Crispin hard apple cider

“Crispin Crispian shall ne’er go by, from this day until the ending of the world, but we in it…” oh, forget it.

Shakespeare was referring to the battle of Agincourt, anyway—not a brisk hard cider bottled in California. It’s just an assumption on my part that the label chose “Crispin” based upon Henry’s soliloquy in the bard’s famous “Henry V.”

From the days of one room schoolhouses, students here were forced to memorize Shakespearean passages. Yet it took far longer for England’s summertime favorite, hard cider, to penetrate the American market.

Folks on this side of the pond preferred the ras...