Fifteen minutes from Wyalusing—down not just a back road, but the Back Road—a few picnic tables, a fire ring, and some apple trees gather in front of a new rustic-style one-story tasting room as if they’re old friends hanging out. This is Deep Roots Hard Cider, and when you open the door and see cheery Tim Wells, co-owner and cider-maker, behind the wooden live edge bar, the long drive is forgotten.

After your first sip, the long day is forgotten.

The small tasting room is warm and inviting—inviting folks to talk to strangers, asking them and whoever is behind the bar for some recommendations. Sometimes a person sitting at the bar jumps up to help Tim. All his employees were customers first. The menu has three columns: Purely Apples, Fruits & Sweets, and Dessert & Specialty Wines. With nine ciders on the drier end of the spectrum, ten ciders on the sweeter side, and eight dessert and specialty wines ready to pour, there is something for every taste. The menu lists alcohol content and residual sugar. There are boozy shakes and good old kid’s shakes. A cooler holds local cheeses, and crunchy snacks are available as well.

Tim grew up in Ithaca and studied entomology and plant science at Cornell. He married his college sweetheart, Lynda (the other co-owner who handles marketing), and they moved onto her grandparent’s property at 348 Back Road, Sugar Run. He didn’t enjoy working in a factory, but he did enjoy his new hobby of making plum wine and hard cider. Lots of their friends enjoyed that, too. What the heck, he started making it to sell. They opened in 2015 with a straight Northern Spy cider, traveling to farm markets and festivals, and sold out. The next year they added raspberry and blueberry ciders and sold out of that.

Tim quit his job at the Dupont factory.

Finding rare apples is a passion of his. “I’m an apple dork, if you will,” he says. His dry cider, Old World Ones, is a one-off made from traditional French and English cider apples—meaning they were more bitter. These come from a five-acre orchard that Nat Bouman (who owns Wilding Orchards) planted for his distillery, which is not yet in production. Rather than let the apples go to waste, Nat “one day called me up and asked me if I could use them,” Tim says. It’s been popular, and he’s thinking of making another batch.

He has another cider blended from handpicked wild apples in northeast Pennsylvania. He calls it The Wild Ones, and it varies a bit year to year. Two of the trees they pick wild apples from are on their farm and at least eighty years old. “Lynda’s grandparents probably planted them,” Tim says. They aren’t any registered variety that he can find, but they were planted purposefully near the original barn that’s no longer there. These are good keepers, taking a long time to brown. “You can slice one and walk away for thirty minutes and it’s just starting to turn. They canned them, and they look beautiful in the jars. My wife has fond memories of the trees. She’s happy we’re using them.”

They won their first double gold in 2020 at the Great Lakes International Cider & Perry (pear cider) Competition for their elderflower champagne-style cider. They won Best of Show Fruit Wine at the 2025 Pennsylvania Farm Show for The Blues, a port-style blueberry wine made with berries from Blueberry Haven in Laceyville. It’s a dessert wine, so it’s sweet. Then just as the sweetness starts to fade, a robustness sneaks in, like a party guest who shows up fashionably late and kicks things into a higher gear. Tim has won lots of ribbons and medals for his concoctions, but Best of Show came with a trophy. “I always wanted a trophy,” he grins.

Tim has new ciders coming this year. “We are bringing back the Sugar Run Sweet by popular demand,” he says. This is a cider he made a few years ago—it has apple syrup (from frozen juice that’s had the water removed) added as a natural sweetener, making it extra appley and fresh. He’s also working on a brand new one that’s going to be called Ginger Empire—hard cider with fresh ginger aged in a rum barrel.

The tasting room is open Friday, Saturday, and Sunday year-round from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. in winter, changing to 12 to 6 p.m. after daylight savings time. For a visit earlier in the week, call (570) 746-3222 to set up an appointment. Can’t get there? Find a list of places that sell Deep Roots products at deeprootshardcider.com.

Soon you can stay at Back Road Retreats (find them on Airbnb) and enjoy a four-bedroom farmhouse—or the old Cider Shack, relocated for an off-grid getaway. And you’ll get 15 percent off cider! They are hoping to have them operational by the end of May. The spring events season will kick off with their second adult Easter egg hunt on Saturday, April 4, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. The Spring Shindig is Saturday, May 23—there’ll be food trucks, a vendor village, and two bands. Tim says to bring your kids and dogs! Follow them on Facebook or sign up for their email newsletter to get updates on these and more events once the days grow longer.

But there’s no need to wait. “We’re only a half mile off the main road, and the township makes sure we’re one of the first roads plowed,” Tim says. If winter has you feeling cooped up, why not take a road trip?

A Back Road trip, that is.