White Crow Cider with Kenneth and Denise Gardner
My 21st birthday was on a Sunday in October. I was living in Stillwater, Oklahoma going to OSU but came up to Wichita for the big day. My parents, my then girlfriend (don’t tell Emily), and I went to see a movie so that my parents could make it until midnight to celebrate the momentous occasion. Today, as a parent of two, I get why my parents needed distractions to stay awake so late but I digress. Wichita Podcast host Evan came up from OSU after the movie and we all went to Old Chicago counting down the minutes until midnight hit and I could have my first legal drink. When the clock rang twelve times that evening, I ordered my first drink, only to be denied by what the waitress called the “Cinderella Law.” I tried Googling what the Cinderella Law is today but the way it was explained to us back then was that even though it is technically Sunday, when the workday starts on a Saturday that is the day recognized by restaurants for turning 21. Meaning, in the eyes of the law, I was still 20 even though it was my birthday. No idea if that is still a thing, we did not go to any bars after because my then girlfriend was under 21, and this blog is not really about my 21st birthday beyond that fact that the next day I went back to Old Chicago to order my first legal drink and I ordered a Woodchuck Cider. To this day, I have no idea why I chose this as my first legal drink, but it is my origin story of falling in love with ciders so I had to share.
The love for ciders grew in me when I moved to upstate New York for law school. I miss only a few things about upstate New York and my time there, but one big hole in my life is the lack of great apple picking and cider options in Wichita (up until recently). I fell in love with the real, true ciders that other areas of this great country have to offer and I felt like I was in some sort of cider desert (phrase coined by my guests on this week’s podcast interview).
I sat down with Kenneth and Denise Gardner, the owners of White Crow Cider Company. White Crow is located at 1236 E. Waterman St. and is open Thursdays from 3:00pm to 9:00pm, Fridays and Saturdays from 12:00pm to 10:pm, and Sundays from 12:00pm to 5:00pm. These two cider entrepreneurs had a similar origin story to me (I guess I do not know what happened on their 21st birthdays but still) in that they fell in love with cider in a different part of the world than Wichita and knew that they needed to bring it back to the Wheat State. Unlike me, though, they actually began fermenting their own ciders at home just so they could enjoy what they were missing and it began to grow and grow into the large warehouse tasting room they have today.
The ciders you will find at White Crow are not your run of the mill, overly sweet generic ciders you can find mass produced at liquor stores (although they do have some tasty sweet options). The Gardners put in the extra efforts to learn about the complexities of fermenting juices and creating diverse options from dry to sweet and everything in between. They even went as far to get certified by the Cider Institute of North America out at Washington State to learn the chemistry and other sciences behind making great cider. If you are a cider lover, or looking to try something new, this is the place to check it out. And check out the full interview we did over at the podcast!
