Nearly everyone loves to eat a good strawberry. When strawberries are in season, there is almost nothing as satisfying as walking out into the garden and harvesting a colander full of these sweet, fragrant, and beautiful fruits. But damn you strawberries! You’re only fresh during June and July in Washington state. Then, they become ticking time bombs. Within a day you have withered; in three days you are moldy. Still, your flavor lives on from the freezer, or in hard cider. The fresh taste of strawberries, soft and deep red, backed by mouth-watering sweetness and previous alcohol. Today, Peaks and Pints presents a to-go flight of strawberry cider — a flight we call Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Summer Strawberries.
Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Summer Strawberries
Elemental Strawberry Rhubarb
6% ABV, can
In December 2014, husband-and-wife team Brian and Christina Callahan, the Woodinville, Washington couple behind the Callahan Cellars winery, launched Elemental Hard Cider, focused on hard ciders made with Northwest apples, cold-fermented with minimal filtering and devoted to expressing the atmospheric components. In 2019, Elemental moved their production and taproom to Arlington. A full-bodied blend of strawberry and rhubarb infused with Washington apples, a crisp and refreshing strawberry presence, and a juicy splash of tart rhubarb.
Whitewood Strawberry Rhubarb Shrub Cider Cooler
6.2% ABV, draft
David White started his production-only Olympia cidery in 2011 with business partner Heather Wingwood, with their first cider release in 2012. In May 2013, Whitewood Cider Company opened for business in Olympia, the only craft cidery between Seattle and Portland. Their Strawberry and Rhubarb commingle with a blend of hard cider from Northwest apples, a touch of sweetness and a shiny bright kiss of apple cider vinegar.
Tieton Hazy Strawberry
6.9% ABV
Unfiltered, cloudy-looking ciders are much like the hazy-style IPAs that have been taking the beverage scene by storm. When the step of the cidermaking process that filters these sediments out is yielded, it results in the clouded appearance of an unfiltered cider, fuller mouthfeel, and a richer flavor. Tieton Cider Works naturally unfilters this strawberry cider with a ruby blush color. Sweet strawberry blends with fresh pressed tart cider for a balanced summer sipper.
Yonder Phinneywood
6.9% ABV
Yonder Cider CEO Caitlin Braam loves cocktails. She’ll hand over a cocktail recipe to her head cidermaker Monique Tribble to transform the ingredients into a savory cider. A collaboration with Ken’s Market in Seattle, this strawberry basil lemonade cocktail-like cider hits the tongue with bright lemon and a hint of strawberry with subtle notes of basil.
LINK: Peaks & Pints cooler inventory
