A new generation takes over at Cold Hollow Cider Mill

November 4, 2022  | By Lisa Scagliotti 

Cold Hollow owners past and present: Gayle (left) and Paul Brown (right) who owned the cider mill from 2000 until 2022 with new owner Dan Snyder (center). Photo courtesy Cold Hollow Cider Mill

Cold Hollow Cider Mill’s longtime owners Paul and Gayle Brown announced this week that they have completed the sale of their iconic Waterbury Center business to a colleague with backing from a small investor group. 

General Manager at Stowe Cider in Stowe for the past two years, Dan Snyder is now at the helm of one of Waterbury’s most popular retail outlets, food manufacturers and tourist attractions. 

Neither the purchase price of the business nor the investors were disclosed in the announcement.

Located on 16 acres along Vermont Route 100 in Waterbury Center, Cold Hollow draws locals and visitors alike with its cider doughnuts made from its fresh apple cider that’s still pressed on a rack-and-cloth press on the premises. 

Its bakery turns out apple pies, fudge, breads and pastries sold alongside a long line of specialty Vermont foods from maple syrup, cider jellies and honey to hot sauce, crackers, pasta and coffee. Vermont-themed and Vermont made gifts run the gamut including clothing and postcards, household items and toys that fill the main retail space. The Apple Core Luncheonette and Brew is open for breakfast and lunch from a separate building along with its tasting room where customers can sample and purchase the mill’s line of 10 hard ciders.

The company also runs an online business shipping food and gift orders around the country and beyond that Paul Brown said has grown significantly in the past two years.  

The business was founded in 1974 by Eric and Francine Chittenden in Bakersfield at the base of the Cold Hollow Mountains. They moved two years later to Waterbury and opened Cold Hollow Cider Mill in an old farmhouse and barn at what was the former Gibbs farm on Route 100. The business became a top producer of apple cider in New England and a popular destination boasting more than 300,000 annual visitors by the time the Browns purchased it in January 2000. 

Paul Brown in the kitchen at Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury Center. File photo by Gordon Miller

The Browns said they deliberately built on what the Chittendens started, growing the business without large distributors and by putting their personal attention into the details. “Creating an authentic and ‘non-corporate’ Vermont experience was hard but gratifying work. It was also a lot of fun,” Paul Brown said in the company’s sale announcement. 

A few years ago, the mill got into making hard ciders from its fresh McIntosh cider. “It’s the good stuff,” Gayle Brown writes in the company’s history on its website. The first hard cider was named Barn Dance. “And sure enough, we installed a dance floor in the tasting room featuring artwork of the work boots on the label,” she said. 

Enter Snyder, who has been living and working in the Stowe area for the past nine years, most notably as general manager at Stowe Cider since 2020. It was through that position that he became acquainted with the Browns. As that friendship grew, Snyder said the Browns would joke about retirement. He finally asked them if they would consider him as their successor. 

“At the end of the day, the mill belongs to Vermont,” Paul Brown said. “There is no one more equipped to own and operate the cider mill moving forward than Dan. We’re overjoyed at the thought of him as the new owner. He fits the values of the mill perfectly.”

Cider is pressed on an old-fashioned rack-and-cloth press. File photo from Cold Hollow Cider Mill

Snyder didn’t mention any immediate changes to the operation that has run with about 40 employees. “I am already impressed by the dedication of the Cold Hollow staff,” he said. “My priority will be to maintain the cider mill’s success and provide customers with the same experience they’ve come to know and love.” 

He’s also looking toward growth opportunities, including returning Cold Hollow jugs of fresh cider back into the local market. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the company grappled with difficulties in sourcing adequate supplies of apples and staffing to maintain its popular wholesale operation selling cider to grocery stores throughout the region. In October 2021, the company suspended its wholesale business to produce and sell fresh cider only at its own store.