Simple Cider Co: Pressing Apples to Build Community

WHO:	Simple Cider Co
BUSINESS TYPE:	Apple Juice Producer
SIGNATURE PRODUCTS:	Apple juice made from 100% pressed apples
WHERE: IN-PERSON: WEBSITE:	Annandale Annandale Farmers Market and the Maple Lake Makers and Growers Market https://www.simpleciderco.com

 

By Michelle M. Sharp, Founder and Content Creator of Meet the Minnesota Makers

For this Minnesota small business, apples are the “core” for building community. 

Nick Revoir of Annandale’s Simple Cider Co produces single-ingredient pressed apple juice. That juice, whether flat or sparkling, is his key for creating community connections, especially among families with young children.  

A NEW HOSPITALITY

As his oldest daughter transitioned into mobile toddlerhood, Nick began to see that there was a lack of natural gathering spaces where families

could interact. Toddlers and preschoolers need to move, they may be loud and everyone benefits when the space is somewhat tailored to them. 

Outdoor playgrounds fade from rotation as the temperatures dip. Trampoline parks and indoor gyms are great to let kids run, but they don’t provide interactive spaces for the adults in the families to meet each other. 

Nick’s vision is that the adults can be an adult just as much as the kids can be kids within their cidery. Simple Cider Co will be a playground for all ages. “While we may be an apple juice provider right now, we hope to start a cidery that helps eliminate the social isolation of having young children and provide a collaborative space for families to enjoy.”

“Half of our company is about the apples. The other half is about the space,” explains Nick. “The space will be designed for all generations of a family. It will be a place of wonder, like walking into a children’s museum, where the ceiling and the floors aren’t just a normal design. It will be built as a safe place for the kids to be themselves while adult friends connect, commiserate and support each other.” 

JUST APPLES

The foundation of the company is the apples. “This is just such a clean, beautiful product because there’s no added sugar. There’s no watering down of it,” states Nick. “It’s just apples.” Four to five apples per jar to be precise. 

Simple Cider Co began as an in-home cottage food producer with a freezer drawer full of apple juice freezies and a press on the kitchen table. They have expanded home production with upgraded grinding and pressing equipment. They now look to move into their own farm and commercial kitchen space to expand their sales opportunities.  

As their juice and cider recipes develop and become better known, Nick eagerly anticipates building out their literal community space—the passion piece of the business for him. 

HULA HOOPS AND MELTING CRAYONS

It starts with their farmers market stand. In addition to the flats of apple juice for sale, the Simple Cider Co booth invites passersby with hula

hoops, a kid’s picnic table with crayons, a picnic chair for adults and samples. “We invite people to come sit down for a minute, let your kid play and just exist,” says Nick. “We don’t have our permanent space yet so we make our corner of the farmers market that space for a few hours on a Saturday. We have regular visitors now. That feels good. We want our booth to be our space within the community.” 

“There are mornings where I begrudgingly put the kid’s picnic table in my truck and mutter about how much easier it would be if I didn’t have to lug that around. There’s the challenges of weather or the August sun melting the crayons, but it’s important that we show up as this core piece of our mission,” reflects Nick. “We can’t expect people to understand what we’re trying to create if we don’t show them a little slice of how we can do that in a farmers market.”

Nick talked about the long road to achieve their goal and the importance of maintaining the fun of the dream. Whether it’s about adding cherry trees and beehives to the apple orchard for new juice combos or creating unisex bathrooms complete with a kid’s toilet and a sink step stool. “I would secretly love to reinvent how we think about public spaces,” smiles Nick. “Breweries and gathering spaces should be built so that everyone wants to go there and play. I would love for that sort of intentional design to be everywhere. Little touches like a padded section of a concrete floor with kids’ books nearby can have a huge impact for guests with young children.” 

RBIL’S WELL-PLACED PUSH

Simple Cider Co is a graduate of the 2024 cohort of the Rural Business Innovation Lab. Founded by CEDA, RBIL is a cohort-based, entrepreneurial

program that redefines the narrative of rural decline. Each cohort builds a peer network dense with ideas, expertise and resources that help rural small businesses start and scale their work within their communities. Working in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, RBIL supports rural businesses in their growth to become sustainable drivers of economic health.

For Simple Cider Co, working with the RBIL coaches shortened their timeline of building their dream space. “When I think about anyone starting anything new, whether it’s a hobby or a business, it’s sometimes that prod behind you saying, ‘Come on, don’t stop. Keep going. We want to see that space be real. We know you want to do it,’ that makes all the difference,” explains Nick. “Knowing I had an accountability partner was huge.” 

The questions from Cameron at their weekly meetings were especially important. “Knowing that Cameron would follow up and challenge me at just the right points is key,” shares Nick. “She is helping us to build our brand in a way that we’ll always be proud of.” 

Nick also observed the tremendous value of connecting with the other members of his cohort, including asking for their feedback on batch samples, “There’s this strange magic when you get makers and growers together that is a beacon of wishing everyone else success and ‘giving away’ your processes and secrets to enrich each others’ lives!”

GET IN TOUCH

Enjoy Simple Cider Co hospitality at the Annandale Farmers Market and the Maple Lake Makers and Growers Market. Visit https://www.simpleciderco.com for family-focused apple juice merchandise and more about the company. 

Follow Simple Cider Co on Facebook and Instagram for upcoming events. 

Contact Cameron Payne cameron.payne@cedausa.com at RBIL to learn more about the program. Visit https://www.cedausa.com/ruralinnovation/ for a program overview.

Follow @ruralbusinessinnovationlab on Instagram

Follow CEDA on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. 

Visit meettheminnesotamakers.com or follow @meettheminnesotamakers on Facebook and Instagram as well as Ambit and LinkedIn to discover the small business owners that make Minnesota an amazing place to be! Meet the Minnesota Makers is a news site that connects you to the local food, farms, artists and artisans that make Minnesota thrive.