Thursday, March 28, 2024

ChelanCraft Cidery inspired by Hungarian flavors

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CHELAN – With Cider being the fastest growing adult beverage industry in country, Cynthia Flynn and her husband Eric decided to adventure off into the field after she quit her virtual position in Finance at Boeing.

Both had just recently built a home Chelan and moving back to Everett to continue her career at Boeing was not an option. In the Chelan Valley there isn’t a lot of well paying jobs, therefore opening up a business came to their mind.

“We should do cider, there’s all these apples here,” Eric said to Cynthia.

The only downside was the fact that neither of them knew anything about cider. “We started looking online and it turns out that there was this British cider maker, teaching a week long course on cider making and it was in Bellingham, I was able to get in the class and I got some formal training,” said Flynn.

After the course, Flynn was able to understand the technical side of cider making, however she felt that she needed more tactical practice.

With the help from her neighbor Robert Anderson of Lupine Vineyards, she was able to create her first batch of cider. “I probably learned more from him than the cider class … he taught me a ton, if it weren’t for them we wouldn’t have a business,” said Flynn.

Friends and family encouraged Flynn to open up her business after she offered them some of cider she made with Anderson’s help. From there, Eric took the week long course and became more knowledgeable about it.  

The property where the business sits on now, was inherited from Flynn’s mother and it took almost a full year to put the whole building together.

Coming up with a name was not an easy to do, after talking to a business advisor, Flynn knew that in the name she needed to include Chelan.

ChelanCraft Cidery houses the equipment Flynn needs to make the cider, plus a small tasting room.

When it came time to pick and choose the flavors for the cider, Flynn was inspired by her mother’s Hungarian background. She recalls her mother baking apple pastries with lemon zest in them. From there, the Apple Lemon Cider was born, ginger and pear also inspired her to create a unique cider flavor.

The third flavor currently being produced, was determined by the client’s input. Flynn was able to put out a list of flavors for them to vote on, the winning flavor ended up being, cherry vanilla. In the future Flynn will introduce a basic apple flavor and an apricot-peach.

Flynn is in charge of cider making while Eric helps her run the business, doing things here and there. ChelanCraft Cidery has been open since July of 2018 and “so far it’s supporting itself.”

She states that 85 percent of the groups that go into the business buy a bottle. All Flynn wants is to make a “reasonable Chelan salary and call it good, if we get to that point I will be delighted.”

Follow and like the local business on Facebook under ChelanCraft Cider and visit the Flynn’s at 806 Manson Hwy, Chelan 98816 every Friday and Saturday from noon to 6:00 p.m.





 
 

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