Angry Orchard initially launched products as part of a trial run in New England, New York, Maryland, and Colorado. After a positive response from cider drinkers, Angry Orchard's parent company, Boston Beer, took the product national in 2012. In making Angry Orchard, Boston Beer blends “Italian culinary apples from the Alpine foothills with French bittersweet apples from Normandy.” Bittersweet apples are sometimes described as “angry,” and presumably, that partly inspired this cider’s brand name. Sometimes Nigerian ginger is used as an ingredient, and the whole line-up is oak-aged for “optimal complexity and balance.”