What’s better than drinking cider when it’s a mid-summer day, with the sun having warmed just about everything in its path, except (hopefully) for your cider? Hardly much, if anything. Unfortunately, the summer season approaches its imminent end. Fortunately, fall-themed ciders arise which make the transition not-so-bad after all.
Woodchuck Hard Cider Fall Harvest | Middlebury, Vermont | This is a spicy sip full of cinnamon and nutmeg flavors, aged in American white oak to prepare you for the cold months ahead. Snuggle up and let this cider warm you up from the inside out.
6 Cider Honey Ginger | Seattle | This spicy-sweet infused cider touts a zesty kick which is best for those fall nights out by a campfire. Each sip adds up but the flavor isn’t highly overwhelming. Rather, the flavors like to stick around after the cider is no more.
Apple Outlaw Cranberry Jewel | Applegate, OR | Although Thanksgiving may still be down the road, it still lies in the fall. But who doesn’t want it to be Thanksgiving every day when the food and drink are that delicious? This perfect pairing is a blend of cranberry, rose hips and orange peel making this a great holiday libation as well as a great end-of-summer go-to.
Bishop Cider Suicider | Dallas | Slapped with a label showing cider-loving Benjamin Franklin risking his life as he takes his kite into a thunderstorm, this cider of Northwest apples is a “mad scientist’s concoction,” spiced with cinnamon, allspice and clove. Mixing together baking spices with ripe, fall apples elicits memories and sensations of apple pie.
ACE Cider Pumpkin | Sonoma, CA | What’s more fall than the harvest, carving, illuminating or eating of squash? Longtime wine country cider resident ACE says nothing is — and has been bottling its Pumpkin cider successfully since 2010. Released after Labor Day, the orange-hued cider is bold and zippy, melding the flavors of unctuous squash with juicy apple.
Carlton Cyderworks Slake Hard Cyder | McMinnville, OR | This cider is aged for months in bourbon barrels, making the cider’s time to enjoy extend well beyond just the turn of this season. The bourbon’s influence is approachable and balanced out with notes of vanilla and oak, mingling with the inherent apple. By a fire, indoor or out, or just cozied up inside avoiding the transitional weather is where this cider truly shines.
Wicked Cider Baked Apple | Kennewick, WA | Few things are more nostalgic to fall than apple pie… Except cider. This semi-sweet cider takes the cake (or pie) or both, with ripe, round flavors from the Red Delicious and Honey Crisp apples, balanced out by allspice and cinnamon and producing a cider that even Grandma would be impressed by.
