For the owner of Hany’s Harvest in Catskill, making fire cider is a dream come true.
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 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.