Beardsley Cider Mill & Orchard

Beardsley’s pies have artificial flavors, additives, and high fructose corn syrup (one of the most damaging ingredients to our diet you can ingest). In this day and age, that is a big fail. Read the ingredients labels. Big disappointment.

The apple cider donuts are amazing, and the pumpkin pie is above average. The orchards are fine, and there’s a lot of Apple variety, but nothing extra ordinary.

Best warm, fresh cider donuts ever!!! It’s 2 m away from jones so we went after pumpkin picking and boy did they hit the spot. Easy parking, the ape picking was good when we did that a few years back as well. Less commercialized then many other spots but pretty authentic.

I tried another place than my usual this year for Apple/​pumpkin picking, and I must say it was a great decision to switch it up and visit another area of CT! I was bummed to find out that Jones did not have pick your own apples, but with a little more searching I stumbled across Beardsley and was able to make a day out of visiting both! They had so many varieties of apples and the trees were all filled!!! They have my favorite, mutsu, and we ended up with some pretty large apples (probably the largest I’ve seen .). You pay by the pound. There was a sweet gentlemen playing his guitar by the check out. Loved that. Parking was easy, and there bakery smelled DELICIOUS. Today was hot walking around so we didn’t get the hot cider, and now I’m kicking myself for that… we used this stop in between jones winery and digrazia. I suggest stopping here for cider and some donuts!

If you are looking to pick your own apples this is the place. Charming, especially the country singer strumming his guitar at checkout.

Apples are good but expensive. Everything they sell here is expensive but it’s the White Hills so what do u expect. I dont mind paying of the stuff was if better quality but The pies are frozen and baked on site NOT made on site. Also, the apple cider donuts are not made there either. I watched one day as a couple of workers in plain view not trying to pretend they make the donuts there place donuts one by one out of a bin from the fridge and through a quick warmer oven and then placed into the sugar and then bagged and handed to u warm. That I have to say was the biggest disappointment ever. I live within 5 minutes of this place and still choose to travel to an orchard in Southington for apples, pies and donuts at a more reasonable price and better tasting.

I met some friendly people with nice homemade desserts on my single visit to Beardsley. We traveled far just to get some pie, and we were well rewarded for the journey.
We ate the entire pecan pie in the car. It was just delicious, not overly sweet as pecan pies often are. I wish we could have gotten the pumpkin cheesecake, but it’s only sold frozen. We needed desserts there and now.
Also, the apple cider is refreshing – both cold, for those thirsty among us, and hot, for those needing warming up.
From the looks of it, the orchard is pretty small. However, in the shop they sell a rather wide variety of apples. I was impressed.

Sadly… I visited on the last day of PYO… disguised as a «Scavenger Hunt» I found 0 apples…0…The Hot Apple Cider was one of the best I’ve had in CT, but the «Donuts» were nothing to write home about especially at $ 15/dozen…Wouldn’t mind going again maybe I’ll try to visit earlier on in the PYO season

Every year for the past decade we have taken the kids apple picking, normally in the Hudson valley. This year we tried Connecticut, so we took them to Beardsley.
At first glance this looks like a pretty typical you-​pick apple orchard. Cash or check only, apples by the pound. Depending on when you come in the season, the selection in the orchard can be pretty thin. We went in mid October, and still found many of our favorite varieties but had to walk deep into the orchard to find trees with any apples on them at all.
Overall, I’d say that everything in the gift shop/​cider mill is done super well. Pies,. cheesecake, cider, etc. all very good. The apple cider doughnuts are HANDS DOWN THE BEST I’VE EVER HAD. It’s pretty obvious that the cider and prepared goods are their main attraction.
So if it’s so good then why only four stars? Two reasons. The apples are strictly by. the. pound. Most places have a bushel or large bag flat rate, and I think they should here too. Also it would be nice if they had wagon rentals or other stuff for the kids. Maybe I’m being too picky. The place really is an all around great orchard.

An important stop on the CT wine trail!
Not for wine though, but for a brief respite. The hot cider and freshly made cider donuts are heaven. Also, the Apple caramel bread was a treat the morning after!

Their apples are great, their cider is phenomenal, and their pumpkin cheesecake is TO DIE FOR! If I were on death row, I’d want their Pumpkin Cheesecake as my last dessert! I definitely look forward to visiting their store every year. :)

Pies, donuts, and cider to killed for! A picturesque destination for the entire family on a late summer or fall day! Hard cider brewers call ahead for cider making times and they will fill your buckets and carboys!

Still gots it!!! OMG yummy… it’s honestly like drinking a fresh apple! Giddy to return and get some cider doughnuts too. Funny story told me by the sales clerk: Mr Beardsley had his in on the property when a few decades ago, a hit and run bus driver (with kids in it) ran into a cow farm, setting it on fire and numbering its days.
Fluffy, light, and not terribly sweet. The outer layer could hold a nice ever gentle crunch, but hey—
Soooo thankful it’s here. Wanna try its competitor just east of it one day.
Few months ago, there were U pick opportunities!
Go get your quick breads, apple butter, cider, and doughnuts. Place rules!

The donuts are amazing, as is the cider. They have a cute country store where you can buy locally made products. They also make great pies and cheese cakes. My only critical remark would be where they get their cheese cake from. When I asked, I was surprised by their answer: the Bronx. In this little country store their cheese cake should be made in CT. The cheese cake was very good through. Buy the cider donuts. They were amazing.

the cider donuts were good, but that wasn’t the only reason i was here…
i make a lot of cider at home. you know, not the sweet kind — the hard kind. i’m talking alcohol. when fermenting juice it is always good to start with a sweet cider that is good and not treated to a lot of chemicals. at beardsley you can get untreated cider by the gallon, or bring your carboy and they will fill it up for you. they have some funky ‘heirloom’ types of apples too that are good for making cider — like Spitzenberg, Baldwin, Golden Russet or Winesap… something different than you get everywhere else. I buy a lot of apples and juice (cider) from all sorts of orchards around the state to ferment and Beardsley is the top of the crop for me .
(note that this is a seasonal farm stand business so check the website or call ahead before going!)

The apple crumb pie is toooooooooooooooo sweet. Crust is good and apples are cooked the way they should be but it’s just too sweet. Why does everyone think that apple pie has to be so sweet? I’d like the taste of the apples to hit me first not sugar. I got one last year and don’t remember it being this sweet. I’d still try other pies there though. I love the fact that their crust is not mushy on the bottom like so many are.

It’s great to have such a nice place so close to home, the cider doughnuts are the best!

The apple cider doughnuts here were so amazing that I had to update my Unilocal Profile. In the parking lot of this little cider stand, I discovered that I DO still like doughnuts. But only the very freshest, warmest, simplest of cider doughnuts, which is what they sell here. These things are actually elegant and it occurs to me that the almost-​famous Still River Café was trying to achieve just this with their beignet type dessert, which I had a while back.
We visited the day before Thanksgiving and the place was bustling, but efficient. I ate 3 of my half-​dozen doughnuts while we tooled around doing the rest of our Turkey Day shopping. And then I ate doughnut #4 a few days later, after toasting it in the toaster oven. It held up remarkably well…
The actual cider was above average, but didn’t blow me away.
We also bought a pecan pie, which I suspect is not really a house specialty of theirs, as the ingredient list contained a lot of junk. Maybe the apple pies are fresh and made with butter and sugar, but this was. .. not. Still, it was a good pecan pie, if you like them, and the proportion of delicate and crispy crust to lusciously nutty filling was perfect. We got a pecan pie because I don’t care for apple pie. .. at least, I think I don’t. Maybe I just need to try Beardsley’s.

Now this is my kind of pie! Full of butter and sugar, I could just about see my stomach expand with each bite! The apple pie was so addicting, I couldn’t put it down!
They sell a whole lot of other things too like pecan pie, apple jam, apple cider (delicious) and more. Def will be coming back next fall!

Last year, after picking pumpkins at Jones Tree Farm, we stopped at Beardsley Cider Mill and Orchard. It was late in the season, but we went and picked apples. You can also pick plums there are we meant to go back and pick some plums this year when they were in season, but didn’t make it.
Yet we did go back this year to pick up some cider after our pumpkin picking adventure. The store was packed. If you go on a busy pumpkin picking day, expect a long line.
They had a kit there for making your own hard cider. We actually had what we needed, so we went home, cleaned and organized our equipment and came back and bought five gallons.
They told us that next time we should just bring our carboy and they would fill it up directly from the cider press. That is what we did for our second batch of home made hard cider.
It is great to be able to get cider fresh off the press, and we really enjoy the store.