First off we’d like to give a hearty Hallets’ thank you to all you merrymaking festival go-ers who came out to see us at the Abergavenny Food Festival this past weekend.
The sun was shining and the temperatures were up which made for perfect cider-swilling weather, and people wasted little time in capitalising on it. I don’t suppose you necessarily need an excuse to start drinking at 9.30 in the morning, but it’s nice when you’ve got one.
That was the time we sold our first pint on Saturday and we didn’t stop selling them until early evening. So thirsty were the Hallets patrons, our stock began dwindling in mid-afternoon as Andy was forced to make an emergency run back to the farm’s cold store
Even with a limited selection available people kept queuing and we were down to just one box of draught and a few bottles before Andy made it back in time. A cheer went up from the crowd and Annie sat down with a sigh.
Blindfold, again, was a hot pick with punters on both Saturday and Sunday, as was the limited edition, Rum Cask, that seems to be ever increasing in popularity since it became available earlier this year.
The entire event was a terrific success with all sorts of presentations, demonstrations and discussions being held throughout the weekend. A highlight of which was Pete Brown’s funny five-minute rant on ‘fruit cider’.
His argument was a justifiable one: there’s no fruit in them, and they’re not cider. A fair point, we thought. This is probably what makes their label of ‘fruit cider’ a little misleading and it’s definitely what makes their taste rank.
Pete’s advice to the folk listening was to instead try the good stuff on offer from the craft producers at the festival, kindly giving Blaengawney a very welcomed name drop (which I’m sure didn’t hurt our sales).

Another big thanks to those who made it over to Abergavenny and if you think you didn’t quite buy enough, visit our website or come up and see us at the farm.