Is Soft-Serve Hard Cider The Next Fall Food Trend?

For kids, cold drinks and iced treats make up for the heat of summer and whether they are Slurpees, snowcones, or shaved ice — these drinks are linked to the memories of fun summer days. Once we reach adulthood, those drinks turn into frozen margaritas or daiquiris, the concept hasn't changed, we still relate them to summer and having fun with friends, just with a little more kick. 

Back in 2016 the senior food editor at Bon Appétit, Rick Martinez, posted a recipe for Frosé — a frozen rosé wine mixed with sugar and fresh strawberries. Martinez told the Washington Post that while he didn't invent the drink, "It exploded and it was at the top of our charts for several weeks." In regard to the popularity of the recipe, he said, "It screams summer and it's not trying to be anything other than the rosé itself."

Now, instead of holding drinks at the club, we might be holding cones of soft-serve hard cider. 

According to Food & Wine, in response to the popular summer Frosé drink, Will and Elle Correll of Buskey Cider decided to invest in a machine that turns alcohol into frozen treats. The machine — known as Below Zero — uses a binding agent to turn cider into sorbet. 

"Soft serve and cider are two known enjoyable items, and combining the two concepts would get people excited about trying a cone in general and subsequent flavors after that," Elle told Food & Wine. During its debut, the treat proved very popular, selling 200 cones at the Buskey Cider brewery. 

Flavors in the Buskey Cider repertoire include 'harvest apple', watermelon rosemary, and pineapple amongst many others. The hard cider soft serve is currently only available from the brewery in Richmond, Virginia but perhaps it won't be too long before other cider houses catch on and the rest of the country can enjoy this boozy treat as well.