Family-owned Manoff Market Cidery, the maker of more than a dozen types of hard cider, has become a member of the Bucks County Wine Trail.
The cidery, which is owned by Gary and Amy Manoff and run with help from their daughter, Chelsea Manoff, and her husband, Maher Alazzeh, has been producing cider from fruit grown on their farm since 2018.
“It’s very much like wine,” Chelsea said of the cider, which tastes similar to sparkling white wine. Some of the blends are infused with other fruits grown on the farm, including blackberries and cherries, offering “fruity” and seasonal varieties for all palates, she said.
Apples are the main ingredient in the family’s non-alcoholic and hard cider recipes and they’ve got plenty to choose from. In all, the orchard boasts 50 different types of apples, including some of U.K. and France heritage, as well as Pink Lady, Stayman, Winesap, American heirloom and 18th century varieties like Harrison, the latter of which was enjoyed by Thomas Jefferson and other of the nation’s forefathers, according to Gary.
Gary and Amy purchased and began farming their Solebury-area land in 1984, right out of college. At the time, the farm had been out of production for five to seven years.
The couple would spend the next seven to nine years clearing the farm, planting anew, and working odd jobs, including vegetable farming, to make ends meet while they worked tirelessly to bring the farm back to life.
Making cider was always “part of Gary’s plan,” Amy said. “It fit really well into what we were doing,” she added.
The Manoffs produce 3,000 gallons of cider per year, with plans to expand.
“Part of the limitation is how much our trees yield,” Gary said. “We have trees in the ground that are going to double that production.”
It takes a bushel of apples – roughly 50 apples – to make three gallons of cider.
Since making cider is more akin to making wine, the Manoffs felt at home with the seven members of the Bucks County Wine Trail.
Visitors too, thought their cidery was like a wine-tasting room.
“We were getting people coming here asking us why we weren’t in the trail,” Amy said.
To learn more about the Bucks County Wine Trail, visit buckscountywinetrail.com/.
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