Press Then Press draws a specific kind of cider drinker. What the shop hears about pommeau, perry, sulfites and patience may say less about the mainstream market and more about where the category’s edges are moving.
A question about still cider led eCiderNews somewhere unexpected.
After encountering more American producers making still cider, including Sowams Ciderworks in Rhode Island, eCiderNews began looking more closely at why some of the world’s best ciders have no bubbles. That raised another question: Are cider drinkers actually seeking out still cider?
Press Then Press, the Seattle-based online cider shop’s focus on traditional and harvest-driven cider, has an unusual vantage point. Co-owner Storie Madrid manages its cider clubs and tracks individual preferences for more than 100 members. Husband Erik Madrid manages orders and fields questions from customers looking for particular cider styles and characteristics.
The answer on still cider was hardly evidence of a consumer rush.
Among the more than 100 club members whose preferences Storie tracks, none specifically request still cider or a particular carbonation level. One customer specifically does not want still cider.
“For the most part it seems like something folks are agnostic on, or perhaps it’s just not as important to their preferences as other factors,” Storie told eCiderNews.
Erik does receive regular requests for still-cider recommendations, but their conversation with eCiderNews revealed something potentially more interesting: the other things these highly engaged cider drinkers are asking for.
“Our perspective is probably pretty unique,” Erik said, “given we end up drawing attention from cider enthusiasts with very specific segments of the category they’re interested in.”
That specificity is exactly what makes their observations worth listening to.
Pommeau Has a Season
One of the clearer patterns Storie sees is interest in pommeau and other apple mistelles, particularly during fall and through the holiday season.
Pommeau is sometimes confused with fortified cider, but there is an important distinction.
As Étienne Dupont of Domaine Dupont in Normandy explained to eCiderNews earlier this year, fortified cider is cider plus alcohol.
“Pommeau is apple juice plus Calvados.”
The result occupies a very different place in the apple-drinking world than the bottle of sparkling cider someone might open with dinner.
Press Then Press is seeing customers deliberately seek it out.
“We have seen a lot of interest in pommeau/apple mistelles, especially in the fall and through the holiday season,” Storie said.
That does not make pommeau a mainstream American drinks category. It does show that among the cider-focused customers Press Then Press serves, interest extends well beyond cider itself into the broader world of fermented and distilled apple beverages.
Perry Is Getting More Attention
Perry is another category generating more interest among Press Then Press customers.
Made from pears rather than apples, perry has centuries of tradition behind it, particularly in parts of England, Wales and France. In the United States, it remains a much smaller category than cider.
Erik said Press Then Press is seeing increased interest in perry alongside other specific requests from customers.
Again, that observation comes with an important limitation. Press Then Press customers are a self-selecting group of people already interested enough in cider to seek out a specialist online retailer.
The Madrids are describing what they hear from those customers, not claiming that the American cider market as a whole is suddenly moving toward perry.
Natural Cider and the Sulfite Question
How cider is made matters to some Press Then Press customers as much as what style is in the bottle.
Erik regularly receives inquiries for cider made without added sulfites and, more broadly, for natural cider.
Those requests sit alongside questions about still cider and other production characteristics.
The word “natural” can mean different things to different producers and drinkers, making it particularly important to look beyond the label and understand what a cidermaker actually does.
But the inquiries themselves tell Press Then Press something about its customers: some want to know not just where the apples came from or what the cider tastes like, but how much intervention occurred between orchard and bottle.
The Madrids also recognize how unusual that may be within the larger cider marketplace.
“We almost never get a request from a customer for say a pineapple or ginger cider,” Erik said. “I suspect the average cidery has the inverse experience in their tasting room, if you catch my drift.”
Behind the Scenes, Makers Are Asking Questions Too
Press Then Press is increasingly getting another kind of access to cider.
As the Madrids have become more connected with cidermakers, they are tasting more works in progress. That means encountering cider before a producer has made every decision about how it will ultimately be released.
One of those decisions is carbonation.
Erik said they are increasingly tasting batches where producers are wrestling with whether to leave a cider still or carbonate it.
“It does feel like it’s increasingly on folks’ mind,” he said.
He has also noticed several cidermakers they have worked with for years softening the carbonation in their cider, with more pétillant, or lightly sparkling, releases and even ciders with just a slight effervescence.
It is an anecdotal observation rather than evidence of an industry-wide shift, but it adds another dimension to the original question about still cider.
Consumers may not be choosing bottles primarily according to carbonation level, but some producers appear to be thinking carefully about how much carbonation a particular cider needs.
The Patience Behind the Bottle
Perhaps the most striking observation from the Madrids had nothing to do with a category at all.
It was about time.
“I feel like I’m increasingly hearing about cider makers intentionally sitting on batches for 2-3 years before their release,” Erik said.
And his reaction to tasting them?
“Each time I taste one it’s magical.”
That observation resonated with the recent Cider Chat visit to Sowams Ciderworks in Warren, Rhode Island.
Cidermaker Spencer Morris takes an unusually patient approach to cider, including still and single-varietal releases that can spend considerable time aging before reaching the drinker.
The Madrids had visited Sowams several years earlier. Erik said listening to the recent Cider Chat episode made him regret not returning while they were in Rhode Island for CiderCon.
Extended aging carries consequences beyond what eventually appears in the glass. A producer who holds cider for two or three years is also holding inventory, occupying cellar space and postponing revenue from that cider.
Whether more American cidermakers are deliberately adopting longer aging schedules deserves further reporting. But Erik’s observation points toward a cider question that consumers rarely encounter on a label: How much time did the maker decide this cider needed before anyone could buy it?
A Window, Not a Weather Report
None of these observations prove that pommeau, perry, natural cider, softer carbonation or extended aging are about to become mainstream American cider trends.
And the Madrids are careful not to suggest otherwise.
Press Then Press draws a specific audience. Its emphasis on traditional and harvest-driven cider naturally attracts customers interested in apples, production methods, regional traditions and cider styles that may occupy a small portion of the larger beverage market.
That makes the shop a window, not a weather report for American cider.
But sometimes the edges of a category are particularly interesting places to look.
A customer asking for perry, pommeau or a cider without added sulfites is expressing curiosity beyond simply choosing a flavor from a taproom board. A cidermaker wondering whether a particular batch should remain still, or whether it needs another year in the cellar, is asking a different version of the same question.
What else can cider be?
Why This Matters to Ciderville
Press Then Press cannot tell us where the entire American cider market is headed, nor do Storie and Erik Madrid claim that it can.
What their customers are asking for does reveal something about a highly engaged corner of Ciderville.
There is curiosity about perry. There is seasonal interest in pommeau and apple mistelles. Some drinkers want to understand sulfites and natural production. Others seek still cider. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, some makers are reconsidering carbonation or giving cider considerably more time before release.
For producers, those questions are worth hearing even when they represent a niche audience. For retailers and hospitality professionals, they offer clues about what cider-curious customers may want to learn next.
And for drinkers, they are a reminder that the cider world extends considerably further than the familiar choice between dry and sweet.
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External links:
Press Then Press official website
Domaine Dupont official website, if linking the reference to Étienne Dupont.
Use official producer websites for any additional producer links.
Featured image recommendation:
Concept: An editorial still life showing several expressions of the broader cider world rather than a single bottle: a glass of cider, a smaller cordial-style glass suggesting pommeau, a pear to represent perry and apples in the composition.
Editorial rationale: The story is about curiosity and the expanding range of things engaged cider drinkers are exploring. The image should communicate that there is more to the cider category than a standard glass of sparkling cider.
Image format:
1200 × 1800 pixels
Featured image text:
WHAT ARE CIDER DRINKERS ASKING FOR?
Visual direction:
Editorial, sophisticated and inviting rather than commercial. Orchard fruit and different glass shapes can suggest exploration across the apple and pear beverage world without relying on specific brands.
Avoid:
A graph or upward arrows implying that these observations represent measured national trends. Avoid depicting pommeau as simply sparkling or still cider. Avoid identifiable producer bottles unless permission or appropriate editorial photography is available.
Alt text:
Apples, a pear and different glasses representing cider, perry and apple-based drinks explored by curious cider consumers.
Caption:
From still cider and perry to pommeau and production methods, Press Then Press hears from customers seeking out specific corners of the cider world.
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