Mercier Orchards

If you are passing thru the area worth stopping quick, a lot of fresh fruit, baked goods and gifts.

Beautiful orchard on rolling hills, with ponds and paths and benches and plenty of parking.
Delicious donuts and cider, huge store with all kinds of wonderful things, and even hard cider tastings and local wines! Can’t wait to go back.

Always a favorite stop. Baked goods daily, sandwiches always fresh — excellent Rueben. Very friendly place. Get the pancake (different flavors) and specialty syrups (even the sugar free are good) for a home made mountain breakfast on your own. Muscadine slushed are excellent for the summer heat relief.

When in the area take a couple of hours to enjoy the store, order a to go snack and take it down to the little pond they have and sit and enjoy a little picnic. After eating enjoy a walk around the pond and breathe in the fresh air. Wonderful attraction! Oh, get a fried pie for dessert!

What more can you say? A trip to Blue Ridge is not complete without a visit to the orchard. Must try the fried pies.

Great sandwiches for lunch! Hubby had the Reuben and I had the Gyro. The Reuben was made with real, thick cut corned beef and the Gyro was made with real gyro meat… not that disgusting gyro bologna crap that a lot of restaurants pawn off on you. Would have liked some feta on the Gyro… but the homemade pita was incredible. We’ll definitely go back.

Have had both lunch and breakfast, and everything I have had ha been excellent! The waffles are really outstanding with the cinnamon apples, and the servers are always super!

Love this place! The staff is always so friendly. We have to make a stop whenever we are in town. The fried pies are a must and the apple cider is amazing.

Been here three times now, and the food is just as good as the store. If you like apples, you’ll get lost in this place. Stop by the sample counter, check out the wine selection, look at the fresh produce, or eat at the restaurant. Every time we come here, we have to buy the candy rocks (not to be confused with rock candy) and some Mercier Orchards lip balm for the wife. This is a great stop off to spend some time or to eat if you’re hungry.

I am very excited to have come here. It was in the winter so many things were closed down, but it was impressive what you can do in the season. Huge apple orchard to self pick apples. They also have strawberries blueberries and peaches.
It was a rainy day so we stayed inside and had breakfast. The cinnamon bread French toast was deliciously dense with loads of cinnamon and a side of cooked apples. The apples were done perfectly as they were not mushy, but firm and not sickly sweet. They offer make your own omelets –choice of one cheese, one meat and as many veggies as you can. I had Boars head country sausage, Swiss cheese, spinach and mush rooms. Eggs were cooked properly which I was surprise to see.
The biscuits are made on site and are good and tender. My cousin had the chicken and biscuit and it was ok, nothing special and small. The grits were the biggest disappointment. They were cold, poorly seasoned, unbearably thick and gray. My wife had biscuit and sausage gravy. The biscuit was good and absorbed the gravy. The gravy’s consistency was conventional but it was Luke warm and salty.
The bakery had so many delicious house made items from hand pies (which they are famous for) to creative fudge like jalapeño fudge which is a favorite cause they were out of it. They gave 10% if you bought 12 hand pies and they give 10% discount on everything if you are military with an ID.
The rest of the store hand big rooms that carried everything from honey based lotions to hard cider nicknacks and toys. You can spend ours just looking at all the stuff. We didn’t see all of it and of course they have fresh produce for sale too! I loved this place and can’t wait to come again!

Hands down the best breakfast I have ever had. The buffet selection was amazing and fresh! The store has a large selection of anything apple-​related and the orchard property is breathtaking. A must see for sure!

Wonderful market with fresh baked goods, fruits, vegetables, ciders, wines, candy and gifts. They have a wonderful breakfast and lunch deli. We had a Greek Gyro, which was to-​die-​for and chose the potato salad which was the best we’ve ever had. The Pecan Chicken Salad Sandwich was a little underwhelming as was the pasta salad side. The fresh breads and pies are wonderful. Buy the doughnuts early in the day when they are fresh. We had breakfast there. I had the multigrain pancake, which was enormous and delicious. This is a wonderful place to wander and take in the beautiful foods and intoxicating aroma of fresh baking bread.

I’m a local and we go there often. Great food, great store, great mountain experience.

The food is amazing. Hot and fresh. My favorite was the buffet. And the apple juice was out of this world!

Again… VERY DISAPPOINTED that they do not have any speciality fried pies! No chocolate covered, cream cheese filled, lemon filled, or any of the others special fried pies that they use to make. This is the third year in a row that the cases are empty! Get with it Merciers.

This place has the best pink lady apples, hard apple cider, cider doughnuts, apple fritters, and apple pie EVER!

We came to blue ridge, mainly, because of the Mercier Orchard and Lillypad. The food, atmosphere and staff are amazing and this will be a frequent trip from now on.

This was a fun little place. I’m inly rating 4 stars because I didn’t get a chance to really dig into all they have to offer. We went straight for the tasting room.
We came with a group of 20 and they worked with us perfectly. Very attentive and knowledgable about the wines and ciders. Cute little shop full of great stuff to buy.
Shout out to the bartender Shay, she was awesome.

This place is the bomb if you like country stores. I kind of just stand around and watch my wife shop. The apple fritters are amazing. The problem is they run out QUICK. If you don’t wait you have to settle for some of their wonderful fried pies. Since they were out of fritters yesterday and the wait was 30 minutes we went with apple and sweet potato pies. Absolutely delicious. We also picked up some pumpkin butter, apple butter, peach wine and hard cider… all locally made. This place really is great and we love stopping in while on vacation.

On our 6days vacation to our cabin nearby, we visited merciers twice. Love love love their chilled apple cider and fried cherry pie. We had stop again on the day of departure to buy a dozen of fried pies and 2 cases of apple cider. Can’t wait to go back there.

Can we talk about the fried pie for a minute. It needs a moment of silence. So freaking good. I stood in line for an HOUR to get these puppies. BY the time I got up to order my cherry was all gone. NO worries I took peach and apple and they are amazing! They are good reheated in the oven as well. My next love is their Apple Spice donuts. You can order online but I tell ya nothing beats those babies coming out of the fryer.
It is a cute little area for apple picking and they have tons of jams, jellies, honey, etc. They are a southern farmers market for sure. I always make sure to pick up their spicy jalapano mango pepper jelly and my habenaro hot sauce.

What a fun place!
We spent a few days in Blue Ridge and knew we wanted to get some apples and check out what fall was like outside of ATL. Their Grumpy Granny cider is really good, as are the fried pies. The apple cider, however, doesn’t taste like true apple cider, more like apple juice. Oh well… the quest for true apple cider shall go on :)

In the past, we’ve gone apple-​picking every couple of years at an orchard on Hwy 52 east of Ellijay. It has been around a while and was the first (and largest) such place we’d come to driving north and west from home. It was also a good place for taking younger kids, with a number of activities geared for them. This weekend, sans kids, we decided to venture further, up to Blue Ridge. We passed a number of other smaller places along Hwy 52 en route.
Once we arrived in Blue Ridge, it wasn’t hard to find Mercier. It appears that as business has grown, they’ve extended the parking lot linearly along the somewhat narrow ridge between the road and the ponds on their property. We parked near the edge of the lot, and had a short walk up the hill to the main building.
It was quite crowded they day we came; I’ve heard that it is often crowded. The main building goes back further than you first realize; it’s enormous (esp. compared to the average apple-​orchard store & gift shops we’d seen). They have a full bakery, a meat department, tons of sauces, a toy department for kids, a soap + lotions room, and viewing areas to see the apple processing.
They also have a café, a tasting counter for juices, and a tasting room for wines /​hard ciders. All were somewhat crowded. We opted for the wine/​cider tasting. The price wasn’t bad ($ 8 for 4 pours, including a souvenir glass). There was also a start-​up winery offering complementary tastings that weekend. We ended up buying one wine and a smaller bottle of the hard cider. The staff was uniformly friendly.
They appeared to (in season) have apple picking available also. And, according to signs, occasional fishing events (?). The view across the pond towards the distant orchards was quite pretty.
If you’re in the area, this place is worth checking out.

A-​OK AS LONG AS YOU STICK WITH THE FRUIT AND DRINKS!
I have not been to the orchard and only sampled products at a recent festival. I sampled the gala apple but it did not have a good flavor. The apple donut looked delicious but the taste did not measure up. On the front end, you get the taste of powdered sugar and cinnamon yet the back end of the bite tasted of a heavy fat like lard. I hate the «taste» of fat in my desserts.
Anyway, things got much better when I decided to sample and eventually purchase an apple slushy which was delicious. I was concerned that it would be too rich and sweet but it was the perfect refresher on this very hot day. I definitely recommend the slushy as a cool treat that is ideal for the entire family as you don’t have to worry about it having too much sugar or being unhealthy.
I wood love to visit their orchards to sample more of their other fruits and treats.

Went to Mercier for apple picking recently (in the beginning part of August). I found it’s much less crowded in August for apple picking than later in the season. You pay in the store for the bag and the tractor ride. If you get the largest size bag, you pay $ 21.21, but this bag can fit quite a few apples, and it was quite heavy after I filled mine up.
What I didn’t like, though, was that the quality of the apple picking experience has diminished somewhat here. They have the same tractor ride that takes you all throughout the orchard, but when they drop you off, there is no one around to explain exactly where the trees are that are ready for picking.
They mentioned a few different types of apples that were ready for picking, but I couldn’t find all of them where we were dropped off. In the past, they had employees around to give a little orientation after the customers are dropped off by the tractor, but we didn’t get any orientation or any help. There are also several rows of apples unmarked by signage. It’s not always clear exactly what type of apple is in a given row.

We stop on our way to Helen, GA for our vacation. We did a wine & cider tasting with Shay. She was super friendly and really helpful with picking out different wines and cider to try. I really liked that for just an extra $ 2 we also got a great etched wine glass.. We also stocked up on a ton of vegetable and the largest watermelon I’ve seen for our cabin. The view behind the store was beautiful and I really enjoyed it.

The store has all sorts of treats for everyone. Once you walk in you can smell the bakery/​deli. You’ll likely be greeted with fresh fruit. Walk further to find ciders, candies, popcorn, preserves, hot sauce, etc! There are different rooms separate by large entrances. One of my favorite is the back room with the sample counter. I tried their sparkling apple cider, regular apple cider, and regular muscadine cider. I also tried the mango lime salsa. I saw cut up fruit but did not ask if those were samples.
Another room has a wine/​hard cider tasting counter. Although I don’t drink alcohol, I thought it was a good deal: $ 6 to try 4 items.
Of course, there’s an option to pick fruit in their orchards. I didn’t check the price but you have to sign up at a check out counter. I saw big trucks driving people around the orchards. I assume they are on their way to pick fruit.
Outside, private venders set up tent to sell treats like boiled peanuts and popcorn. Since they are separate from the orchards they set their own hours.
Parking is plentiful but you may have to walk far.

I’ll make this quick. If you’re looking for an orchard to go visit, go here. Just do it. Now.
Pros:
You can fulfill your fat kid desires to eat all the apples if you go apple picking by trying many many varieties directly off of the trees. The $ 10/​peck price point is a bargain for the quality of time had there. Also, apple cider everything. Just go and try and discover your own favorite variety. Also, it’s beautiful.
Cons:
It’s crowded.
Overall:
Go. Seriously, I drove 3.5 hours from Nashville just for apples and don’t regret it one bit.

I went to see the orchards and never made it to them. Instead I attacked the bakery. Best decision I made all week! I’ve never eaten any baked goods like this.
My girlfriend introduced me to this place and I’m definitely making it my business to return as long as I’m in the area.
The earlier you get there, the better offerings you’ll get. Bread disappeared about two hours prior to closing. It’s probably testament to just how incredible the food is. I loved the fried sweet potato pies and the fried pecan pies. The fudge was something special as well. I loved the cookies & cream fudge. The peach cider is too good to be true and would be divine with a peach vodka or rum. This is a place you must visit just for the dessert!