In the wake of a successful beverage development partnership with the Canadian Food & Wine Institute (CFWI) Innovation Centre in 2017, Reinhart Foods Ltd., has followed up with the launch of two hard ciders into the marketplace.
“Things continue to be extremely dynamic in the alcohol space, increasingly so with COVID-19’s impacts,” says Scott Singer, general manager and third-generation family member of Reinhart Foods.
Indeed, in 2019 the Stayner, Ont. company launched Reinhart’s Red Apple Strong Cider at 7 per cent alcohol and last year, released Reinhart’s Strawberry Hibiscus Cider at 5 per cent alcohol. Both products use 100 per cent Ontario-grown apples.
For these two products, Niagara College’s CFWI Innovation Centre assisted with carbonating, pasteurizing, and canning the samples when Reinhart first presented to the LCBO, explains Singer.
In 2017, Reinhart’s introduced its Red Apple Light Cider to the market, as a result of a close collaboration between the company and the research team at the CFWI Innovation Centre. At 3.8 per cent alcohol, it was the first light beverage of its kind in the Canadian hard cider category and is also made using 100 per cent Ontario-grown apples.
All three cider beverages are available at select grocery and LCBO stores across Ontario.
Singer credits Niagara College’s Research & Innovation team for its education and guidance in developing their initial cider, Red Apple Light: “Their skill, expertise, and knowledge was an invaluable asset. The journey of development was an experience for which we are most grateful.”
Thanks to funding by a College and Community Innovation Enhancement grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), the team, which included students, scientists and faculty, handled everything from product development, competitive and sensory analysis, and quality control, to knowledge transfer in providing final recipe and process for making the cider at Reinhart’s production site.
To read more about Reinhart’s Red Apple Light Cider project, click here
