Black Mountain Cider + Mead — Attraction in Black Mountain

During my recent trip to Asheville, NC, I knew that I wanted to visit local bars/breweries. After researching a few places online, I stumbled on Black Mountain Ciderworks. The reviews checked out and I felt confident I was going to have a great experience, plus, I love hard cider and supporting local businesses. We visited on a Friday afternoon and at the time, my mom and I were the only 2 people actually sitting at the bar. The outdoor area had people coming and going, but we decided to stay inside. I've been to many breweries before, and for the most part, the staff has always been friendly and willing to chat/answer any questions. We were barely greeted by the bartender, he did not ask if we have any questions at all and did not talk to us the entire time we sat inside. After I got the basic cider (because I felt nervous to even ask a question about which one to try) I wanted a small sample of another cider. Being from out-of-state, I didn't realize that NC law states that we can only have one drink at a time, including even the smallest samples. That is completely fine, however, our bartender rudely explained this to us, making the experience already feel more uncomfortable. My mom doesn't drink, so she had a ginger ale and this was my first drink of the day - we were clearly not intoxicated or rude by any means.The environment created by the bartender made this visit so unwelcoming, that I finished my 1 drink as quickly as possible and walked down the street to the...

Beware: you will never be the same after drinking David's cider. This is the real deal and will make make the store bought stuff disappointing forever. If you are used to hard cider as a sugary companion to Smirnoff Ice (like Angry Orchard), real cider may be a little shocking at first. It is more like dry or semi-sweet wine, but with an alcohol content around 6-7%. Not only did David have some tasty flavors (ginger and rosemary) when I visited last week, but he even had a true scrumpy cider, which used wild fermentation on a variety of cider apples (even crab apples!) which he fermented over the apple skins to add tannins. This was my first wild fermented cider and one with such high tannins. Drinking it was an experience I'll never forget and one of the highlights of my vacation. I live in Florida, and there is no chance here to get anything close to the quality of cider that David is making. Also, I don't think of myself as a mead drinker, but I very much enjoyed the Viking Blood he makes, too. I highly recommend this cider house. This is the cider the early colonists and founding fathers drank. This is...

The good news, the mead is interesting and very unique in flavor. The bad news, the owner/bartender was the most surly, bored, prickly human I've encountered in a while. This seems to be an all too often occurrence with craftsman of mead and beer, they are so sick of questions and customers that every reasonable question is just an avalanche of pain brought on to them. This gent was about one second from literally rolling his eyes at the simplest question. All his answers were one or two words with an exasperation. He was so rude, I was close to walking out at one point. Won't be getting a nickel of my money, nor will I send any of my friends his way. ...a little friendliness...