Greenup Orchard Among Top Cider Award Winners

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Published on January 19 2018 1:29 pm
Last Updated on January 19 2018 1:29 pm

Tom Schwartz of Schwartz Orchards in Centralia produced the No. 1 rated cider, winning both the National and Illinois Sweet Cider Contests. Schwartz’ winning cider featured Honeycrisp, Jonathan and Fuji apples.

Held in conjunction with the Illinois Specialty Crops, Agritourism and Organic Conference, the Illinois State Horticulture Society (ISHS) hosts the contests along with the 16th annual National Hard Cider Contest.

Grissom’s Lost Creek Orchard of Greenup claimed the Champion Hard Cider award, marking their seventh time to claim top honors in this category. Trevor and Dalton Grissom produced their winning hard cider from a combination of Jonathan, Fuji, Mutzu, Jonagold and GoldRush apples.

Midwest Cider of Merit 1st Runner-up was awarded to Brian Edwards and Alex Kinney of Edwards Apple Orchard West in Winnebago.

Judges evaluated the cider entries using a 25-point rating scale for cider quality characteristics. Judges conducted “blind” evaluations where only a randomly chosen sample number identified each cider entry. The ISHS has conducted the annual sweet cider contest since 1990.