Bears everywhere agree this cider is not one to pass up. That is the actual claim North Country Hard Cider is making, in writing, about Beary Patch, and no amount of raspberries can make that statement anything other than delightfully impossible to fact-check.
Setting aside the endorsement from an unspecified population of bears, the cider itself is simpler to evaluate: raspberries, a sweet base, lightly tart, naturally sweet, built to be the kind of cider that does not require much explanation once it is in someone's hand. This is not an ambitious ingredient list chasing complexity - it is a straightforward fruited cider doing exactly what the name promises, no more and no less. Sometimes the entire pitch really is just "raspberries, but make it cider," and there is nothing wrong with a release that knows its own lane that well.
It hits tap and cans-to-go this Friday, August 7th. The bears may or may not show up to confirm their endorsement, but the cider will be there either way.