Five Maidens Cider Co., located at 327 Polk St., is rooted in education, family and a shared love for hard cider. Co-owners Andrew David and Brian Williams first met in elementary school in Nazareth, Pennsylvania, and maintained their friendship over the years, eventually launching the cidery in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David, a former middle school English teacher and current reading specialist at Lehigh Valley Academy Charter School, and Brian Williams, who works in sales at ___, said their initial intention was to start a brewery. When David\u2019s wife was diagnosed with celiac disease, they decided to pivot from wheatgrain-derived products to apple-based ones so she could enjoy them as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Five Maidens gets its name both from its denotation of \u201cyoung fruit trees\u201d and, more abstractly, David and Williams\u2019 combined five young children. However, the pair began brewing beer in their backyards from home-brew kits in 2009 \u2014 long before having children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Their flavored alcoholic apple ciders have earned accolades in farm shows and cider competitions alike.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In January, Five Maidens entered six ciders into the annual Pennsylvania State Farm Show and returned home with an award ribbon for each entry. Their pineapple-infused \u201cUnder the Sea\u201d cider earned the business \u201cBest of Show,\u201d beating all other entries.<\/p>\n
Five Maidens began entering products in the Farm Show during its first year of operation. David said this year\u2019s show was by far the most fruitful in terms of awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t expecting to get one (award) after the other, after the other,\u201d David said. \u201cThen, when (we won) Best of Show, it was a great feeling.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The cidery\u2019s social media manager, Devynn Goodspeed, \u201922, said the mug club allows members to receive monthly cider mugs with fresh designs and has helped Five Maidens maintain a loyal group of regulars.<\/p>\n
Goodspeed said Five Maidens is made up of individuals who love where they work. Many employees have other day jobs, she said, but dedicate time to the cidery because of the community and their passion for the work.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNo one makes a lot of money,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just for the heart of having a place to be and hang out and getting to share with people.\u201d<\/p>\n
David said his wife is heavily involved in organizing and hosting events such as Kahoot!, Trivia and music bingo. Customers can find a dedicated kids corner with a television playing Joe Brumm\u2019s \u201cBluey.\u201d<\/p>\n
Goodspeed, whose relationship with Five Maidens dates back to her senior year of college at Lehigh, returned this past year to assist with digital marketing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
After showing social media posts she created for her day job at Blue Ridge Communications to bartenders at Five Maidens, they reached out to ask if she could bring her expertise to their business. She said her role is to boost engagement online by spotlighting employees and upcoming events.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes me feel like family because (Five Maiden\u2019s staff) remembered who I was by being a loyal customer, and noticed that I was interested in marketing and design,\u201d Goodspeed said. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to increase the foot traffic here, because (they\u2019re) really great people.\u201d<\/p>\n
Aside from planning special events and promoting the cidery online, bartender Jeff Lillie took a different approach to marketing and assumed the role of \u201cMr. Maiden.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Maiden,\u201d Five Maidens\u2019 unofficial mascot, is a large red apple. Lillie said the mascot hasn\u2019t made an appearance in a couple of years but left an impression on passersby when he did.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Maiden\u201d first appeared at Musikfest in 2022 during the cidery\u2019s one year anniversary celebration. Lillie said the mascot\u2019s last appearance resulted in him and David\u2019s wife being asked to leave the venue for distributing stickers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a different side of marketing,\u201d Goodspeed said. \u201cThe stuff I do isn\u2019t always so memorable, but people will remember an apple.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over the past five years, Five Maidens has taken different creative approaches like these to spread appreciation for cider in the Lehigh Valley. David and Williams said they love their cider and want others to appreciate it as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I love most about Five Maidens is the way people learn what cider can be versus what they\u2019ve probably been accustomed to with the mass-produced Angry Orchards of the world,\u201d Williams said. \u201cGiving an education to the customer and changing their perspective, that\u2019s probably one of the coolest things for me.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Five Maidens Cider Co., located at 327 Polk St., is rooted in education, family and a shared love…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3946,119,121,120,1197,4602],"class_list":["post-125493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-4-min-read","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-feature","tag-south-side"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}