CiderCon 2022 – Interview with Keynote Speaker Diane Flynt

CiderCon 2022, the annual trade conference of the American Cider Association will be held in Richmond, Virginia from February 1-4, with excursions scheduled for two days prior. I published a preview and interview with Keynote Speaker Diane Flynt at BevFluence, but thought our readers would be interested in some of her comments on the industry since closing Foggy Ridge Cider (click the link above for the entire interview).  And privately we reminisced about our long-ago video with The Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band.  

During the conference, I plan on attending these sessions: Top of the Mitten: High Latitude Ciders from Northern Michigan; A Cider Among the Faults; and 400 Years of American Alcohol: Cider, History, Cocktails and More. I will also spend most of the after-hours at Bryant's Cider.  Let me know on social media if you plan on attending and we will share a pint of cider. Cheers. 

What have you been doing since the last release of Foggy Ridge ciders? 
Since releasing Foggy Ridge Cider’s Final Call blend in 2018, we have sold our apples to cidermakers in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. In early 2020 I signed a contract with the University of North Carolina Press to write a general trade book on the history of apples in the South. This book focuses on the stories and history behind the South’s almost 2,000 apple varieties. Through research at University Special Collections, the National Agricultural Library, and interviews with multi-generation apple growers I’ve learned surprising stories about southern apples. The book should be published in 2023. 

What can content creators do better or more in helping to promote the cider industry?
Many in the cider world are proud to say we are a “big tent” industry, and that there is a place for every price point, every method of production, and every quality level for ingredients…from apple juice concentrate to estate-grown cider apples. While this view has merits, it also flattens the discussion. I’d like to see content creators dig deeper into the ingredients and production methods of top-quality cider. Content creators are smart people, “thinking drinkers” if you will, and you should be able to see what is a “marketing message” from producers and what is an authentic practice or value that is carried out in cider-making every day. I see too much content that seems generated by a PR engine for a cider company large enough to hire a PR engine.