Flare Craft Fire Cider

About Flare

Flare is a fire cider that the two of us steep for weeks in Brantford, Ontario, for people who take raw apple cider vinegar and are tired of chasing every spoonful with water and lemon.

What Flare makes

There are three blends, all $21.99 for a 236 mL bottle, and two boxes that put them together. Every blend has eight ingredients and every one of them is on the label.

Bold Roots

Bold Roots is the classic blend and our foundational recipe. It’s raw apple cider vinegar, fresh ginger root, fresh garlic, fresh onion, fresh jalapeño peppers, fresh turmeric root, fresh rosemary and fresh thyme. Rosemary and thyme are the herbs, and the heat comes from the jalapeño and ginger.

Deep Heat

Deep Heat is the hottest blend. It keeps the ginger, garlic and onion of Bold Roots, puts in extra jalapeño, and trades the turmeric and thyme for whole cinnamon and cloves, so the full list is raw apple cider vinegar, fresh ginger root, fresh garlic, fresh onion, fresh jalapeño peppers, whole cinnamon sticks, whole cloves and fresh rosemary.

Floral Fire

It’s the gentlest way into fire cider, made from raw apple cider vinegar, fresh lemon, fresh ginger root, fresh mint, fresh turmeric root, whole cinnamon sticks, whole star anise and whole cloves. There’s no garlic, onion or jalapeño in it at all, so it’s citrus over a base of ginger heat.

The Trio

One bottle of each blend for $60, where the three bought on their own come to $65.97. It’s the one to get if you don’t know yet which you like.

The Full Rack

It’s two bottles of each blend, six in all, for $99. Six single bottles would be $120 even at the multi-bottle price, so the rack saves you $21.

What makes Flare different

Raw vinegar with the mother

Every bottle starts with raw apple cider vinegar that still has the mother in it, the live culture a filtered vinegar has had taken out. We don’t filter the finished tonic either, so it goes cloudy as it sits and wants a shake before you pour.

Weeks in the jar

Each batch steeps for weeks before it’s bottled. It’s steeped rather than blended, and nothing gets strained out at the end.

Fresh, whole ingredients

The ginger, turmeric, garlic, onion, jalapeño, lemon and herbs go in fresh, and the turmeric is whole root rather than powder. The spices go in whole too, as cinnamon sticks, cloves and star anise.

Small batches, made in Brantford

Every batch is made by hand at Our Kitchen Brantford, a commercial kitchen on Roy Boulevard. A batch is small enough that we count the bottles, and so far we’ve bottled 250.

No honey and no horseradish

Neither one is in any of the three blends. Each blend lists all eight of its ingredients on the label and on this page, so you can check.

The price on the tag is the price you pay

A bottle marked $21.99 costs $21.99 at checkout. No tax is added at the end, and collecting your order costs nothing.

Who buys Flare

People who already take apple cider vinegar

If there’s a bottle of raw vinegar in your cupboard and you wince every time you take it, that’s where we started. For years the two of us chased every shot with water and lemon, and Flare is what we made so we could stop.

People who tasted it at a fair

If you tried it at the 168th Paris Fair or at St. George Apple Fest, this is where the next bottle comes from. You order here and collect it in Brantford.

People who cook with vinegar

It goes into a dressing or a marinade wherever plain vinegar would, and the recipes page has six that use it, from a vinaigrette and a hot toddy to a Caesar with a tablespoon of Deep Heat in it.

People who’d rather not be sold to

We don’t tell you what it will do for you. Fire cider is sold as a food, so we tell you what’s in it and how it tastes.

We made the shot worth taking

Hey, we're Claudio & Mitch

Fire cider is an old folk tonic. We didn't invent it, and we're not here to lecture you about it. We just refused to keep drinking it the way everyone else makes it: harsh, one-note, and choked down with a chaser like a punishment.

For years the two of us drank raw apple cider vinegar. It was a chore, but we kept at it, chasing every shot with water and lemon so we wouldn’t taste it. So we started steeping. Ginger, garlic, turmeric, jalapeño, and aromatics, slow-steeped for weeks in our Brantford kitchen until the heat, the citrus, and the herbs actually balanced.

That's Flare. There are three blends now, and we drink them because we like them, which is more than we could ever say about the stuff we started with.

Claudio & MitchBrantford, Ontario

Claudio and Mitch grinning in the front seats of a car, one holding up a bottle of Flare.
Claudio and Mitch, with a bottle of Bold Roots.

How Flare works

Order online, collect in Brantford

You pick your bottles on this site and pay at checkout. Collection from Our Kitchen Brantford is free, and we email you to set a time.

Delivery

Collect yours free from Our Kitchen Brantford, or get in touch and we’ll sort out delivery. There’s no delivery option at checkout, so it’s something we arrange with you directly.

No subscription

There’s nothing to sign up for and nothing that renews. Buy a bottle when you want one, and if you take 2 or more they’re $20 each without a code.

When a blend runs out

The site tells you before you pay, along with the wait, which is about 8 weeks. That’s how long a fresh batch takes to make, and most of it is the steep.

Getting hold of us

Email hello@flaretonic.ca or use the contact form on the homepage.

Frequently asked questions

What is Flare?

Flare is a fire cider, which is raw apple cider vinegar with the mother in it, steeped for weeks with fresh whole roots, peppers, herbs and spices. We make it in small batches in Brantford, Ontario, in three blends (Bold Roots, Deep Heat and Floral Fire), and each comes in a 236 mL (8 fl oz) bottle. It’s sold as a food, to take by the spoonful or cook with like any vinegar, and it isn’t a supplement.

Is it fermented or probiotic?

No, Flare isn’t fermented and we don’t sell it as a probiotic. We start with raw apple cider vinegar that’s already made and steep the roots, peppers, herbs and spices in it for weeks, which is an infusion, so there’s no fermenting step of our own. The vinegar still has its mother, and we make no claim about it beyond saying it’s there.

Is there sugar or honey in it?

No, none of the three blends has honey or added sugar in it. Each one is raw apple cider vinegar and seven fresh or whole ingredients, and all eight are listed on the label and on this page.

Where is it made?

Flare is made by hand, in small batches, in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. The label names the maker as LS Labs, 20 Roy Blvd Unit 34, Brantford, ON N3R 7K2.

How do I take it?

One or two teaspoons just before a meal, straight off the spoon or stirred into warm water or tea. Shake the bottle first. It also works anywhere you’d use vinegar in the kitchen.

Is it spicy?

Yes, and how much depends on the blend. Deep Heat is the hottest, with extra jalapeño, and Floral Fire is the gentlest, with ginger as its only heat. Bold Roots sits between the two.

Why vinegar?

The vinegar is what pulls the flavour out. Over the weeks it steeps it takes on the ginger, garlic, peppers and spices, and that’s what fire cider is. We picked raw apple cider vinegar because we’d already been taking it for years.

Why is it cloudy, and what’s at the bottom?

Nothing in it is filtered, so bits of root and spice settle out as the bottle sits and it turns cloudy. A good shake mixes it back together.

How should I store it?

In the fridge, from the day you take it home. It’s raw and never heated, so it isn’t made to sit on a shelf, opened or not.

Do you deliver?

Collect yours free from Our Kitchen Brantford, or get in touch and we’ll sort out delivery. There’s no shipping and no delivery option at checkout.

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