Mired though I am in a sort of ‘cider writing has-been’ stasis for the last – God, how long has it been now? – there are a few things that can bring me trotting back to the keyboard, and one of those things is CraftCon.

CraftCon – though my guest will talk about it better and more fully in a couple of hundred words’ time – is one of the seminal events of the UK craft cider calendar. The only craft cider convention in the UK, but probably still the best even if it was one in a multitude. It also has an exceptional taste in keynote speakers, having asked an incumbent Cider Review Editor for each of the last two years. This year, however, since Barry remains in post, they have been forced to resort instead to one of the world’s foremost cider makers, thinkers and speakers, which obviously is tough luck for all concerned.

Anyway – for the last two years we have broken our ‘no press release regurgitation’ rule to share CraftCon’s when it has emerged. But this year, when the press release landed, we thought we should go a bit further and take the opportunity to interview one of the organisers, the peerless Rachel Hendry, whose J’Adore le Plonk Magazine was recently such a triumph.

Since Rachel is also speaking on the subject of newsletters and their application for craft cidermakers at the conference, I jumped at the chance to do a very meta interview, communicating on the subject of communication.

At which point I’ll shut up and let Rachel get on with it, with the final comment that CraftCon tickets are available here, that you only have until 3rd March to book them and that you really should do if you are able. Happy reading, and I dare say I’ll be back again in another six months or so!

Cider Review: First question – introduce yourself and how you came to cider and tell us about your roles in cider.

Rachel: My name’s Rachel, I think like most people I really got into cider through being introduced to Albert Johnson at Ross-on-Wye through a friend of a friend about seven years ago now. I’d worked in wine previously but I was quite ignorant about cider, and that really opened up a whole new world of drinks making.

And then I just got to know so many people within the cider community and it interlaced with a lot of the work that I do in hospitality and drinks communication and I’m very lucky and very blessed to get to meet and work alongside so many people. And now it’s so weird that that weekend just to go and visit some guy called Albert in Herefordshire seven years ago has now got me to where I work for the Three Counties Cider and Perry Association. I’m their Executive Assistant and Administrative Manager, which is to say that I do a lot of the emails – I send out the weekly newsletter – I help organise events and I’m on the CraftCon organisation committee as well.

CR: Well that leads perfectly to my next question: what is CraftCon?

Rachel: So to me, CraftCon is I think the UK’s only craft cidermaking conference. It’s a two-day conference that started in 2019 that’s aimed at cidermakers in the UK and now beyond. There are over 20 tastings, talks, seminars, lectures; there’s a networking dinner, a scion exchange, a bottle share, a ‘cider doctor’s’ for people to ask questions about the products they’ve made. It’s a really brilliant, education event that I think is probably the most exciting cider event in the annual calendar. But I am biased!

CR: You said ‘UK’ – and it is leaving the Three Counties for the first time this year. Is that part of a longer-term plan for the event?

Rachel: Yes, we’re going on tour, which is very exciting! Up until now it is a product of the Three Counties Cider and Perry Association and aside from the year it happened online it has always occurred within the Three Counties [Herefordshire, Gloucestershire, Worcestershire]. It’s a twofold decision; one, we’re very blessed that over the years the conference has grown – last year we had over 150 participants, which is a really incredible number, and this year we’re looking to get that to 200. It’s something that’s building each year and there are only so many venues in the Three Counties that can accommodate a certain number of people! So it’s more from a logistical perspective – if anyone reading this has any ideas of venues that might work in the Three Counties we are all ears! 

But we also kind of this year wanted to give the conference space to expand. So we were looking for a venue that was slightly bigger. And we also within that expansion wanted to move the conference around to make it accessible to people in other parts of the country who might want to have travelled, but not been able to make it. It’s still in its early stages but I think the idea is to keep it coming back to the Three Counties, but maybe find a way to, on alternate years, move it outside and try to have it in parts of the country, meet different people as a result. Which I think is a big part of the work we want to do with it – to make cider accessible and to keep a really lovely energy going. And I think movement helps with that.

CR: Talking of reaching broader audiences, you’ve got a particularly international lineup this year. You’ve had some amazing international guests in the past – Marco and Andrea from Italy, Barry from Germany-by-Ireland giving the keynote at last year’s conference. But this year it looks even more so?

Rachel: It is! It’s been lots of fun to co-ordinate; it’s been fun to send so many emails to so many different time zones! We’re really lucky to have Eleanor Leger from Eden Ciders coming to be our keynote speaker for this year’s conference. It’s just going to be incredible – we’re very, very excited for that. She’s going to be doing the opening speech and she’s also going to be doing a more in-depth tutored tasting into ice ciders, which I think is just going to be really gorgeous.

We also have a group of people from the American Cider Institute who are doing some really wonderful educational work with cider. And they’re now expanding that into Europe and beyond, which is really incredible. So they’re coming to CraftCon alongside doing a course the week after. We’ve got Brighid [O’Keane, Cider Institute Executive Director], we’ve got Christine Walters [of Bauman’s Cider and current President of the American Cider Association] and we’ve got Steven Trussler [education specialist at Brock University’s Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute in the Niagara region of Ontario, Canada].

Then from France we have Yann Gilles, who is on the board of the Cider Institute as well. So he’s coming to do a talk with them on faults and flaws and how to identify them, and he’s going to be part of the keeving workshop as well. So a really fantastic group of international cider experts coming over and doing a whole range of in-depth, specialised talks. 

Our international cider symposium this year as a result is going to be an exploration of US ciders which is going to be really interesting. So yes, it feels really exciting that as a result of all the work that has gone into CraftCon it is attracting speakers with an international platform. We’ve got delegates from the UK, but we’ve got delegates from all over Europe as well, which feels really exciting.

CR: And you’re doing a talk as well – on newsletters. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Rachel: I am doing a talk! I’ve not written it yet – my CraftCon to-do list is so long. Every week I think ‘yes, I’ve done all these things … oh no, I’ve not done my talk!’ But I will do it – and it will be great, hopefully.

It’s on the use of newsletters in business communication and marketing. Through my work with the Three Counties I send out a weekly newsletter to members, which is my favourite part of the job [Ed: one of my favourite emails every week!]. I also do newsletters for Little Pomona. I have been doing newsletters on and off for a lot of businesses as well as my own personal writing, so it’s something that I really enjoy.

I guess I’ve been sending drinks communication newsletters for about six years now. I think they’re such a useful business tool when done well, and I think there are lots of things that people might get wrong with them or not think about. I think emails are still, from my experience, a really strong way of getting sales and communicating your brand and reaching out to customers. 

So it’s kind of focussed on how to utilise newsletters. I think things are very overwhelming at the moment, there are just so many different options, and people just think ‘well I won’t do it at all.’ So I want to kind of break that down. I’m excited – we’ll be talking about emailing! Which seems really old-school but very fun.

CR: If I’m honest, communication and certainly direct marketing is an area in which craft/aspirational cidermakers have often struggled, for a lot of very understandable reasons. Without wanting to give away too many spoilers for your talk, what to you makes a good – or effective – newsletter?

Rachel: I think that it’s identifying what is unique about your brand or your product. I get so many emails all the time and I think ‘why are people opening that email that isn’t just “please buy this thing”?’ And I read the ones that have something interesting. I used to work for Hard Lines Coffee, and I get their weekly newsletter, and I really enjoy it because every week it’s a really simplified: ‘here are five things that various staff members are enjoying for whatever reason’. Sometimes a playlist or a movie recommendation or an article that they’re really enjoying. Then at some point in the second half of the newsletter there’ll be: ‘here’s an event’, ‘here’s a link to the project that we’re launching later this week’. But it’s not just a sales pitch – there’s something else.

When I do the Three Counties newsletter – and I don’t know whether anyone’s clocked this, maybe it’s just for me! – there’s a different apple-themed header each week that’s always new. Which is getting harder and harder as the weeks go on – I think when I started I was like ‘oh fantastic!’ and now it’s like ‘oh I need to find another new painting of an apple’. Which maybe no one picks up on, but for me there’s maybe someone who’s like ‘what has she picked this week?’ and that’s the reason they open it. As well as there being hopefully lots of useful information that’s keeping people up to date on what’s going on.

But it’s answering the question of why are people opening your email as opposed to the twenty others they’re receiving at that same scheduled time that morning? And why should they go each week: ‘oh great, they’ve emailed, I’m going to open it’ and not ‘oh God, straight to trash’.

CR: It’s so interesting, isn’t it? I started a new job a few months ago and I suppose I’ve written emails professionally since 2016, but all to such different briefs – initially those direct marketing sales emails where it’s all targeted and measured, then emails directly from a brand where sometimes you’re selling directly but often it’s brand storytelling. And now a sort of weird B-2-B hybrid where the newsletter is rarely but occasionally active response, and often you’re just trying to think, as you say, of what’s interesting to read, will tell the right stories, make people aware of useful things.

There are so many reasons you might want to write a newsletter, but particularly when you are the producer and there’s an onus to both grow brand and share stories but also fundamentally to sell your product, and finding that email that can do those jobs – but which people will want to read whatever the contents turn out to be is such an interesting brief.

The thing with newsletters, as with all communications, is that they’re a specialist skill. And I guess a lot of the makers who’d come to CraftCon are one or two-person operations, they’re busy and they may not have those specific skills. Are there any particular tips you have for doing newsletters and working them into your routines – besides just hiring a good writer!

Rachel: Yes, hire me, that’s the answer!

No, so with the Three Counties one I set up a template very early on. Which makes things very easy – you just duplicate it each week and change the bits that you need.

Then we’ve talked about ‘weekly’, but honestly I think monthly is the sweet spot, for me. With open rates as well, I think more people are inclined to open something once a month than they are once a week. So I would encourage people, if you’re thinking of starting one, to just aim for monthly and use that to sit for maybe twenty minutes a week collecting things like a photo from the orchard, pictures from an event you have coming up, tasting notes for products in process.

Share what’s happening with you – and then that product you’ve been updating your readers with tasting notes of, when 6-12 months down the line you’re wanting to sell that, you’ve kind of been drip-feeding it into inboxes for however long. And you can say ‘it’s ready, you can buy it’ – and people feel connected and will think ‘cool, I’m invested – I’ve been reading about that.’

So I think it doesn’t have to be this big daunting thing. And I think the more personal, especially in the age of AI copy, the better. I don’t think it needs to be this really polished thing. You’re just chatting to your customers about the work that you do, which is really interesting, and it can just be 10-15 minutes. They don’t have to be long, because no one has attention spans any more – so that’s fine! It can just be a little snippet into what that month has bought, maybe new things you have to sell as a result, what events you have, things that you’re doing. 

CR: Besides the international talks – and your talk! – what else do we have in the CraftCon lineup?

Rachel: Boy howdy it is such a gorgeous lineup! I was on the phone today with Alison Taffs, who is planning an introduction to blind tasting with cider which I just think is going to be brilliant. We’ve been really lucky to have Alison for the last couple of CraftCons talking about tasting and tasting notes and I think this is going to be like a progression of the last two talks that she’s done. She’s putting together a brilliant Systematic Approach to Blind Tasting Cider – which isn’t really done outside of wine circles. And I think it’s going to be really interesting to get people to think about what contributes to taste with no outside influence from the label or the maker or anything like that.

We have Martin Maudsley doing a talk on wassailing. The history and the culture and how to hold your own. The lovely James Fergusson and Chava Richman are doing a talk on their ‘Some Interesting Apples’ project, which I think will be really interesting, especially with all the talk about varieties and climate that we’re having at the moment. We’ve got Gabe Cook, the Ciderologist, doing a talk on the role of terroir in typicity and taste. Gabe’s always a treat to listen to.

We’ve got Ross Mangles and Sarah and John Whittick of Cider Apple Trees are talking about regenerative agriculture – which is something I’m really interested in – and kind of different approaches to managing orchards. They’re all so knowledgeable, so I think it’ll be so interesting – again in line with the fact that the seasons are shifting with climate change, and what that means, and other ways we can work with orchards and apple varieties.

The one and only Tom Tibbets is leading a titration workshop at lunchtime, which I think is the first time we’ve done that. An opportunity to get really geeky and sciencey. Helen Anne Smith of Burum is doing a talk on branding language, aesthetic and authenticity, and how to build and develop and hone brand, which will be fantastic. We’ve got Geoff Newman doing a talk on preserving traditional orchards, Bill Bradshaw’s doing a talk on cider photography.

I’ve definitely missed some out, but there’s such a gorgeous, long list of people. It’s great.

CR: And aside from CraftCon what’s going on with the Three Counties Cider and Perry Association at the moment, and why should people consider joining even if they’re not a cider or perrymaker geographically within the Three Counties?

Rachel: Well everyone should join because then they get a newsletter from me every week and it’s great!

We had our AGM in January, which was a big one because we had a reshuffle of the committee. Lydia Crimp of Artistraw is now our Chair and Martin Johnson of Ross-on-Wye is now our Deputy Chair. Tom Tibbets is staying on as Treasurer and Helen Anne Smith is staying on as Secretary, and we’ve had Matt Smith join as a Committee Member as well. So a little shift in structure, which is exciting.

I feel so blessed to be part of this committee. There are so many people on that committee, all working voluntarily – which I think is important to stress. I’m the only paid member, ad I only do four hours a week – I’m very much a part-time contractor for them. It’s a really incredible group, all very passionate and dedicated people who just believe in moving cider forward and in the strength in community and connection.

It’s such a brilliant thing to be part of. I think it’s something that needs as much support through membership as possible. Membership at the moment is only £15 a year, and you get to contribute to and benefit from this community that just feels really important. I think if you care about cider and you want to see it grow and not diminish, this is a really brilliant way to do that, and to meet people and to kind of push things forward in a way that is good for our orchards and farms and the people whose livelihoods depend on cidermaking.

CR: And last question – winding it back to you – what projects are on your horizon now that you’ve just published your amazing J’Adore Le Plonk zine at the end of last year?

Rachel: 2026 was going to be my year of rest and relaxation, because I am tired! Last year was a really big year and I’m just looking to maybe not do 20 projects at the same time because I found out the hard way it’s not good for you.

Having said that, something that I am working on with Helen for Burum Collective is our ‘Future of Cider’ Porject. It was put on the back burner last year, but we’re going to pick up the pace this year. I think it kind of ties in with the work we’re doing with the Three Counties. Something that I feel very aware of is where cider is heading in the next 10, 20, 30, 40 plus years’ time, and what work needs to be done now to make sure it goes in the direction we want it to.

We’ve got some really brilliant people contributing to the project. It’s hopefully going to be an open dialogue about where cider is now, what it might look like, what people can do to get it there. And the beautiful thing about cider to me is it’s not ‘one method suits all’. I think there are so many different approaches to cidermaking and to orcharding, so it’s going to be so interesting to see what people’s thoughts and takes are. Like I have a friend who worked on the project who works in agro-tech. I had a conversation with her recently and there are some amazing things that she’s working on for her job in terms of robotics and technology for harvesting and things like that that I didn’t even realise existed. And then on the other side it’s people who are completely uphauling their approach to managing their orchard or what varieties they’re working with. 

It’s what the demographic of cidermakers might look like with the economy where it’s at. There’s so much there and they feel like some really important conversations to have. So that’s a project that we’re working on that hopefully will get done this year. That’d be nice!

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Thanks so much to Rachel for taking the time to speak to us – and to all the CraftCon organisers for putting together what looks like an incredible event. Be sure to book your ticket before 3rd March.