Bull City Ciderworks takes Durham by the horns

Locals enjoy ciders along with live music and fun games. (Staff photo by Camari Jones)


 

Downtown Durham is expanding more and more every day.

New apartments are in the process of being built, family-owned and small businesses are almost taking over the Durham area.
There is also a new taproom that is taking the Bull City by the horns, Bull City Ciderworks.

Bull City Ciderworks began with four childhood friends coming together and creating cider from their garage.

After letting local neighbors get a taste, the word spread like wild-fire and the cider revolution began.

BCC has been up and running since 2013 and have locations in Lexington, NC and Durham.

They moved from their old location in Durham to the corner of East Pettigrew Street and South Roxboro Street in February.
This is not just regular cider someone can find at a gas station, this is made with 100% apple juice and never back-sweetened with high fructose corn syrup.

“Our cider isn’t like mainstream ciders that are loaded up with sugar, it’s much more pure and natural,” said Bar Manager Patrick Bagley.

“The business started in Lexington,” said Bartender Tyler Schwartz. “Which is where she of the owners were originally from.”
Lexington, which is 45 minutes away is where production of the ciders are.

“Soon we’ll be up and running production back here and making small batches of cider here,” said Bagley.

Not only is Bull City Ciderworks focused on creating authentic and original cider, they are also a brand.

As a guest walks into the building, they see their logo everywhere.

The logo is on glasses for the ciders, it is on t-shirts and also mason jars that guests can purchase and take home.

Bull City Ciderworks also has events. Saturday September 30 , they hosted a festival called “Cider Jam”
This was a way to get locals to see the new location and taste their new seasonal cider “Cardinal Cin” which is a semi-sweet cinnamon infused cider with amazing cherry and cinnamon aroma.

There was a live band, food trucks and games for the community to enjoy.

“The big goal is to have a big party but also to show people we have a cool location to enjoy,” said Bagley.

At the front door, raffle tickets were being sold for $5 each which guests could take to the bar to redeem a cider of their choice.

There is also a game area where guests can pick from Scrabble, Jenga, Sorry and many more board games to play while enjoying their hand-crafted ciders.

“Our biggest competitor is trying to crush this norm of what people think cider tastes like and what it actually is,” said Bagley.