Hood River Juice Adds Pink Lady Cider To Ryan’s Product Line

The Hood River Juice Company (HRJCO) is adding the Pink Lady Brand Apple to its special Ryan’s Fresh Fruit Juices.

According to Julie Ueland, HRJCO product development administrator, the Pink Lady Cider will be joining Opal, Fuji Pom and Honeycrisp at what is the Northwest’s largest fresh apple cider manufacturer.

“We are very excited to have Pink Lady added to our cider line,” Ueland says. “It’s a great fit with the other ciders we’ve made available and in fact thanks to its sweet/tart flavor profile, it provides consumers with another tasting experience.” “Like our other ciders, the Pink Lady will be displayed in the produce section at local grocery stores, ideally near the fresh Pink Lady Brand Apples.”

Yet another positive factor in the addition of Pink Lady to the Ryan’s line, is that part of the proceeds from product sales will go to help support breast cancer research, company officials say. This will be in the region in which it’s sold with local chapters of Susan G. Komen.

Echoing Ueland’s enthusiasm is Dr. John Reeves, the general manager of Pink Lady America LLC (PLA) in Yakima, Wash. “Value-added products like what we’re seeing with Ryan’s is yet more evidence of the success of our efforts in this regard,” Dr. Reeves says. “Value-added products such as juice, cider and slices are good news for the Pink Lady Growers.”

“Even though this apple is well known for being ‘grower friendly’ because a very large percentage of it goes to the fresh market, to have the rest of those apples not making it providing a return is a real bonus for these growers.”

Ryan’s brand cider is crafted at a facility located on the Columbia River in Hood River, Oregon.

According to its website, it “acquires the best apples from Eastern Washington, pressing artisan quality juice and delivering it to some of the largest beverage wholesalers and retailers in the country.”

Promoting its apple ciders as “nothing but 100 percent apples,” the Pink Lady Cider only comes in the half gallon size. Overall this product line comes in gallons, half gallons, pints and “a perfect size for kids: The Kids Swigs” half pint.