Reputedly, hard cider is America’s historic beverage, once considered safer to drink than water and easy to produce since apples grow readily. In 1726, according to one source, average per-capita consumption of hard cider was 35 gallons per year, and it was considered mild enough for children to drink. But the Temperance Movement in the late 1800s targeted hard cider as the evil drink that drained otherwise good husbands of ambition. Orchards were chopped down. Prohibition became the law of the land in 1920, and did lots of damage to breweries, wineries, and cideries, while apparently encouraging illegal distilleries and […]