Ellis's Handiwork Puts Habanero Heat Behind the Mango

A new hard cider built on mango sweetness with habanero behind it, named after the daughter whose curious spirit the brewery says it fits. In cans and on draft in Medina.

• Style: Hard Cider
• Release Date: 2026-09-15
• ABV: N/A
• Planted Flag Brewing (Medina, OH)

A habanero is not a standard cidery ingredient. Planted Flag Brewing has put one behind the mango in Ellis's Handiwork, its newest hard cider, and framed the whole thing as a family tribute.

The Medina, Ohio, business runs as a brewery, cidery and winery at a single address, which is how a mango-habanero cider ends up announced in the same newsletter as an Oktoberfest. The brewery describes Ellis's Handiwork as bright mango sweetness with a touch of habanero heat, and says that combination makes a fitting tribute to its daughter Ellis's curious spirit.

The pairing is more considered than a chili cider might sound. Habanero carries a real fruitiness of its own underneath the capsaicin, closer to apricot and tropical fruit than the green, vegetal bite of a jalapeno. Set next to mango, it reads less as contrast than as continuation - the pepper picks up roughly where the fruit leaves off and adds warmth rather than introducing a competing flavor.

Cider is also a sensible place to try it. Fermented apple brings acidity, and acidity is what keeps heavy tropical fruit from turning syrupy. That matters when mango is doing the leading, and it gives the heat a clean edge to arrive on.

The name is not an outlier on this list either. Planted Flag's lineup leans heavily on personal names, from Ethel's Apple Pie cider to the returning Barreling Down Sheri Lane, and Goody's Brew alongside it on the current fall menu.

Ellis's Handiwork is available now in cans and on draft. The brewery has a second cider due in mid-October, when Barreling Down Sheri Lane returns after aging in Middle West Spirits bourbon barrels and blending with Michigan cherries.