2 Towns Ciderhouse is bringing The Baddie cider back to Corvallis this spring to celebrate Women’s History Month.
The Baddie is a female-created hard cider made in collaboration with Pink Lady apples. The bold, yet subtle cider can already be found in the 2 Towns taproom. Bottles are currently hitting shelves of major chain stores in Oregon and six other western states, just in time for Women’s History Month in March.
A portion of The Baddie’s proceeds will be donated to the Pink Boots Society, a national nonprofit that “supports women and non-binary individuals in the fermented/alcoholic beverage industry to advance their careers through education,” according to the 2 Towns press release.
2 Towns Marketing Director Danelle Kronmiller said the idea for a women-led cider was originally inspired by the ciderhouse’s strong relationship with Pink Lady apples.
“We thought doing a cider with Pink Lady apples as the key ingredient and then having it be a cider that represented courage, strength and grit of all women, was a wonderful cider to produce in a predominantly male industry,” Kronmiller said.
According to Jessica Wisor, marketing manager at 2 Towns, this “delightfully elegant” cider took home several awards after its debut release in 2023, including first place in Botanical Herbed cider at the Northwest Cider Cup.
The woman behind the cider, Lucy Bauer, is a 2019 fermentation science graduate from Oregon State University. After OSU, Bauer eventually found her way back to Corvallis by landing a lab position at 2 Towns Ciderhouse. She is now the innovation manager at 2 Towns and lead cider maker for The Baddie.
Originally studying botany before switching her major to fermentation science, Bauer continues to be inspired by plants. This personal passion continued into the development process of The Baddie.
“I basically just sourced as many dried, edible flowers as I could and did trials in the lab, where I would infuse fermented cider base with all of these different flowers separately,” Bauer said. “Then we kind of honed in on which ones performed best individually and then together.”
Complementing the Pink Lady apple cider base, Bauer arrived at a botanical blend of rose, jasmine, chamomile and hibiscus – the latter providing the cider’s coral-pink color.
According to Kronmiller, women all across the company have touched this product in some way, from development and production to packaging and sales. Bauer gave a specific example of the cellar team, which includes several women.
“The cellar team actually has the very difficult job of infusing hundreds of pounds of dried flowers into the cider base,” Bauer said. “Then removing the spent botanicals afterwards.”
The Baddie initiative is part of 2 Towns’ C.I.D.E.R. team, or the Committee on Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Representation, explained Kronmiller. By giving a portion of its proceeds to the Pink Boots Society, The Baddie supports underserved people in the industry.
To align with their national distribution footprint, 2 Towns chose to support the Pink Boots Society because of its mission to advance women’s careers in the fermented and alcoholic beverage industry, both across the country and in their local chapters.
2 Towns is also programming events in up to five states, including Oregon, and donating a portion of The Baddie’s keg sales to local chapters of the Pink Boots Society, further supporting women in those communities.
“The alcoholic beverage industry, especially in the production side, is mostly men and so it can be kind of challenging for women to make space for themselves,” Bauer said. “The more you know, the more empowered you are to put yourself in these situations and grow your career path in the way you desire.”
The company has also established the 2 Towns Ciderhouse Change Scholarship under its C.I.D.E.R. team, according to Kronmiller. This scholarship benefits an underrepresented OSU student in the fermentation sciences program.
