HOSPITALITY business the Black Bear Pub Group (BBPG) is adding to its range of offerings by introducing a new locally-brewed cider in its home base of The Bear Inn, in Wiveliscombe.

The news came on Wednesday (October 21), which was national apple day when the importance of Britain's orchards and the people who care for them was being celebrated.

The new drink, Black Bear Cider, is a typical type of dry farmhouse cider, and is being brewed by the award-winning Ridgeway Cider, of nearby Holcombe Rogus, honouring the BBPG’s avowed intentions of ‘keeping it local’.

Black Bear Cider will be available at every BBPG pub, the Bear and the White Hart, in Wiveliscombe, the White Horse, in Bradford onTone, and the Carew Arms, in Crowcombe. It will sit beside the group's Black Bear Brewery ales, which are brewed in Wiveliscombe, giving drinkers a local cider to sit alongside their beers.

Ridgeway Cider is a family business based on a working farm in Holcombe Rogus, just outside Wellington.

It has made cider since 2014, using a traditional restored press, and has orchards with more than 200 cider apple trees, some more than 50 years old.

The apples are pressed on the farm and slowly fermented with natural yeasts.

Ridgeway Cider has a strong awards record, with Ridgeway’s Farmhouse Dry being named champion at the 2023 Devon County Show, and its Farmhouse Still Draught Dry Cider winning silver at the 2024 Taste of the West awards.

Jake Sharland-Hasell, of Ridgeway Cider, said: “We are proud to see our cider carrying the Black Bear name.

“Every drop starts in our own orchards, on trees our family has looked after for years.

“To have it poured in pubs a few miles down the road is exactly what we hoped for.”

Millie Coward, who owns BBPG with husband Jon, said: “Customers keep asking us for a good local cider, and now we have our own.

“It has been a joy to develop it with a small family-run producer, and we are excited to share it across all our pubs.”

The cider is a traditional medium farmhouse cider at seven per cent strength, made from a blend of varieties grown in the 130-year-old orchard at Ridgeway Farm.

It is described as ‘tasting sharp and crisp with bright fruit acidity, reminiscent of bittersweet or sharp cider apples’.

Ridgeway Cider’s Rose Sharland-Hassell said: “Working with Jon and Millie has been a real partnership.

“We tasted blends together until we had a cider that suits a proper country pub.

“We cannot wait for people to try it.”

Jon Coward said: “Our ales are proudly brewed in Wiveliscombe, and we wanted a cider with the same local roots.

“Black Bear Cider means every pint at our bars comes from this corner of the Westcountry.”

Black Bear Cider will be launched with a free tasting in the Bear Inn, in Wiveliscombe, on Friday, November 6, from 6.30 pm and in The Carew Arms, Crowcombe.

The cider will then be rolled out across the group, with other local hostelries following.