What it is
Cider Corps is a cidery with a taproom in a storefront suite on Robson Street, a half block south of Main in downtown Mesa, and it was the first cidery in Arizona when it opened on Veterans Day 2017. The founders are brothers, Jason and Josh Duren, who grew up in Kansas and ended up in the East Valley. Jason joined the Marines in 2010; in Afghanistan in 2012 his vehicle hit two roadside bombs and he came home with two traumatic brain injuries. A neurologist told him to find a hobby that engaged him, and the brothers took up pressing cider in a garage. By September 2017 they were distributing kegs to Valley bars; two months later they opened the taproom.
The board carries fifteen to twenty ciders at a time and five or six come in cans. They run from dry, traditional ciders through fruited and hopped ones to seasonal experiments; the flagship is Tropic Lightning, a hibiscus-and-strawberry cider named for the Army’s 25th Infantry Division, and the names throughout are military. The motto is drink great cider, honor great sacrifice, and the company gives to veterans’ nonprofits and to brain-injury research through partnerships with 22 Jumps and Cohen Veterans Bioscience.
Why leave Scottsdale for it
Because Scottsdale has no cidery, and the Valley has very few. Our breweries note and wine tasting rooms note cover the city’s drinking well, and neither has anything for the person in the group who wants neither beer nor wine. This is the answer, and it happens to sit a half block from the Mesa Arts Center and around the corner from the best sandwich in the East Valley, so it is the pre-show stop and the end of the downtown Mesa evening rather than a drive on its own.
The practical version
Twenty-eight minutes from Old Town via the 101, the 202 and Country Club Drive to Main and Robson. Street parking or the city garages a block away. Order a flight. Bring in food from Worth Takeaway around the corner. Check the taproom’s hours before a weekday afternoon visit; evenings and weekends are the safe bet.
When to go
Before an arts-center show, which is the taproom’s natural rhythm: a flight at six, a three-minute walk to the Ikeda. The second Friday of the month, downtown Mesa’s late night, when the taproom is full and Main Street is open. November, when the brothers have hosted a Southwest Cider Festival in Mesa and the taproom marks its Veterans Day anniversary. Weekday afternoons are quieter and the hours are shorter; check before you drive.
What to order
Start with a flight and build it from dry to sweet. The semi-dry traditional ciders are the argument for the place, clean and apple-forward, and convert people who think cider means sugar. Tropic Lightning, the hibiscus-and-strawberry flagship, is the finish. The hopped ciders are for the beer drinker who came along reluctantly. Cans go home with you; a few are in Valley bottle shops but the taproom has the full range.
The neighborhood
Robson and Main is the best corner of downtown Mesa: Worth Takeaway around the corner, Oro Brewing beside it, the arts center a half block east, the natural history museum two blocks north, Republica Empanada a few blocks east on First Avenue. The Center/Main light-rail station is two blocks away, which from Tempe makes this an evening with no driving in it.
The story
Arizona had breweries by the dozen and wineries in three regions by 2017, and no cidery. The Duren brothers’ garage project filled the gap almost by accident: Jason Duren’s recovery from the injuries he brought home from Afghanistan in 2012 needed, on his neurologist’s advice, something absorbing to do with his hands, and cider turned out to be it. The brothers moved from hobby to license, began selling kegs to Valley bars in September 2017, and opened the taproom at Robson and Main on November 11, a date chosen on purpose. The timing in Mesa was good: the light rail had opened on Main two years earlier, the arts center a half block away kept the evenings busy, and Worth Takeaway had already made the corner a destination.
The company grew into cans, distribution across Arizona and a second taproom with a production facility in Gilbert in 2022. At the end of that year the brothers closed Gilbert and brought production back to Mesa, with plans to expand into more of the Robson building, a consolidation rather than a retreat. They also became the center of the state’s small cider community, hosting a Southwest Cider Festival in Mesa, and kept the veterans’ mission in front: the names, the partnerships with 22 Jumps and Cohen Veterans Bioscience, the Veterans Day anniversary each year.
The Scottsdale connection
Scottsdale’s drinks culture is wine bars, cocktail rooms and a brewery scene that our breweries note tracks; cider never got a foothold, partly because the city’s taprooms were built around beer and partly because the Valley’s first cidery opened in Mesa and stayed there. A Scottsdale visitor who has done the happy hour circuit and wants one evening that is different drives to Robson Street, and usually comes back with cans.
Getting there
The 101 south to the 202 east, exit Country Club Drive, south to Main Street, east about half a mile to Robson Street, then a half block south; the taproom is in a suite on the west side. Twenty-eight minutes from Old Town, thirty-five from the Camelback corridor. Street parking on Robson and the side streets, or the city garages off First Avenue. From Tempe, the light rail to Center/Main is two blocks; from Scottsdale, a rideshare to a Tempe station and the train east is the right way to arrive for a flight, as the getting around note explains.