Since 2015 · Roseland, VA & Rochester, NY

A decade of cheers.

Ten years of dry, naturally delicious hard cider — made from real apples, and never, ever from concentrate.

Blue Toad cider cans lined up on a wooden table — the Virginia lineup from Blue Ridge Blonde to the seasonals

The cider

Real apples do the talking.

Every Blue Toad cider is blended from three to four apple varieties, sourced from the orchards of Nelson County, Virginia and Western New York — all American fruit, never from foreign concentrates. The result is a drier, cleaner cider that tastes like the apple it came from, and every one of them is naturally gluten-free.

The medal-winning lineup runs from Blue Ridge Blonde and Flannel Amber to Paddy Green and a rotating cast of seasonals — with the cider maker still running the blends himself.

See what's pouring

All American. Never from foreign concentrates.

The Blue Toad promise

The Blue Toad farm meadow at the foot of Wintergreen, picnic tables under a big Blue Ridge sky

Roseland, Virginia

A winery becomes a cidery.

In 2015, an old winery property on Winery Lane found its second act: 27 riverside acres at the base of Wintergreen became Blue Toad's Virginia home. Today it's a working farm and taproom on the Nelson 151 trail — 360° mountain views, a creek through the property, and cider pressed from the county's own apples.

Visit the farm

The Blue Toad tasting room at the Genesee Valley Regional Market in Rochester, NY

Rochester, New York

Two states, one rule: press it where it grows.

The New York line starts as 100% Western New York apples — pressed and fermented, as Blue Toad puts it, “right in the same market” as the Rochester tasting room, with NY production run in partnership with Mayer Brothers — then poured a few doors down. Virginia fruit stays in Virginia; New York fruit stays in New York. That's the whole trick.

Visit the NY taproom

A BBQ Beast pulled-pork sandwich next to a pint of Blue Toad cider by the fire pit

The partnership

Then the Beast rolled in.

BBQ Beast is its own operation — a crew of pitmasters with a rig they bill as Virginia's largest — and the farm is its home base. Every Friday through Sunday the smoker runs beside the taproom: slow-smoked ribs, pulled pork, and jerk chicken built to sit next to a dry cider. Some pairings you plan; this one just worked.

Meet BBQ Beast

The next decade

Come taste what a real apple can do.

The best introduction is a flight at the farm — creek on one side, mountains on the other, smoke drifting over from the rig.

Plan your visit Browse the ciders