The story of Blake’s Hard Cider began with a promise.
Gerald Blake had promised his wife Lovely that if he returned home from World War II alive, they would leave the city, move north and start a big family on a farm. And he kept his word. When he returned from the war in 1946, the couple bought a 100 acre apple farm in Armada, Michigan, where they raised 13 children.
Twins Pete and Paul Blake, numbers 11 and 12 in the family line, eventually took over managing the family business, but it was Paul’s son, third-generation farmer Andrew Blake who helmed the business’s transformation into a cider producer with a national footprint – a business that expects to hit about $54 million in revenue in 2024 and upwards of $60 million in 2025.
Andrew Blake dreamed up Blake’s Hard Cider while a student at Michigan State, where the craft beer scene was flourishing. Blake graduated from MSU in 2011.
“You saw this burgeoning craft beer scene where the consumer was really starting to think about where things were coming from,” Blake said “They wanted to know who made it. And they wanted brands with personality.”
“I saw hard ciders as an opportunity to leverage our family’s business platform into that business, and create a more sustainable year round revenue stream and business opportunity for the family and for our customers,” he said. “Farming is hard. It’s extremely seasonal. Our business, as successful as it was, was always extremely challenged with seasonal peaks and valleys and swings.”
Blake’s Hard Cider launched in 2013, after two years of “research and development” Blake did while still at college, making cider in his garage and giving out samples at tailgate parties.
“You have a real captive audience who isn’t too particular on taste or flavor. If it’s boozy, they like it,” he said. “But it gave me enough confidence to really put a business plan together and then come back to the family and present a case to get in the hard cider business.”
In the winter of 2013, Blake’s began production of its first hard cider in 280-gallon wine tanks and hand-bottled about 50 cases per day. Over the next decade, Blake built the business into Michigan’s leading cider brand, producing close to 6,000 cases per day. Sales grew 10 percent between 2022 and 2023, and Blake’s products are available in 29 states across the Midwest, Southern and Eastern U.S.
Its flagship product and sales leader is Tripe Jam, a 6.5% ABV semi-sweet cider made with strawberries, blackberries and raspberries. It saw a 24% sales increase from 2022 to 2023. Blake’s newer American Apple cider, an 8% ABV semi-sweet imperial cider, the brand’s first imperial cider variety, saw even stronger growth. Launched in 2022, the company reported an 85% increase in American Apple sales in 2023. Imperial ciders have higher alcohol content than other varieties, typically 8% or more. Blake’s launched Big Jam, an imperial variety of its Triple Jam cider with 8% ABV, earlier this year.
In 2022, Blake’s acquired the Pacific Northwest’s Avid Cider Company. And in November of last year, Blake’s announced a partnership with Texas-based Austin Eastciders, forming Blake’s Beverage Company, now the nation’s second largest cider operation.
“We really saw the need and the opportunity to do what we do at scale, that we needed to create a larger platform,” Blake said.
How did Blake and his small family farm manage that kind of growth? By bringing in experts from the cider industry, like Blake’s Beverage Company’s Vice President of Innovation and Quality, Ryan Burk, who cut his chops in the cider business at companies including Virtue Cider and market-leader Angry Orchard.
“What’s really cool about the Blake’s Beverage Company as a whole is that we have three distinct brands, Blake’s, Austineast [Austin Eastciders], and Avid out in Oregon. And each one of those brands has their own soul to it. They each have their own profile, and in a lot of ways they each speak to regional consumers,” said Burk. “We’re maintaining three different streams of cider that are all unique, that are using different ingredients and different production practices.”
The consolidation seems to have been a smart move considering where the cider category is seeing growth. Volume sales of cider have been relatively flat in the past five years, according to alcoholic beverage research firm IWSR, but local and regional brands are driving the category closer to growth each year.
“Innovative flavor profiles and varying levels of ABV continue to drive awareness of the segment,” said Adam Rogers, Research Director for North America, IWSR “Increasing levels of innovation bode well for the category. Existing flavors and ABVs will be joined by light ciders containing lower calories and sugar.”
Burk agrees that innovation and creating new flavor blends are the way forward.
“Cider, as it turns out, is a great carrier for other fruit flavors, and that’s really where American drinkers are at right now,” he said.
While it now has a national reach, the family farm will always be at the foundation of Blakes’ Beverage Company, Andrew Blake said. The farm, Blake’s Orchard & Cider Mill, now operates with 1,500-acre property, growing apples and other fruits, and hosts apple picking and other entertainments, across four retail locations that host 2 to 3 million visitors annually.
“The soul of the Blake’s Hard Cider brand comes from the family farm,” Blake said. And while the family farm helps keep the cider business grounded and focus on the customer experience, the farm is launching new non-alcoholic beverage products with help from the cider business.
“We’re learning from each other and helping each other grow and evolve. I think that’s a sign of a really healthy relationship. So things are good on the farm,” Blake said.