Catherine Fleming, CEO of Ironbark Ciderworks, and Jim Coffman, cidermaker responsible for their 2023 Cidercraft Awards Silver Medal, extend a personal invitation to you to join them for a captivating hour of live storytelling with author Janice Hoffmann as she shares selections from her nonfiction memoir shorts, an intimate look at a life filled with adventures, insights, and reflective wisdom.
🗓 Date: Sunday, November 19
🕑 Time: 2:00 PM
📍 Location: Ironbark Ciderworks
1420 N Claremont Blvd., Ste 107B
Claremont, CA 91711
Ode to Alcohol
I don’t drink, but not for lack of trying. When I was 16 and traveled with the School Band of America as the token girl percussionist, playing 20 concerts in 30 days in seven European countries, in a town along the Rhine at the mayor’s reception, I tippled. Again, at the Follies Bergere, when everyone else was looking at the sin on the stage, and no one was interested in my personal underage sin sips.
In college, I indulged in Boone’s Farm on a lazy Saturday afternoon on the banks of the Kenapocomoco River. I remember the gentle, warm rain that moved our picnic to under the buttresses of the bridge and the complete relaxation that liquified my limbs.
As a young adult at the School for International Training in southern Vermont, we bought Gallo and Mateus. We repurposed chianti bottles into candle holders, gracing our home decor with avocado seeds sprouting in terra cotta pots and bookshelves fashioned from planks and bricks. We went to receptions, stood around holding stemmed glasses, and drank what our friends drank in their own countries or countries where they had lived and worked before coming to Putney and Brattleboro.
Over the years, there were wine dinners, tastings, and cocktails galore for significant birthdays, special events, geotagging throughout the world, Canadian on the rocks in Banff, a Bellini at Harry’s Bar in Venice, an Aperol Spritz in Amalfi, prosecco in Portofino, a mai tai in Tahiti, a Pisco Sour in Machu Picchu, Calvados from a Normandy farmstand, a pint of lager in summer in the Cotswolds, mulled wine in winter in Germany, craft beers in Claremont after Sunday morning yoga, negronis from the Harrison McIntosh decanter I keep on my counter at the ready when friends drop by.
But alcohol is a depressant; perhaps it isn’t the same for you, but alcohol depresses me. My blood likes neither yeast nor gluten nor sugar, and if I drink, the next day is dismal, sad, soggy, loggy, foggy, and the older I get, the more the days are precious, and I’m fond of savoring them.
But, almost as bad, I get depressed when I realize I can no longer enjoy an ice-cold, shaken, not stirred, vodka martini made from French grapes, very dry, just open the vermouth, take a whiff, then put it back on the shelf, very dirty, just give me olive juice, in a sidecar, please, in your best martini glass, Orrefors if you have it, Baccarat will do if you don’t.
Yes, I get depressed when I think I can no longer indulge, but not as depressed as I would be if I drank that perfect martini.
Now, I sit quietly and watch my husband, our kids, the neighbors, on the back patio, at a reception, in a bar, glasses in one hand, drinking whatever it is they have come to drink over the years, cups running over with preferences, overflowing with bubbles, experiences, feelings, memories.
But wait! I just discovered one drink I can drink, and the morning after, life is still worth living. Catherine Fleming and Jim Coffman of Ironbark Ciderworks have created alcoholic cider with no preservatives, sugar, or gluten, and I can drink again!
So, I hope you listen to your body and drink, or not, whatever is best for you, and if you are near Claremont, come and join us this Sunday afternoon to hear Stories by Janus, and if not, enjoy your favorite beverage wherever you are.