Malus Immortalis, a limited edition cider, is made with apples from Green-Wood cemetery, New York.
LA SIDRA.- Cidermakers Jeremy Hammond and Joy Doumis (Proper Cider) make cider with the apples picked up in one of the biggest and oldest cemeteries in the United States, considered a National Historic Landmark and one of the most popular tourist destinations in the country.
At the end of the summer in 2015, Hammond, a television producer, was looking for stories to tell in this iconic cemetery when he came across a 40-feet apple tree by the grave of Samuel B. Morse and tried its fruit.
After deciding that it was the perfect type of apple to make cider, he gathered enough to make a gallon test batch. The result was surprising: a zero acid and slightly acid cider, different from other more classic ciders.
So, together with Doumis, he asked the cemetery for permission to collect apples and make cider and their project was approved. With the different types of apples found, such as Granny Smith and Baldwin, they started makind a kind of cider they called Paradisus.
Later on, they added the apples Hammond had found for the first time, which they called “Morse Code” for their location, and made the Dot Dot Dash (..-) Cider.
Both were bottled for over a year and stored in the cemetery’s catacombs to age and later be shared at collaborative events with the cemetery.
The last contribution by these cider artisans is Malus Immortalis, a limited edition cider with is not sold commercially, as in Proper Cider this beverage is considered an art, not a product.
