Page 10 - Valley Table- Winter 2025

when Hany
EIDiwany,
founder
of Hany’s
Harvest, started concocting
fire cider (apple cider vinegar-
infused tonic) in his Brooklyn
apartment more than a
decade ago, he was mostly
making it for himself because
he liked the health benefits of
the spicy sips.
A decision to share his
herbal tonics—which blend
onion, garlic, ginger, and
horseradish with apple cider
vinegar to improve digestion,
heighten immunity, and reduce
inflammation—with neighbors
amped up his interest in new
recipes and blending different
ingredients, some spicy and
some sweet. “Everyone
who tried it had the same
reaction—they said it made
them feel good, that stuff was
moving better in their bodies,”
says ElDiwany.
A lightbulb went off for
EIDiwany, a trained chemical
engineer (who had spent years
studying and playing Indian
classical music); he had to keep
experimenting with different
recipes. “At first I had a gallon
jar of fire cider,” he says. “Then
I had three and, before long, I
had a five-gallon bucket of fire
cider in my kitchen.”
And, since you can’t
exactly make a vinegar-based
product commercially in a
Brooklyn apartment, ElDiwany
realized that he would need a
production kitchen. He found
one in New York City and,
thanks to intense networking
with the other businesses in
the space, launched Hany’s
Harvest in 2017. Two years
later, he moved into the
Catskill home his co-founder
and now-wife Adina had
purchased a year earlier with
the plan of relocating the
operations upstate.
Business was humming
along, but when the pandemic
hit in March 2020, it went
“berserk,” ElDiwany says,
adding that sales swelled to
$30,000 in that month alone
(his sales for all of 2019 totaled
$50,000). “Everyone was into
natural wellness at that point,”
he says. “They were worried
about Covid and were seeking
products like ours.”
Within weeks, ElDiwany
started to run out of inventory,
and he needed more space for
production and fulfillment,
so he contacted the Greene
County Development
Corporation. The non-profit
invited EIDiwany to sublet
space from The Arc Mid-
Hudson, a local nonprofit
serving people with disabilities.
He was able to hire employees
from the community—
something he does to this day.
Currently, Hany’s Harvest
sells seven varieties of fire
cider and oxymel syrups on
Amazon and in over 200 stores
nationwide. The most popular
8 Valley Table | December 2024 – February 2025
bottle right now: Maple Honey.
“It has that balance of being
just sweet enough, but it still
has oomph,” he explains.
“Not the punch in your face
of Carolina Reaper, but it’s a
big, robust recipe. I call it the
gateway fire cider.”
ElDiwany remains
committed to using local
ingredients, including honey
from beekeepers in New
York and Massachusetts, and
says the best part of being
in the Hudson Valley is the
connection to the land. “The
first thing Adina did when she
bought the house was start a
garden. We’ve got chickens,
goats, and bees. We’re growing
garlic and harvesting honey.”
When he thinks back to the
early days, he marvels at how
fortuitous the path has been.
“Fire cider took on a life of its
own,” he says. “I had to let go
of some things that weren’t
serving me. Sometimes you
have to let go to receive. I truly
believe a space opened in my
life to create this company.”
Hany ElDiwany,
founder,
pictured with
six varieties of
cider.
PHOTOS COURTESY OF HANY'S HARVEST