flavor, and a little bit of a pucker.

“People aren’t used to drinking things that aren’t so sweet that it’s kind of unexpected. When they do taste it, it’s a pretty high percentage” who like it and come back for more.

“We have a lot of fans,” she said.

Alexander bottles her switchel in Hardwick, and can make up to 1,800 bottles per day.

It’s for sale at Morrisville Co-op and Sunflower Natural Foods, and all over the state. Alexander sells concentrate online so people in the 48 continental states and Hawaii can also partake, if they just add water.

And, “it is non-alcoholic, but I have to say, it does mix well with your favorite spirits,” Alexander said.