Staff Picks: Erik's Favorite Ciders Right Now (6-Pack)

Staff Picks: Erik's Favorite Ciders Right Now (6-Pack)
Limited availability cider kit at a discounted rate!
1. Empyrical Orchard & Cidery - Inquiry (500 mL): I keep on popping bottles of this cider. Dry and sparkling cider made with a Empyrical-grown quince and a blend of traditional cider apples, including the famed Kingston Black. Delicate botanical and quince aromas. On the palate, this opens with intriguing tropical notes, followed by notes of quince, honey, white flower, honeycomb, canned pineapple, lemon zest, and pastry dough. If you love a world class Belgian Triple, blow your mind with this delightful bottle of cider.
2. Greenwood Cider's Seattle Scrumpy (500 mL) - This cider puts a smile on my face for how delightful and easy drinking it is, but even more so for the cause it supports. I volunteer on the Board of Directors for City Fruit, a nonprofit in Seattle that manages the city's urban orchard and harvests fruit from trees throughout town. Most of the fruit is donated to area food banks and other meal programs in the community. All the tart and bitter apples that make for excellent cider but not necessarily for eating get picked up by a few cidermakers in the city who help support our mission. This beauty is one of them! Thank you, Greenwood. 🥂
3. Pet Project's Golden Russet, Single-Varietal Cider (750 mL) - A celebration worthy stunner. We stumbled across Pét Project's winery tasting room near the baseball stadium in Seattle on our way to Opening Day earlier this year. There was a Ciderkin bottle in the window and we had to stop and try it. It was absolutely delicious (snag one here) and after introducing ourselves to buy it for our shop, we learned this Golden Russet cider was being released a couple days later. We bought ourself tickets to another Mariner's game and stopped by Pet Project to try it out. INCREDIBLE. Fans of slightly bitter and tropical forward IPAs are sure to love this.
4. Snowdrift Red (500 mL) - A classic and an all-time favorite of mine. Snowdrift was one of the West Coast pioneers in offering a red-fleshed cider - made from apples that range from pink to bright red in color when you cut them open. Snowdrift Red is a blend of a few red-fleshed apple varieties. Our friends at Snowdrift told us there were only a few cases left, so we scooped them all up! (Don't worry, they have another red-flesh cider coming before too long).
5. Farmstead Cider, Bitter Local (500 mL) - Sparkling cider made from 100% crabapples. The crabapples for this special release first rooted decades ago in the high elevation soils of Jackson, Wyoming. They’ve seen hard winters and frosty summers. They’ve been sunburned and bruised. Yet they thrive in the mountain climate—bitter and sweet and sharp. Wild fermented then aged one year in an oak barrel.
6. Little Pomona, Netherwood Estate Sparkling Cider (750 mL) - My Staff Picks boxes tend to always have a cider with Brown Snout apples in them. A bittersweet apple originating from Herefordshire in West Country of England - exactly where Little Pomona's orchard and cidery are. This cider is a real gem and has been flying under the radar in our shop. You're welcome :)
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