From watching Elf to eating Aunt Bethany’s cookies to spraying fake snow on the windows, we all have our seasonal rituals. And it’s impossible to live in the greater Tacoma area and get in the spirit without a spin through ZooLights. Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium’s 800,000 light display depicts everything from a giant Pacific octopus and flame tree to the Narrows Bridge and Sasquatch. This year’s light display also features a magnificent heard of groovy goats that you can reserve time for a hang. Before or after walking through the twinkling lights from 4:30 to 10 p.m., swing by Peaks and Pints for a winter cider flight that we call Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Zoolights 2024.

Peaks and Pints Monday Cider Flight: Zoolights 2024

One Tree Snow Globe

6.6% ABV

Who doesn’t love glitter? It’s nearly impossible to get out of your cleavage after a night on the town, but it’s festive as hell. And now thanks to edible glitter, your digestive system can be as sparkly as your 1990s eye shadow palette. One Tree Hard Cider Snow Globe is a delicious, spiced cider with glitter. We recognize the clove and cinnamon, but the glitter seems like a handful rather than a full dance floor dump, which is perfect.

Bauman’s Winter Spice Cider

6.7% ABV

In 1895, on the West Coast, between Salem and Portland, Bauman Farms was first homesteaded by Elizabeth Bauman and her teenage sons, Stephen and Leo. Stephen eventually married at the cider apples on their Gervais, Oregon, farm, with the barrels in their barn fermenting the goods into hard cider. When beer production arrived with German immigrants, cider’s popularity diminished. But it was 20th century Prohibition that ended most U.S. cider production, including Stephen Bauman’s operation. The Baumans turned to dessert apple growing. His great granddaughter, Christine Walter, armed with a degree in biochemistry from Lewis & Clark University, revived her great grandfather’s hard cider operation, taking advantage of the family farm history spanning five generations, her work ethic growing up on the farm and modern-day cidermaking methods. She opened Bauman’s Cider Company in 2016, honoring Stephen Bauman on the cider’s branding. Bauman’s Winter Spice Cider is an apple spiced cider with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg.

Yonder Cashmere

6.9% ABV

Founded in August 2020 by CEO Caitlin Braam, Yonder Cider makes savory, subtly sweet and high ABV ciders in Wenatchee with a taproom in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood, which is shared with Bale Breaker Brewing from the Yakima Valley. Crafted using a blend of bittersweet cider apples and juicy dessert apples, Yonder ciders are hardly simple, and never straightforward, but you can always count on them being interesting. Their winter seasonal Cashmere is inspired by one of Braam’s favorite cocktails, the Negroni. Made with tart cranberry, ⁠dark cherry, and a hint of bitter orange, Cashmere hits the nose with orange peel and berry, pairing beautifully with notes from one of their favorite cider apples, Ashmead’s Kernel. ⁠

Tieton Spiced Pecan

6.9% ABV

Tieton has been growing apples in the Yakima Valley for three generations. Craig Campbell’s grandfather planted apple trees in the 1920s, but it was until 2008 when he and his wife, Sharon, began growing cider apples on their Harmony Orchards in Tieton, Washington. They launched Tieton Cider Works in 2009, with the intent to maintain their practices of being good stewards of the land. The Campbell’ Cranberry Cider hits the nose with bright apple and rosé and effervescent white wine tones with a bit of grape and berries. Crisp but sugary on the tongue, it’s loaded with apples and cranberry fleshy fruity tartness, fruity sugars and an effervescent wine-y body.

Whitewood Cranberry Douglas Fir NW Winter Cider

6.9% ABV

Whitewood Cider out of Olympia renamed their annual holiday cider made with cider fermented from apples grown in Washington, blended with a seasonal punch of crisp cranberry, and a piney citrusy Douglas fir needle extraction to help you make your holiday spirit a little bit brighter.

LINK: Peaks & Pints beer and cider cooler inventory