(engine humming) Welcome to Tanners Orchard, an absolute staple here in the "309".

Some of the best apples you will ever sink your teeth into.

Today, the Toddfather and I are here to show the people a little bit of behind the scenes what goes into making the iconic apple cider here at Tanners.

I'm with Craig Tanner, fourth generation owner.

Craig, it is so good to be here with you today.

- Thank you.

It's a real pleasure to have you guys here with us today.

- So, tell the people what we're gonna be doing today.

- So, today, we're gonna pick some Pink Lady apples.

They call them Pink Lady.

They get a nice pink cheek on them where they get kissed by the sun.

Are you afraid of heights?

- Nah.

- [Craig] Nope.

We're all set then.

Let's get going.

- Let's go.

(upbeat music) Oh, this is a good one right here, right off the bat.

Yo, Craig, I'm pretty excited to be here because we came here for a field trip when I was in grade school, but I got in trouble on the way here, so I had to stay on the bus the whole time.

So, it's good (Craig laughing) to actually be here.

This is a good one here, I think.

It's okay if there's still a little bit of that?

- Yep, because it's got that nice pink cheek on it.

That's how we know they're ready.

(upbeat music) - What are you 6'4"?

You can probably just pick these yourself, man.

How many apples approximately go in one gallon of cider?

- So, we'll get about four gallons, three and a half to four gallons of cider per bushel.

A bushel of apples is about 100 apples.

25 to 30 apples makes a gallon of cider.

- Did you know that, Todd?

- [Todd] No, I did not.

- Now you do.

- Got to be very gentle.

(upbeat music) Cheers.

(upbeat music) (apples crunching) (upbeat music) - Best apples this side of the Mississippi and honestly, probably the other side too, Craig.

Todd, do you trust me driving a forklift?

- [Todd] Oh, sure.

(forklift hums and cranks) - Whoa!

(companion laughing) (forklift humming) Whoo-hoo.

Go slow.

(forklift humming) - You got to get farther over to the side too.

- This side?

- Yep.

Yeah, drive up like right here.

You're gonna come right up to here.

- Piece of cake.

- And then, once you get here, then you lift it up.

- I understand.

(forklift humming) Are you nervous, Craig?

- [Craig] No.

- [Wes] I'm nervous.

- Wes is hiding (companion laughing) behind a crate.

- Straighten it out.

There you go.

- Oy.

- Now turn it just a little bit to the left.

- To the left.

- Yeah.

Okay.

Tip it forward a little bit.

Okay, pick it up.

(forklift humming) Yep.

(forklift humming) All right.

Go ahead and dump it.

Rotate it.

(apples thud) (upbeat music) Keep going all the way around.

(apples thud) (upbeat music) Good job.

(forklift humming) (upbeat music) - [Blake] Phew.

I feel like that could have been a lot worse.

Anyway, here come the apples up this thing into that.

I have no idea what that machine's called.

It's obviously grinding them up real good though.

And yeah, they're going here.

Javier fills these in.

He's worked here 41 years.

He's a legend.

(upbeat music) Here we go.

- Javier, you want to show him what to do?

(upbeat music) - Not all the way?

I'm probably wasting a ton of apples here.

Tanners' profits are gonna be down because of me here just this one day.

What?

(upbeat music) Puh, puh, puh, huh!

So, yeah, basically guys, I'm just getting this apple sauce down in there, and then it squeezes it all together.

It becomes apple cider.

(upbeat music) Dump out the nasties, the core, the stuff you don't need, what have you.

- So, this is our CiderSure UV machine that bathes the cider in the UV light to try to kill any harmful bacteria that might be in apple cider.

We've got cider flowing into the tank, comes in up here.

So, we open the valve down here.

(upbeat music) There the cider starts coming in.

- [Blake] I see it.

(upbeat music) - Over here, we switch this to run, and then hit the start button.

So, this is the Century 400, Belshaw Century 400 donut machine that drops four donuts at a time and the conveyor just goes along there, go along, and then it flips them over, then it fries the other side.

Conveyor takes them out.

(machine humming) They go on this cooling conveyor.

(upbeat music) Then when they get down here, they send them and sugar them all by hand.

- Thank you so much.

(wrapper crinkling) - All right.

Moment of truth here.

(upbeat music) (wrappers crinkling) Oh my, oh my god!

- We made cider today.

Tomorrow, they're gonna bottle it, so we can't drink today's cider till tomorrow.

But we made cider yesterday and I'll show you that.

(upbeat music) - I see the pour.

Look at that.

Cheers, Craig.

- Thank you so much for having us.

Privilege and an honor.

(Blake slurps) (tongue clicks) It's perfection.

Only at Tanners Orchard.

(whooshing sound effect) (crowd cheer and clap) Thanks, guys.

(crowd cheer and clap)