Artistraw Cider

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Artistraw Cider Award winning cider, made with 100% pure juice and lots of love in rural Herefordshire.

Artistraw is a corruption of the old Herefordian word for shrew - an animal we are blessed with many of here at Artistraw HQ. In his eponymous diaries, Kilvert mentions the local pub, the Swan Inn, and its proprietor Price getting very excited by a 'Hardy-straw' on the banks of the Wye at Bredwardine - less than a mile from our cider mill. That was in 1805, and shrews are still a-plenty in this neck of the woods! We love our old orchard - a haven for wildlife and conservation of our diverse natural world - organic in all but certification - unsprayed for at least forty years.

26/08/2026

We’ve just released some new ciders pals! All of these are now available on our website.

🌖Hedge Springer, 2023, 75cl (off dry, ancestral method, natural cider, 6.0%) Batch size: 875 bottles

🍇Siegerrbe/Bloody Turk co-ferment, 2025, 75cl (medium, perlant, unfiltered, unpasteurised, wild fermented, pure juice, natural co-ferment, 5.8%) Batch size: 170 bottles

🪱Haerfest 2025, 75cl (sweet, perlant, natural cider, 5.6%) Batch size: 278 bottles

🍎Kingston Black, 2024, 75cl (medium, perlant, natural cider, 6.0%) Batch size: 354 bottles

🦔Urchin 2025, 75cl (medium, perlant, natural cider, 6.6%) Batch size: 567 bottles

👻Black Vaughn, 2023, 75cl (off dry, pet nat, natural cider, 4.6%) Batch size: 75 bottles

We hope you enjoy them!

Ps this is my first foray into stop motion and it has driven me MAD. Hurrah for real, messy, painted art though! You’ll never get any of that fake nonsense from us!

01/08/2026

If you like your stories fraught with jeopardy, then this one is for you!

Artistraw is the product of the insatiable curiosity and appetite for adventure shared by Lydia and Tom. We’ve not intr...
08/07/2026

Artistraw is the product of the insatiable curiosity and appetite for adventure shared by Lydia and Tom. We’ve not introduced ourselves here for about three years so allow us to set that straight!

Back in 2003, Tom convinced the Environmental society at Imperial College where he was studying for his PhD, to run a “research trip” to an old orchard in Herefordshire. In the short term he gained fuel for a summer’s worth of parties and in the long, the spark of interest that in 2017 would become Artistraw, had been lit. Returning to Herefordshire every year to make cider, Tom had an impressive 13 seasons under his belt before Artistraw was even the seed of an idea!

To begin with, I had absolutely no intention of getting involved with cider-making beyond helping Tom out by designing the labels. However, my heart had other ideas and an inspiring visit to an orchard in Normandy was enough to spell the beginning of the end of my career in theatre costume. In delightful juxtaposition, there was a time when my knees would go from crawling around the soft grass of Herefordian orchards on a Sunday, to the hard fitting room floor of the National Theatre whilst pinning hems on Hollywood actress’s frocks on a Monday.
We now care for around 30 acres of ancient orchard and have planted our own museum orchard filled with over 100 varieties. Our cider will always be made naturally. There will never be any adding of sugar, water or sulphites or pasteurisation. Everything is fermented spontaneously with wild yeasts. We only use fruit that the two of us have handpicked from unsprayed, biodiversity rich, traditional standard orchards and are as local to us as possible.
Everything that you see here is created by the two of us. We hand pick all of the fruit (all 14 tonnes of it!), press it, bottle it. We plant and prune the trees. The bottle artwork is hand-painted by me and stuck to the bottles using an up-cycled, and crucially, plastic free glue invented by Tom. I design our leaflets, Tom photographs our products. You’ll find us behind market stalls and it’s us who packs your web shop orders. We love doing what we do and hope you enjoy our ciders as much as we enjoy making them!

As many of you will know, Tom and I outgrew our tiny 4x4m cidery a long, long time ago. We often joke (and without a hin...
14/05/2026

As many of you will know, Tom and I outgrew our tiny 4x4m cidery a long, long time ago. We often joke (and without a hint of irony) that the only room in our home that doesn’t have cider stored in it is the bathroom. As much as we’ve struggled and uttered a dictionary’s worth of choice words describing our current cider shed’s numerous limitations, we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved in our current set up. We’ve produced nearly 6,000 litres of award winning cider a year, garnered national recognition by appearing in , on and to name but a few, we’ve hosted nearly six hundred of you to date on tours and tastings, we’ve led moth spotting workshops in the orchard, danced barefoot at our Beltane and Lammas celebrations and sung songs and sipped mulled cider around the bonfire under cold starry skies at our Wassail! However, the Earth keeps spinning and we with it.
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At the end of last year we successfully secured planning permission for a bigger cidery and seminar room! As well as being able to make a little bit more cider, this extra space will mean more events! Think talks, tastings, art exhibitions and the like! Plus we’ll finally have a sheltered spot to take our tour groups into on the less clement days and open our cider garden to you all a bit more frequently!
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The way we make our cider won’t be changing. The fruit will still be handpicked by Tom and I from ancient orchards and fermented naturally without any additions, but instead of clambering over boxes full of maturing cider to rest our heads after a long day in the orchard, we’ll be able to regain some semblance of work life balance which, after nearly ten years will be most welcome!
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We’re currently on track to have the new cidery built by the time the apples start falling. Stay tuned to keep up to date with our progress and we look forward to showing you all around when it’s finished!

Join us for our fourth annual celebration of Beltane this Saturday! We’re delighted to welcome to the orchard who will ...
06/05/2026

Join us for our fourth annual celebration of Beltane this Saturday! We’re delighted to welcome to the orchard who will be serving up delicous food all afternoon.
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The bar will be stocked with the best locally made drinks available with cider from ourselves of course! We’ll also have a good range of non-alcoholic options.
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As if that wasn’t enough we’ll also be treated to some wonderful music from .devils.dream who will be playing evocative and fiery tunes from the mountains of Appalachia on old-time fiddle and clawhammer banjo and will be sure to have you up and dancing!
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Come and join us around the campfire for a truly memorable Beltane!
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Parking is first come, first served at the venue. Alternatively, we are reachable by foot via the Wye Valley Walk- a beautiful stroll direcly across the fields from Hay on Wye that takes around 40mins. Additional un-offical parking may also be available at St. Mary’s Church, Clifford. (//////delighted.wicked.hardback).

The sun is out and we have five new releases for you! 🌞Each spring and autumn we curate a collection of some of our most...
07/04/2026

The sun is out and we have five new releases for you!
🌞
Each spring and autumn we curate a collection of some of our most special bottlings. Selected with the season in mind and including a wide range of different styles, most of the drinks in this collection are limited to fewer than 80 bottles and often the product of a single tree! Head to our website if you want to grab the full set!
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Introducing:

🍎🍐‘Cerry’ 2023 75cl (Dry, perlant, cider/perry co-ferment, 6.0%) Batch size: 76 bottles

🌖’Moon Fruit’ 2024 75cl (Medium, single variety, perlant, cider, 4.8%) Batch size: 82 bottles

🌸’Pink Piquette du Pomme’ 2022 75cl (Dry, pet nat, natural grape skin contact ciderkin , 2.5%) Batch size: 75 bottles

🕊️📦❌’No Amazons’ 2024 (Medium, pet nat, cider, 5.6%) Batch size: 226 bottles

💜 ‘Bisquet 2024’ (Medium, perlant, cider, 4.7%) Batch size: 551 bottles


Here at Artistraw we make natural cider. That means we don’t add sugar, water or sulphites. We don’t pasteurise our cider and we ferment spontaneously using the apples wonderful wild yeasts. We only use fruit that Tom and I have handpicked from unsprayed, biodiversity rich, traditional standard orchards and are as local to us as possible. The two of us hand pick around 15 tonnes of apples a year, comprising around 40 different varieties, each with its own unique attributes. This is a number set to grow as our own museum orchard, full of over 100 hand grafted rare varieties, begins to fruit! Could this season see the first Artistaw ‘home orchard’ cider? Watch this space!
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We hope you enjoy this season’s collection!

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Hay On Wye
Wye
HR35EZ

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