A while back, my pal Ben (he of The Dirty Truth in Northampton fame) give me a sample bottle of cider to try.
I told him I wasn't a huge cider fan and though e wasn't either, he thought this company was doing something pretty cool.
So I took it home and promptly forgot about it. (My ADD kicked in, and it's bad. Just ask my editor about my weekly dance with those pesky things called "deadlines.")
Then, just last week, my colleague at The Republican Jim Kinney, a big beer fan himself, wrote to tell me about a Springfield cider company that was celebrating its one-year anniversary.
I don't write a lot about cider, and probably should do so more, and since this was a Springfield company, I figured I would just pen a nice advance about its anniversary.
Then I realized it was the same cider Ben had given me. So I pulled the bottle out of my fridge and sampled it. I have to say, it was better than most ciders I have had.
The company, of course, is Artifact Cider Project, and it will hold a one-year anniversary block party on Saturday at its building at 270 Albany St. in the Gasoline Alley area.
The company, co-founded by Jake Mazar, partially came about due to Mazar's diagnosis of celiac disease when he was in college. This meant most beer would be a no-no for him, so he switched to cider while studying abroad. He and his friend and business partner Soham Bhatt, who had homebrewed cider before, brewed their first batch of cider last summer.
The thing about Artifact that makes it different is it's not a huge commercial operation and isn't cloyingly sweet like many major brands.
It's made from local apples and yeast, and the flavor is refreshing and thirst-slaking &38211; something that can't be said for most ciders on the market. The added sugars that larger brands use often make you even thirstier. (Hmm, I wonder if that's part of the plan?)
Not so with Artitifact.
The sample I had was the company's New World Cider. This beverage is dry and tart, with a lot going on in the nose. What I particularly enjoyed was that it Hausa champagne-like quality to it, although not as effervescent. There was also a hint of pear flavor dancing around in the mix. It finished dry and left a nice aftertaste on the tongue.
I definitely can see myself drinking this again.
Saturday's block party is family-friendly and free, and will take place from 12 to 7 p.m. It will feature tastings of all Artifacts ciders, including a special, one-off anniversary cider.