If you had to name just one flavor for autumn, it would have to be apple, and the purest essence of apple is cider —- just the fragrance can bring you back to all the Halloweens of your childhood. There's no state like Connecticut for sampling this golden-red elixir — you can spend a glorious weekend on a leafpeeping/cider mill crawl and immerse all your senses until they short-circuit. Pasteurized, natural, fermented — become a connoisseur.

You might as well start with the gold standard, in the heart of the unspoiled Connecticut countryside. Tom and Sharon Muska's Applebrook Farm in East Windsor has perfected the formula devised by a Purdue professor who spent five years studying apple cider. Using most of the 35 varieties of apples he grows, Tom painstakingly includes all these flavor attributes in the blend: aromatic (from apples such as McCoun and Cortland), high-sugar (Delicious, Gala and Fuji), high-acid (Greening and certain McIntosh) and a category called "mildly subacidic" that includes Gingergold and Empire.

The result is so good people freeze gallons to get themselves through winter, spring and summer. Some of the cider is delivered to a master baker for making doughnuts — Applebrook sells thousands of these every year.

If that's too high-carb, crunch a Gravenstein, a Summer Rambeau, a Roxbury Russet, a Winesap. The Muskas planted hundreds of antique and heirloom apple varieties for the cider, only to discover people love to eat them, too.

Applebrook is in the center of some of the most beautiful undiscovered bicycling country in New England — acres of tobacco, berry, tree and pumpkin farms in a mildly rolling river valley.

Don't be put off because this cider is unpasteurized — the apples are harvested only from the trees, never from the ground, they're thoroughly brushed and power-washed and the product is constantly tested.

"I've had people drive by here for five or 10 years and finally decide to stop, and they say, 'My God, that is the best cider I've ever had,'" Tom Muska says.

Applebrook Farm opens for the season on Saturday, Sept. 25. Hours are Tuesday through Friday, noon to 6, and weekends 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; it's always open Columbus Day. You can get the goods (including gourmet pies) well into January or February; in winter it's self-serve during the week. Take I-91 to the Bridge Street exit, follow Route 140, cross Route 5, keep going until Route 191 (Windsorville) and follow the special signs. From I-84, take Route 83 to Route 140 to Route 191. The phone is (860) 654-1590.

Connecticut's two biggest orchards enjoy landmark status and absolutely must be on any comprehensive quaffing tour. Their cider is pasteurized, so you can judge if there's a flavor difference. Lyman Orchards has been family-run on the same property for eight generations; it was recently listed as the ninth oldest family business in the United States. You can pick your own fruits of autumn or linger in the wonderful market called "The Apple Barrel."

"Middlefield town roads run through the center of the orchard ... it's something people can experience just by driving through," said company Vice President John Lyman. From Hartford, take I-91 South to Exit 20. Turn left onto Middle Street. Make an immediate left onto Country Club Road, go for 1.6 miles turn right onto Higby Road, which turns into Jackson Hill Road before merging with Route 157 south, which you follow for about a mile. Visit www.lymanorchards.com or call (860) 349-1793.

Everybody on Connecticut's shoreline knows the sign of the big red apple directing you to Bishops Orchards on Route 1 in Guilford. They have cider from September through July. Take Exit 57 off I-95; call (866) 2-BISHOP (224-7467).

For a completely different cider experience, take Exit 90 off I-95 and head for the last steam-powered cider mill in New England, where the Clyde family has been making hard cider for six generations. When you get off the exit, take Route 27 through Old Mystic, then bear right at the fork — the "B.F. Clyde" mill will be on the left. It's been family- run since 1881.

The Merritt Parkway is almost as beautiful in the fall as it is in the spring, and that's the route you take to Silverman's Farm in Easton, where you can actually watch the cider being made — kids love the educational tour of the mill. Pasteurized cider is available in Silverman's farm market from early September through winter. It's open year-round, seven days a week, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., except for major holidays and January. Take Exit 46 off the parkway; go about 2.5 miles north to 451 Sport Hill Road (Route 59, just past the intersection with Center Road). (203) 261-3306.

Connecticut orchards like Applebrook Farm in East Windsor expect another great crop this fall, for eating and cider-squeezing.

September 19, 2004