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Cold Hollow Cider Mill

3600 Waterbury-Stowe Rd., Waterbury, VT - (802) 244-8771
Posted By Michael Stern on 1/29/2009 3:16:00 PM
The principal business of this very popular roadside attraction is making cider. You can get it cold, hot and mulled, or mixed with cranberry juice, by the cup or jug. It is flabbergasting to walk from the parking lot into the cider-press room, where the smell of apples is as intense as fermenting mash in a bourbon distillery. Here you can help yourself to a sample from a big silver drum, watch apples being pressed, or view a video that shows exactly how an apple on a tree becomes cider in a glass.

Walk from the cider press room into the store and a second olfactory wallop awaits. Here, the tantalizing smell of hot donuts rules the air, overwhelming even the aroma of the Vermont cheeses, maple candies, and baked breads for sale. A Cold Hollow cider donut is small, unraised and unfrosted, with a crunch to its surface and cakey insides as dark as gingerbread. Made with house cider and good measures of cinnamon and clove, it is a spicy morsel, just sweet enough to harmonize with apple cider. That harmony is this donut's raison d'etre.

It is fun to watch the donuts made on a single small machine in back. Perfect circles of dough are mechanically plopped into a kind of treadmill that takes them through the hot oil, flips them once, and sends them out into the air crusty hot and ready to be crunched by eager teeth.

4 out of 4 people found the review helpful. Was it helpful to you?

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Scorecard

2 - Overall: Good - Worth a Return
Overall: Good - Worth a Return
Apple Cider
Apple Cider Donut
Rate this place
A cup of hot cider along with a few apple cider donuts make a perfect Vermont snack.
"A cup of hot cider along with a few apple cider donuts make a perfect Vermont snack."
Cliff Strutz





Rows of apple cider donuts waiting to be bought and consumed. Don't worry about freshness, they were just made that morning.
"Rows of apple cider donuts waiting to be bought and consumed. Don't worry about freshness, they were just made that morning."
Cliff Strutz


If you get there early enough in the day, you can watch the donuts being made.
"If you get there early enough in the day, you can watch the donuts being made."
Cliff Strutz


There are plenty of non-donut baked goods available for sale.
"There are plenty of non-donut baked goods available for sale."
Cliff Strutz


Help yourself to the apple cider, either hot or cold.
"Help yourself to the apple cider, either hot or cold."
Cliff Strutz


Although not nearly as busy as the other big factory tour (Ben & Jerry's) down the street, Cold Hollow Cider Mill is still a popular tourist destination.
"Although not nearly as busy as the other big factory tour (Ben & Jerry's) down the street, Cold Hollow Cider Mill is still a popular tourist destination."
Cliff Strutz


Not sure about the 'Agri'-tainment, but we thoroughly enjoyed our visit.
"Not sure about the 'Agri'-tainment, but we thoroughly enjoyed our visit."
Cliff Strutz



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