Blindwood Cider Company

Blindwood Cider Company is a family owned & operated cideria in a small commercial shed. All ciders served are made on site. No outside ciders. weekends only. Small seating area: counter & some tables. Fills up quickly. Offerings: flights (4 oz.-3.5, 4.5), bottles, staples, seasonals. Specialities. -no food served. Just snacks. Outside food welcomed. Sips (flights): honey sage 6.9% abc-wildflower honey with sage from half moon bay. Dry with faint honey prescene. Not fruity.Dry hopped: 5.8% abv. -west coast hops with citrus qualities. Dry but not an IPA.Heirloom: 9.1% abv.-aged in french oak for 7 months. Apples harvested from Garin Park, Hayward. -boozy, slightly fruity. My kind of cider.Panacea: 7.9% abv-blend of California & Oregon apples, aged 6 months in french oak. Lotsa varietals. Had a few other sips before this. Boozy & smooth it was. Options Paralysis: 8.4% abv-barrel aged in a blend with 30 varietals from Alameda, Sonoma & Mariposa counties. Boozy & smooth. No singular note stood out. To go bottles: Arkansas Black (16/9%abv), Ginger Peppercorn (8/5.8%)-many people recommended this.5 stars!!! Owners look time to explain the individual ciders. I Have a preference for varietals, not blends. May eventually try them all.

San Leandro is quickly becoming a brewery hot spot but did you know that there's such a great cider taproom here?! Well, you do now.I first found Blindwood Cider Company on instagram, and when my friends stopped by recently, they let us know they had a trivia night too. I was sold - it was time for me to check it out!Blindwood Cider Company is a little hidden in an industrial area but they do have signs on the main street to direct you to their taproom. There's lots of parking in their parking lot. The taproom is small - it could fit probably ~25 - 35 people at a time and on trivia day, it was poppin'! They were playing a movie on the TV. They have board games available and local magazines to enjoy. And of course, trivia was so much fun. If you win, your picture is displayed on their wall. But of course, let's get to the main point: their ciders (spoiler alert - they're delicious). We tried three different ciders and ended up just getting a bottle of each to share with the table. We tried their heirloom (bottle pour special), ume, and macintosh. All very good with different levels of sweetness. I'm not super knowledgeable about cider so I won't drone off on the tasting notes. But for us, heirloom was the table favorite for the depth of flavor. Ume was good - it reminded me of a japanese plum wine almost. And Macintosh was a solid, true apple taste.There was just one staff holdin' it down the day we went but she was so great! She took the time to chat with everyone and make sure that everyone was enjoying.Can't wait to come back to try more! I didn't get to try the hot mulled cider this time, but it's definitely on my list for next time!

I'm a huge fan of ciders and really enjoy coming to Blindwood CIder Company. We've been lucky to meet Drew and Cathy who are always very helpful and knowledgeable. I've learned a lot from Drew in the conversations around crafting ciders to different flavors that ferment well with apples. I prefer dry ciders, so my go to are usually Dry Apple or the Dry Hopped. I've also tried the Ginger Peppercorn or the Honey Sage. It's their "Staples" cider. Try a flight and mix and match with others like Seasonal and Specialties.

I finally visited this taproom recently and so glad I did! Looking forward to being a regular customer. The husband/wife team behind the ciders is Drew and Cathy. We've had the pleasure of talking to each of them and they are both super nice and sweet! The taproom is only open Fridays to Sundays, selfishly I hope they increase their open hours soon! It's an intimate place, just two long tables, some bar seats, and some chairs. But the ciders are very tasty, high quality, and the flavor varieties are fun! I just had their new seasonal Cardi P - loved the name lol and it was super tasty!They don't serve food so you can bring some if you're hungry lol. Otherwise they sell snacks like chips and crackers! They also sell yummy bottles to go and merch! I enjoy supporting this place, come through and check them out!

I came on a sunny Sunday afternoon. This place is so fun! There was a group of people about 8 sitting at tables. All drinking flights. I think I luckily, missed the big rush. There are fresh flowers on the tables, loved that. There is awesome art, hanging on all the walls, that you can buy. Free board games to play while you drink or byo. You can even byo food. It was a really nice relaxing place to chill, and have some cold crisp cider. I ordered the Honey Sage cider. It was delicious, and would be pair so good with a charcuterie board for sure. I was craving and wanted one to snack on while I had my cider! Come check out this place, it's definitely worth it!

I went to a well known restaurant in San Leandro and felt like having a cider. The beverage was phenomenal and wanted to get a few bottles for home. It was a nice surprise to know that it was from a local company. During a weekend, I decided to try some tasting with the family and it was a blast. Blindwood offers great products, the service was great and the pricing reasonable.I highly recommended.

Nice selection of ciders and very friendly owners with a small but inviting taproom. We've had their Honey Sage, Peach & Lemon Verbena, and Hibiscus Mint at other local breweries and really enjoyed them, so decided to stop in upon learning that they had a taproom. We got a flight of their Puns n Roses, Zin, Ginger Peppercorn, Arkansas Black, Nehou Normal, and Jonathan, of which we liked the first two. Also got a bottle to go of their Coffee Chaff and Bourbon Barrel, which was very different from any of the other ciders we tried. We had a good time and look forward to coming back!

Wow wow wow. I meant to write this when I went a month ago but I described this place as cider that I've never had before - very clean, crisp, and some savory-influenced ciders like rosemary and peppercorn. Can't wait to go back!

I had the pleasure of going to a private event for a birthday party last night and had the time of my life. Some might say the space is small, but I would call it intimate. My husband and I had the ginger peppercorn and the dry hopped ciders- they tasted amazing. Just enough sweetness but didn't mess my stomach up like other high sugar ciders do. As a gluten free person, I appreciated all the love they put into their ciders, you can definitely taste it. Will definitely be coming back to support this small family business.

I didn't know I was a hard cider fan until I tried Blindwood Cider. Their approach to beverage is just so cozy and personable. Blindwood is comprised of a husband and wife duo creating a large variety of unique, delicious ciders. All at incredible price points by the way. Some ciders are made from unheard of single apple varietals. Some ciders are fermented with or flavored by really unexpectedly tasty flavors such as sage or fig. I'd also recommend signing up for their cider and cheese pairings with the Cheese Parlor in Livermore. I don't know how Blindwood and the Parlor create such spectacular pairings, but they do. I've never had a better beverage and food pairing in my life. It's truly magic. Blindwood is incredible and I think everyone needs to go in for a tasting flight so they can begin to experience their awesomeness too!!