Citizens of Tacoma: The white stuff falling from the sky is called “snow.” Here are some things you can do while it’s here. …
- Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight 2.4.19: Snow Day
- Sit inside and stare with melancholy out the window.
- Dress up as a poor English boy and stare with melancholy into someone else’s window.
- Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight 2.4.19: Snow Day
- Look into a mirror and repeat the mantra, “I am a snowflake. I am beautiful and unique. …”
- Go cardboard sledding at Pt. Defiance.
- Try public transportation. Trust us, it’s never boring.
- Protest the snow outside of City Hall. Sign ideas: “Get this snow out of Washington!”; “Stop controlling the weather!”; “NO more ice on my snow balls!”
- Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight 2.4.19: Snow Day
- Snowshoe to Peaks and Pints uphill from your house. Drink the cider flight. Slide back home.
- While at Peaks and Pints, it’s the perfect day to try out this pick-up line: “Baby, you a snow flake, ’cause you lovely and rare, and when I hold you in my hands you melt.”
- Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight 2.4.19: Snow Day
Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight 2.4.19: Snow Day
Spire Mountain Dark & Dry
5% ABV
Spire Mountain Cider (owned by Olympia-based Fish Brewing Co.) makes a beer and wine lover’s cider, Dark 7 Dry, which is complex and doesn’t overwhelm with sweetness. Brewed with Washington apples, brown sugar and molasses, the Dark & Dry hits the nose with tart apple cookie. On the tongue, expect burnt apple, brown sugar and a touch of vinous alcohol with a smooth finish, not quite crisp but not overly sweet
Portland Cider Concord Grape
5.5% ABV
The reigning purple jewel of Portland Cider Co.’s seasonal cider releases, Concord Grape is a deliciously tart blend of 100 percent Northwest apple cider and fresh pressed concord grapes. It’s on the sweeter side of semi-dry with a light body, and low to moderate tartness. We get notes of tart green apple, purple grape juice, lemon, and pomegranate.
Schilling Chaider Spiced Chai
6.5% ABV
Cider is bound to no particular season, but nothing gets Peaks and Pints fully tuned in to the colder seasons like apples with some extra spice, or spices in the case with chai. The name “chai” is actually the Hindi word for “tea,” which was derived from “cha,” the Chinese word for “tea.” The Hindi term chai means a mix of spices steeped into a tea-like beverage. Recipes for chai vary across continents, cultures, towns and families. But the traditional ingredients of a spiced tea blend usually include black tea mixed with strong spices, like cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, ginger and black peppercorns. The spiced tea mixture is typically brewed strong with milk and sweetened with sugar or honey. For Chaider, Schilling Hard Cider collaborates with Dragonfly Chai, Portland’s organic tea microbrewery, mixing Organic Dragonfly Chai Mix with fresh pressed apple juice and yeast. Nose is intense chai spices; the flavor is also fairly dominated by chai spices, however there’s a mix of vanilla, and sweet apples in there.
One Tree Caramel Cinnamon
6.8% ABV
Grant Barnes and Neal Hennessy started making cider as a hobby, and it turned into a vocation. One Tree Hard Cider started in Barnes’ Spokane Valley garage, with exactly one recipe: a relatively straightforward semi-sweet apple cider. They went pro in the summer of 2014. One Tree’s Caramel Cinnamon is an apple pie in a glass. Sweet notes of caramel and apples married together with the spice of cinnamon for a complex, classic American flavor profile.
Alpenfire Foxwhelp
6.9% ABV
Pressed in the winter from 2016, fermented slow with champagne yeast then left to mature in stainless for 12 months, Alpenfire Cider’s Foxwhelp is made with the Port Townsend cidery’s organic estate bittersharp Foxwhelp trees, which were planted in 2003. These beautiful apples are the size of soft balls, great for blending and making this spectacular single varietal. It’s on the sweeter side of dry with moderate tartness and a hint of bitterness and funk. The taste is acidic heirloom apple, wood, nut, lemon and yeast.
