This weekend my partner, my best friend and I all went to the Cider Summit Seattle, in South Lake Union. It’s something we’ve all been looking forward to since last year, when Chris was still in AZ and Niffer had just had oral surgery, so she served as my DD and didn’t get to have any ciders. This year we took the bus so everyone could drink cider and have a good time.
This post has a lot less photos than it should, because it’s pretty hard to juggle a tasting glass and a phone. Above, you can see me enjoying a Blood Orange Mango from New West Cider out of Portland, OR.
What is Cider Summit Seattle?
Cider Summit Seattle features over 150 ciders, along with some mead, apple whiskey, and maybe a few other surprises. There’s also food, information on local cider associations and cider making, and a cute “dog lounge” area because the event is pet-friendly.
Most of the cider producers are from the West Coast, including up in to Canada, but there were a few from other states, as well as some imports from England, Spain, and other countries with a cider making tradition.
In addition to the usual ciders you might expect from these brands, some of the cideries also participate in the Oregon Specialty Fruit “Fruit Cider Challenge” which features special brews made with purees from the sponsor. That Blood Orange Mango that I’m enjoying above is one such example. It’s a nice draw for the event, to know that you’ll get to try something that you couldn’t get normally.
How was the cider?
Between the three of us we tried a LOT of ciders, and most of them were amazing… and we only scratched the surface of what was available. For the most part we tried ciders that had other fruit in them as well, instead of just straight-up apple. All of us love novelty!
My personal favorite of the day, which we brought home a bottle of, was the Elderberry Perry from WildCraft Cider Works out of Eugene, OR. For those not in the know, perry is like cider, but made with pear juice instead. Yum! Now I was about halfway through my drink tickets when I tried it, so I can’t really remember the taste well enough to describe it, I just know that it was really complex and well-balanced and made me say “wow” so I am looking forward to enjoying it again when it can really shine, instead of being one pour in a day of pours.
Chris’s favorite was a Plum Jerkum (which is apparently like cider but made with stone fruit?) that unfortunately was not available at the bottle shop.
Wait, did you say bottle shop?
Yes! One of the great things about Cider Summit is that there’s a bottle shop (and merch booth) outside the event, so you can pick up your favorites, or something you didn’t get to try because you ran out of tickets, or a gift for your designated driver to enjoy later.
Not everything is available at the bottle shop, but there’s still a huge variety so you’re bound to find something you like. And the volunteers running it when we shopped were great. We expected to have to wait in line but there was no one ahead of us so when we got to the counter we were like “Uhhhh….” and they helped us go through the program to find the names of the booths and ciders we liked. You can also pick up extra drink tickets at the bottle shop if your liver can take it!
So how about the food?
There’s not a lot of food there, but what is there is pretty good! We were especially excited to find Susu Ice Cream there because I had just read about them in the Seattle Times recently and we really wanted to try it. Look at this beautiful ice cream:
It’s hard to tell because of all the garnishes on top, but it’s rolled ice cream! They pour the ice cream base out onto a cold plate and make this thin layer of ice cream which they then cut and roll! Mine was a coconut non-dairy ice cream with sweet potato, water chestnuts, tiny tapioca pearls, palm sugar syrup and an edible orchid on top. Chris got a sweet and savory one made with brie, pear, and prosciutto. It was $15 for two ice creams, which I would not normally spend, but as a special treat it was so worth it — especially seeing how much work goes into making it!
We also hit the Capitol Cider booth. They were offering a variety of entrees, appetizers, and sides. Now we had all eaten lunch before we left, but when you’ve been drinking a lot of cider and you smell something delicious cooking, you decide you need a snack. So we had some tamales, some baked beans, and some amazing lobster mushrooms in pesto sauce.
Why I like Cider Summit Seattle
Back in Tucson, we would go to beer festivals sometimes. It was fun to try some beers, but I’m not as big of a beer drinker as I am a cider drinker. The beer festivals would only have the big cider producers, like Woodchuck, and they would just have the same flavors you could buy at the grocery store.
Plus, the atmosphere at the beer festival always felt kind of… bro-y. Like people were there to get DRUNK. It wasn’t about trying new things, it was about drinking as much beer as you could, and as the night wore on, people would get more obnoxious.
Cider Summit doesn’t feel like that and I think a few things contribute to it. One is the fact that the Saturday session ends at 5pm, so you’re outdoors in the afternoon. It feels more chill (plus you have plenty of time to sober up before bed time). Honestly, I think the fact that it’s dog-friendly also makes it feel more like a day at the park than like a big booze-up event.
Over all, I think the culture around cider is also a little different than the culture around beer. I mean, don’t get me wrong, cider making seems to be just as much as a white dude fest as craft brewing, and I’d like to see that change… But I think because cider is a newer thing, just coming back into the mainstream, there’s more of this sense of curiosity about it. People are rediscovering old recipes and apple varieties, while also experimenting with new, trendy ingredients (we seriously tried a cider with activated charcoal in it).
WA Cider Week
Cider Summit Seattle is part of the Seventh Annual Washington Cider Week, which runs from Sept 7th to the 17th (I guess a week is ten days long now). So even if you missed the summit, there are still plenty of other great events to check out and taste some yummy cider.
