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Our future looked a lot like CIDER

Our Story

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Starting off in the world of wine

Starting off in the world of wine, alternating hemisphere’s to get in 2 vintages a year, with a bit of travel thrown in between, was a fantastic time of our lives until the reality of the 2008 GFC hit home. Jobs dried up…literally NO-ONE was hiring. With all the qualifications and experience we had gathered over the years we knew we had to start thinking outside the box of what our future might look like.

After a fair bit of research and planning, our future looked a lot like CIDER. It fit alongside the skills we had, it was an exciting emerging product that was still relatively new for NZ and seemed like a slightly smaller hole in which to throw our hard-earned savings..hahaha!

A few off-handed conversations during a visit to Perth from Rowena’s parents, led to an opportunity for us to return to NZ and get started on developing a New Zealand cider brand with a range of kick-ass ciders that New Zealand was missing out on. We landed back on the NZ family property in 2011 focused on producing traditionally styled ciders made from real fruit; that were clean, dry, refreshing and affordable. We began planting our heritage apple orchard onsite and laying the foundations for the Cidery premise that same year.

Looking out at the amazing view from our restaurant
A photo of the apple orchard on the farm
Filling a glass of cider from the bar tap

As our range of ciders evolved

Initially branded as O Cider, we found that as our range of ciders had evolved and we were finding our feet in the world as business owners; it was time to re-brand to The Cider Factorie, which we did in 2017. The name seemed slightly more fitting as the Cider is produced in what was once an avocado packhouse. We now produce onsite anywhere from 8-12 different ciders a year. Still all made from freshly pressed, locally sourced fruit which we are proud of being one of the few NZ cider producers to continue to promote.

We opened the doors to our Cidery Restaurant in September 2017 to complement our busy Tasting Room and give visitors an opportunity to experience some New Zealand hospitality. Being located in the greenbelt of Te Puna, Tauranga, minutes from the CBD, we have a stunning location for our apples to grow and our visitors to enjoy. You will most likely find one of us pouring tasters behind the bar, doing dishes in the kitchen, or chatting to our visitors at a table somewhere.

The adventure continues for us as we grow and evolve further with our award-winning ciders.

Cider Range

Cellar Door

Restaurant

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