Woodchuck Cidery

On our last day in Vermont, we drove out to Middlebury to visit the Woodchuck Cidery! This was probably what I was most excited for, besides just getting away in general with friends. I've always wanted to go to a cidery. Since I dont like beer, I wouldn't really enjoy going to a brewery, but I love hard cider so this was really exciting for me!









To get there, we had to drive through the Green Mountain Forest, which was awesome. It's probably one of the best drives I've ever done. It felt so historical and it was really scenic. There were so many nice views. Oh, and we drove by a farm that just had a bunch of kittens running around. It was the cutest. The route is Route 125, and there are a bunch of other routes that go off of it that I think probably go up into the mountains. I wanted to drive up them, but I also didn't want to get lost and sidetracked forever. We did stop at one point on the way to the cidery to explore a trail a little.









When we got to the Cidery,  we saw the awesome Woodchuck truck parked in their lot and got pictures with that. We were also excited to have WiFi and service...lol. I'm sorry. I'm a 21st century gal, and I need my Internets.















Inside, they had a gift shop with Woodchuck merchandise, as well as bottles and cases of any flavor of Woodchuck you'd want. My personal favorite is the Fall flavor, which Ashley actually ended up getting me as one of my birthday gifts. They also had tables with checkerboards and Woodchuck bottle caps used as the checkers.











The Woodchuck Cidery offers cider tastings, and the best part is that they're FREE. You get to try 4 different ciders for free, and any additional one you want to try is only $1. They also have some little snacks for sale as well to go along with your cider. For the tasting, they give you a list of all the ciders you can try, and you get to mark off the ones you want. I ended up trying Sour Cherry, Ciderbration, Pink, and Local Nectar. Local Nectar is only made with apples from Vermont. My favorite of the 4 was definitely Ciderbration. It was flavorful and sweet, which I love.











In addition to the tasting, you get to do a self-guided tour of the factory. It's sort of like a mini museum with all kinds of artifacts and facts about the company and its history. It's in a room that is enclosed with glass and overlooks the factory where you can see where the cider is made and then bottled. It was cool to see all the bottles moving on the conveyor belts. I felt like I was in an episode of How It's Made.









After the tour, I browsed the gift shop some more and decided on getting a Woodchuck pint glass. It felt like a good and practical choice for a souvenir. After that, we decided to head back to Chelsea to get our things together and make the trek back home.









On our way back, we stopped at this college campus that was called Bread Loaf Campus. It was in the middle of the Green Mountain Forest, so it had really nice views and was surrounded by foliage. It was so pretty. I would love to have gone to a campus like that for college, though I wouldn't want to be in the middle of the mountains away from everything. I can't even remember how far it was from Middlebury where all the stores were. Anyway, I had to stop and get some pictures here before we went back!

Dress: Ruche//Shirt: Forever 21//Tights: ASOS//Belt: Forever 21//Shoes: H&M

When we got back to Chelsea, we packed our things and headed home. It was a nice mini vacation, but it always feels good to be back home after you've been away. There's nothing like your own bed, complete with a cat to snuggle. Next time we go up, I definitely want to go a little earlier. Maybe at the end of September. I feel like the leaves won't have fallen off already so much and it'll be a little warmer. October is usually pretty crazy, anyway, and September is usually the opposite so that should be a good time for next year!