TOP DROP: Jack and Charlie Crasborn with thier new cider Three Wise Birds, made with quality local apples. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR
TOP DROP: Jack and Charlie Crasborn with thier new cider Three Wise Birds, made with quality local apples. PHOTO/PAUL TAYLOR
This is a tale of two brothers and Three Wise Birds - the latest innovation in cider to come out of Hawke's Bay. Two years of trial, error and tasting has seen the development of three offerings - Bach Life, a crisp refreshing 5.7 per cent drop made with Granny Smithapples; the 8.7 per cent Acoustic Collection consisting of five famous Hawke's Bay apple varieties and Moulin Rouge, an 11 per cent single variety cider perfect for a night out. The idea behind introducing a couple of high percentage options was to add more flavour to the mix while giving people something to sip and savour. A craft cider movement has grown in New Zealand over the past couple of years but brothers Jack and Charlie Crasborn didn't want to follow the crowd, rather stand out from it. "The market is flooded by this cordial sweet cider so we decided to juice our own market quality apples, we wanted to create a dry craft cider," Charlie says. "Consumers are already educated on what a craft cider is so we saw an opportunity." Coming from a family of apple orchardists, the brothers created a point of difference by using knowledge of varieties and quality fruit to their advantage. Ian Thompson, originally of St Andrews Cider, was helping to develop the flavour and pass his expertise on to keen young production manager, Jack. Marketing manager Charlie designed the Three Wise Birds label and took care of promotion for the business. "So many ciders have a picture of an apple or an apple tree but our idea was to create a fashion forward brand that the consumer can enjoy," he says. The product launched at Labour Weekend with a tasting at The Common Room in Hastings where it's now on sale by the bottle. Starting local they hoped to release 20,000 500ml bottles this year, focusing on the North Island - particularly Wellington - the country's craft beer hub. "It's a high-end product, it's going to be available in bars to begin with."
