Cider-Loving Founding Fathers

While the cider revolution may still be in its infancy, the beverage dates back to the days of the American founding fathers. In honor of President’s Day, let’s celebrate with what the U.S. was founded on: liberty and streams of cider.

William Henry Harrison won the 1840 election on the “log cabin and hard cider” campaign. Harrison wanted to appeal to the common man and represent that of a man relaxing in a log cabin and sipping hard cider. He also gave out cider to voters as he was campaigning.

George Washington bought voters cider in hopes of swinging their vote in his direction in the 1758 House of Burgess election. It worked, he won the election and ended up serving over 144 gallons of cider and beer.

Thomas Jefferson was also a fan of the fermented apple. He planted 1,031 fruit trees in his Monticello South Orchard. Cider producing apples made up a large portion of this orchard including Hewes crab apples and Taliaferro. Jefferson once said it’s, “the best cyder apple existing,” of the Taliaferro which has since disappeared from cultivation.  

Benjamin Franklin, while never a president, was a founding father. In response to someone telling the story of Adam and Eve, he declared, “It’s indeed bad to eat apples, it’s better to turn them all into cyder.”

While some might be more keen on sipping on apple juice with their morning slice of toast, John Adams, the second president of the United States, started every morning with a tankard of hard cider. He lived to the ripe old age of 90.

Both Jefferson and Washington were known to make their own ciders, and had cider apples grown at their respective estates.

Another great Benjamin Franklin quote to close, because the man is full of them: “He that drinks his cyder alone, let him catch his horse alone.”