Time to sip some Yip!
It was my first time at McKay's Apple Orchard and Yip Cider Facility and what hits you on the way down into it is how impressive the whole property is. It's a much larger operation than I was expecting and is set up almost like a small market with ice cream and coffee stands, merchandise to buy, and of course a Yip Cider bar.
It's located on the beautiful Kingston Peninsula in Long Reach and from what I could tell the whole point that they're located on is lined with gorgeous sandy beaches. I held a client appreciation event there and I can't say enough about how genuine and how accommodating the McKays and their staff were! The tour of how they make the cider and the history of their brand was quite interesting and the taste testing as we learned about how the different ciders got their names and how they were different was so fun!
This is the last time Yip Cider will be made here as they're building a much larger 5200 square foot facility nearby to make their product in. Yip has a great line of cider products now and they have plans to tweak a couple of them to make them even more appealing. Yip Cider has really taken off as you can find it in many restaurants in our area and in my opinion and especially after the taste testing, their product is still very under-rated, something I think will change in the coming years as they hit their stride even more.
There are apples from their orchard in every cider that they have, and one of them called "Trip" has a mix of their apples and another from another location in the world, hence the name. They've done a great job incorporating the history of their orchard and their family into each of their ciders, and it's cool that each one seems to have it's own story. In case you were wondering, it's the grandfather on the labels, the one who planted the apple trees back in the day. I thought it was cool that his grandsons put him on the can, the creator of the orchard, instead of themselves the creator of the Cider. To me, that speaks to the type of people they are and makes you curious about the backstory of their brand at the same time.
I fully recommend visiting them in Long Reach, taking a tour of your own, and trying each one of the ciders. Take note of the russet, it was a stand-out for me. Let us know: "How do you like dem apples?"
