Everyone loves a sampler platter. Buffalo wings, chicken tenders, eggrolls, potato skins — who wants to choose? Decisions can be tough, sometimes too tough to make. Especially when it comes to cider. There are just too many ciders out there — black and white, dry to sweet, apple to pear. Fortunately, the Peaks and Pints Craft Cider Crosscut 1.19.17 flight is all about cider.
Seattle Cider Company Dry Cider
6.5% ABV
Seattle Cider Company, the city’s first post-Prohibition cider producer, delivers delicious artisan products. With zero percent residual sugar, its Dry is a very dry cider in a classical style. The dryness doesn’t equate to a lack of flavor, however, as it still has a refined apple nature underlined by notes of stone fruits and a light tickle of lilac on the nose. It’s a cider that can stand alongside one of our roast beef sandwiches without losing the flavor battle.
Spire Mountain Dark & Dry
5% ABV
Olympia’s Fish Brewing Company ferments a trio of ciders under the Spire Mountain label — the Dark and Dry version is caramel flavored without being overly sweet and is a big crossover hit with beer drinkers. Dark & Dry’s assertive tartness is pleasingly balanced by a hint of molasses and brown sugar.
Number 6 Pomegranate Cider
6% ABV
Number 6 Cider rests in Seattle’s Interbay thoroughfare neighborhood along a rail line and takes its name from Tunnel No. 6, the “greatest feat” of the American westward railway. “Forged with sweat and toil” like the railroads that brought industry and life to the Pacific Northwest, Number 6 produces ciders and toasts to new frontiers. Number 6 Pomegranate Cider pours a rich garnet red and is surprisingly dry and crisp, but also juicy and slightly tart.
One Tree Lemon Basil Cider
6.6% 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. Real lemon and fresh basil make this a sweet, sassy bouquet of awesome.
J.K. Scrumpy Orchard Gate Gold
6% ABV
Jim Koan continues to make J.K. Scrumpy Orchard Gate Gold cider on his family-owned Almar Orchards in Flushing, Michigan. It was first pressed back in the 1850s. Not much as changed in the process since then. The aroma grabs — somewhere between butterscotch and caramel with the aromatics common of fresh apple juice. The flavor is reminiscent of apple juice left in the fridge to slowly ferment for a month or two. It is very sweet with high residual sugar and has virtually zero sharpness or bitterness. What we’d call a dessert cider.
