Tapping into the cider trend

By Jonathan Farrell —

There’s a new tasting room on Sonoma Plaza, and the big news is, it’s not wine. What makes the Pomme Cider Shop unique is that instead of grapes it’s all about apples – hard cider, that is. 

With a national boom in the popularity of hard cider beverages in the U.S., owners Rick Tranchina and Jessica Olson-Ealy (pictured above) have found their niche. Their timing was good, even down to the availability of the space at 531 Broadway.

The former frozen yogurt shop was ideal because “just about everything was in place, the bare bones were there,” Tranchina says. It took about six months to refit the space. He did much of the work himself. “All we had to do was adjust it to meet our needs.”

The result is a tap room and bottle shop, with domestic and imported ciders by the bottle, glass, or flight, plus French rosés, champagnes, and more. A cider-friendly food menu is offered as well. 

Classified in a similar category as craft beer, hard cider is growing in popularity. At one time, there were more hard cider drinkers than beer drinkers. But Prohibition in the 1920s sought to eradicate all forms of alcohol drinking, including hard cider. 

With the rise of the craft beer boom in the 1990s, hard cider is following that lead. Yet as Olson-Ealy points out, “Cider is closer to winemaking than beer brewing.” 

So a cider bar, neighboring dozens of wine tasting rooms, is a smart move. Whenever Olson-Ealy reached out to beverage distributors or various wineries, she says, “the overall response was ‘Sonoma needs this.’ It surprised me.”

Much of Olson-Ealy’s inspiration for hard cider comes from Europe. She grew up in Davis and went to college at Sonoma State University, but discovered the extensive array of ciders while traveling. “Ciders of all sorts can be found all over Europe.”

When Jessica and Rick met, their mutual appreciation of food, drink, and hospitality grew into considering opening a business. “We’ve been here in Sonoma for over 15 years. And Jessica and I envision something new and refreshing, that complements wine and food,” he says.

They describe hard cider as a welcoming alternative, cool and refreshing like beer or chilled wine. “One of the things I like about cider, it’s not soda,” says Olson-Ealy.  “It can be mildly fermented (referred to as soft cider) or a bit stronger like an apple bourbon. Some can even be a bit funky.”

And there are food pairings, too. Believe it or not, she says, “hard cider goes well with caviar, some ciders can be like champagne; it just depends upon the type of cider.” 

Pomme sells bottles of cider (there are more than 300 different varieties produced in the U.S. alone), and serves glasses from the bar. In a stem glass, Olson-Ealy says, “because I want people to see the sparkle and take in the aroma, just like wine.” 

Story and photo by Jonathan Farrell