CIDERCRAFT Magazine, CIDERCRAFT Volume 14 2020

DEEP ROOTED simplify taste expectations Merwin combined forces with Jonathan Oakes of LynOaken Farms and LEONARD OAKES ESTATE WINERY to create a measure they believe accurately represents the cider The concept was to make it objective a ratio of acidity to sugar adjusted with pH in mind The result was to provide a numerical value for the acidity tannins and residual sugar of the cider and print it on the label Originally presented at the annual Cider Conference a few years ago the MerLyn Scale has grown legs especially in the Finger Lakes region says Merwin People came around to agreeing that it was necessary and could help cider sales if we had a simple graphic on the back labels that would tell people what the real perceived dryness sweetness would be in the bottle he adds Having access to the information can help people understand their own likes People often talk dry but drink sweet Merwin says They feel like they should like dry ciders and the MerLyn scale will help them understand which cider styles they really prefer Connecting perceived sweetness to the consumers own palate and preferences is important for helping them ind what they like and ultimately increasing cider sales Sweetness is something on Soham Bhatts mind at ARTIFACT CIDER PROJECT in Massachusetts too The company has recently steered its branding away from talking about it While the co founder knows that customers will still ask about sweetness Artifacts storytelling is becoming more complex Were working with brand reps the sales team and our distribution partners to also focus on acidity and structure as the other two aspects of a threesided scale based system Bhatt says Now Artifact uses a ive point scale across each of these aspects to communicate the depth of the cider to the customer who wants to know more about the lavor pro ile At ANXO in Washington D C president and co owner Sam Fitz has helped take the mini empire from a cider bar featuring cider from around the world to making its own cider and growing into a two location cider haven He is a big fan of the MerLyn Scale since it acknowledges that tannin and acidity a ect the perception of the cider experience But the ciders made at ANXO dont really it in with the scales formula All of my ciders have no sugar and some amount of tannin so technically every cider we make is a negative number he explains of applying the metrics He says customers often taste one of their high acid ciders and say This is so sweet but theyre confusing acid and sweetness 22 CIDERCRAFTMAG COM Fitz thinks the scale has value for creating conversation even if it doesnt exactly line up with his product If customers get anything I hope it makes them aware of how complex sugar perception is and that is in itself worthwhile he says No one cares if the scale is perfect Lets get people to talk about what theyre really tasting The original way the cider centric bar set up its menu was based on four lavor pro iles bright structured rustic and fruit forward Once ANXO started making its own ciders the team pivoted to focus on things like the types of apples that went into their featured juice Now theyre back to focus on lavor and expectation for customers Online they still get deep talking about orchards apples yeast and vessel to describe their ciders THE FUTURE OF CIDER CATEGORIES Agreeing that ciders could be categorized better seems like a good place to start But where the industry goes from there is another story Bhatt of Artifact is all for telling the story of the ciders to help customers understand whats in the can Were If customers get anything I hope it makes them aware of how complex sugar perception is and that is in itself worthwhile says Sam Fitz of ANXO No one cares if the scale is perfect Lets get people to talk about what theyre really tasting