Woodinville Cider Tasting at Locust & Elemental – Visit 3

October 31, 2016October 30, 2016 cidersays Elemental, Locust, review cider, cider review, cider tasting, Elemental, hard cider, Locust, tasting notes, Woodinville

I spent another afternoon in Woodinville Washington, cider tasting at the tap rooms for Locust and Elemental. See my notes here from visit 1 and here from visit 2.

At Locust I tried two bottle pours of ciders that are part of their new ‘Hootenanny’ series.

Locust Vanilla Bean, 5.0% ABV: Mild scent. Sweet. Medium bodied. Mild tartness and acidity. Hints of tannins. No sourness, funk, or bitterness. The flavor was vanilla creamsicle–yum! Hints of citrus and pineapple. Low apple flavor. High sessionability. Moderate flavor intensity. Low complexity. I really liked the flavor of this one, but it was too sweet.

Locust Smoked Blueberry, unknown ABV: This cider was made using smoked apples and blueberries. Mild scent. Sweet. Medium bodied. Mild to moderate tartness and acidity. Low tannins. Hints of bitterness and sourness. No funk. Notes of blueberry juice & skin and a hint of lemon. Low apple flavor. High sessionability. Moderate flavor intensity. Low complexity. I didn’t find this overtly smoked, but I imagine it had some influence.

Elemental ‘Lithium’ Lemoncello, 6.5% ABV: Semi-sweet to semi-dry. Light to medium bodied with a fizzy mouthfeel. Moderate tartness. Moderate to high acidity. No bitterness, tannins, sourness, or funk. Lots of lemon, slight creaminess, and hints of grapefruit. Low apple flavor. Moderate sessionability. Low complexity. Moderate flavor intensity.

Elemental Mango, 6.5% ABV: Semi-sweet to semi-dry. Light to medium bodied. Moderate tartness. High acidity. No sourness, bitterness, funk, or tannins. Notes of mango, citrus, and pineapple. Low apple flavor. Moderate sessionability. Low complexity. Low flavor intensity.

My favorite at Locust was Vanilla Bean, although I wouldn’t be able to drink an entire pint of it or anything as it was quite sweet. My favorite at Elemental was the Lemoncello, as it was more flavorful than the Mango.

Woodinville Cider Tasting 2 – Locust & Elemental

May 5, 2016May 1, 2016 cidersays Elemental, Locust, review cider, cider tasting, Elemental, hard cider, Locust, tasting notes, washington, Woodinville

I spent another afternoon in Woodinville Washington, cider tasting at the tap rooms for Locust and Elemental. See my notes here from my last visit.

Locust Mango, 6.0% ABV: Yellow dark straw gold hue. Mild fruity mango scent. Semi-sweet to sweet. Low carbonation with some foam. Medium bodied. Mild tartness and acidity. No bitterness, sourness, funk, or tannins. Real mango flavor with some tropical and honey notes. Quick finish length. Fairly simple, but I liked the moderately intense real mango flavor (although it was a sweet cider, it didn’t have a mango candy flavor).

Locust Elder & Oak, 7.0% ABV: Deep berry hue. Mild scent with hints of berry and oak. Semi-dry. Light bodied. Moderate tartness and acidity. Mild tannins. No bitterness, sourness, or funk. Very textural with berry tannins. Earthy and wine-like. Moderate length finish. Mild to moderate barrel influence. Very low apple influence. Although I’m a fan of barrel aged ciders, I wasn’t into this. I think it was too tannic (although it tasted like that was only from the elderberries, not applies) oddly enough.

Locust Wabi Sabi, 6.9% ABV: Yellow dark straw gold hue. Low carbonation with some foam. Smells mild, acidic, and of citrus. Semi-sweet to semi-dry. Medium bodied. Mild tartness and acidity. No bitterness, sourness, funk, or tannins. Apple-forward and a bit juice-like. Notes of fresh apple, honey, citrus (although less than the scent), and apple pomace. Quick finish length. I found this to be a very typical sweeter flagship cider.

Elemental Blackberry Cobbler, 6.5% ABV: Deep blackberry hue. Sweet to very sweet. The flavor is very blackberry, but I also picked up a carbohydrate component in the scent and texture (kinda like “cobbler”, although I was told the only other addition was pie spices, which I didn’t pick up). Medium bodied. Moderate tartness. Mild acidity. No bitterness, sourness, funk, or tannins. Quick finish length. I wasn’t really into this, but I imagine it will sell very well. It was a one-off keg as they came into some blackberry concentrate (which I learned is about the most expensive flavor), but they plan to make some other blackberry ciders in the future.

Elemental Pomegranate-Rose, 6.5% ABV: Light pink hue with some foam. Semi-sweet to semi-dry. Light bodied. Moderate tartness. Mild acidity. No bitterness, sourness, funk, or tannins. Very mild and smooth with some mild fruitiness. I tried this before too. Its well balanced and refreshing.

Elemental NW Atomic Root Beer, 6.5% ABV: This is a cider-based hard root beer (vs. making an alcoholic root beer with a malt base). I’ve had this a few times before. This time I really enjoyed it…I think its the best batch yet…I tasted more apple than previously, but apparently it was less. The “root beer” is stronger in the scent than the flavor. This doesn’t taste exactly like root beer, but it has a great flavor. Oddly enough this is my favorite cider that Elemental makes. Probably as it has a rich full flavor (I tend towards English & French ciders).

Elemental ‘Carbon’ Dry, 6.5% ABV: Semi-dry to dry. Light bodied. Apple-forward. Moderate tartness and acidity. Citrus notes with some mineral. A hint of tannins. This tasted between that that of the first two times I tried it. I liked the previous batch a bit more, as it was richer and less tart. Elemental is unique in that they continue to tweak their ciders after release, so although it has the same name, it may be different.

Elemental Hard Cider NW Atomic Root Beer

March 21, 2016March 13, 2016 cidersays Elemental, review cider, cider review, Elemental, hard cider, hard root beer, NW Atomic Root Beer, NW Atomic Rootbeer, root beer, washington, Woodinville

Review of NW Atomic Root Beer from Elemental Hard Cider in Woodinville Washington. It is a cider based hard root beer (cider with root beer spices). I’ve tried this twice before on draft (different batches…Elemental is unique in that they continue to tweak recipes after releasing a cider), and I have tried a number of ciders from them (see here).

Cider: NW Atomic Root Beer
Cidery: Elemental Hard Cider
Cidery Location: Woodinville WA
ABV: 6.5%
How Supplied: 22oz brown glass bottle
Style: American craft alcopop, cider based hard root beer

Availability: Likely only in WA

Cider Description: NW Atomic Root Beer starts with out crisp, clean and bright hard apple cider fermented bone dry to 6.5% ABV. We then infuse the base with an intense magical concoction of sassafras and liquorice. Subtle notes of vanilla, anise, fennel and plum are soft on the palette and round off the experience of our unique beverage.

Note that they use caramel color, but its certified non-GMO (apparently rare to find) and gluten free. They are even working on getting an organic version of it.

Hand-crafted micro ciders designed for taste, smoothness, and quality. Each of our hand-crafted ciders are made from only the finest Northwest apples and cold-fermented to preserve the fruit. Our ciders are reminiscent of champagne, they are lightly filtered and mildly effervescent for clean taste. Experience our quality for yourself. Come in often to grab a glass. We are constantly trying out new flavors, so the line-up is always changing.

Price: ~$8
Where Bought: The Cave in Kirkland WA
Where Drank: home
How Found: I heard about this at Cider Summit Seattle last year but didn’t get around to trying it until I saw it at the Schilling Cider House on draft (notes here). For awhile it was draft-only, no bottles. Then, I tried it on draft again at Around the Table (notes here). I remembered liking the previous version better (I heard that over time they retained less apple flavor), but wanted to give a bottle a try as it is so unique. I thought that this bottle was closer to the first version I tried than to the second, as it retained more apple flavor, which I like. Apparently most of their customers however seem to prefer less apple flavor than I do.

First Impression: Caramel brown root beer hue. Low carbonation upon pouring. Smells like root beer spices with a hint of baked apple.

Tasting Notes: Semi-sweet to semi-dry. Medium bodied. Low carbonation. Low acidity and tartness. No sourness, bitterness, funk, or tannins. Notes of root beer spices (milder than a typical root beer), rich baked apple, caramel, and honey. The flavor starts as root beer and finishes with baked apple. Quick finish. Moderate apple influence. High sessionability.

My Opinion: Tasty! This is my idea of a sessionable cider…very easy to drink, but also very flavorful and unique. The only thing I’d change would be slightly more carbonation. Not as much as soda, but more than I detected would be nice.

Most Similar to: This is quite different from other hard root beers such as Not Your Father’s as it has a cider (not malt beverage) base, so it doesn’t have the bitterness of that product (and is less sweet and less carbonated). The only similar cider I know of is Sonoma Washboard, but that is sarsaparilla not root beer spices, and quite dry (I really disliked that one, but my husband was a huge fan).

Closing Notes: I’m usually not a huge fan of flavored ciders, but I think one of the reasons I enjoyed this was because it is so far from traditional cider. I hope I can purchase this version/recipe in the future, as I really liked it.

Have you tried NW Atomic Root Beer? What did you think?

Woodinville Cider Tasting – Locust, Elemental, & Woodinville Ciderworks

March 11, 2016March 4, 2016 cidersays Elemental, Locust, review, Woodinville Ciderworks cider, cider tasting, Elemental, hard cider, Locust, tasting notes, washington, Woodinville, Woodinville Ciderworks

Recently I spent a Saturday in Woodinville with my husband and a friend. I planned to just go to Locust as I wanted to try their new Bourbon Barrel Aged cider, but ended up visiting all three cideries / tasting rooms in the area, which was nice. Locust Cider, Elemental Hard Cider, and Woodinville Ciderworks are all within walking distance of each other, and each has both cidery and tasting room in the same location. It was my first time visiting any of them, although I’m very familiar with their ciders and have met or communicated with the owners. We started with lunch at Big Fish Grill, which was very tasty. They even had local cider on tap (Schilling Mischief Maker Pom-Cran, which I reviewed here).

Next we went to Locust Cider. My husband and friend tried a couple ciders, then left me to finish up mine (and visit the other cideries) while they went wine tasting.

I only tried two of Locust’s ciders, as I had tried all the others or wasn’t interested (and the first one was a large pour of a high ABV cider!). They were offering Original Dry, Winesap, Dark Cherry, Chipotle, Thai Ginger, and Aged WA Dessert Apple on tap, and bottle pours of Bittersweet Reserve and Bourbon Barrel Aged. See my tasting notes on Thai Ginger, Pumpkin, and Dark Cherry, and reviews of Aged WA Dessert Apple and Bittersweet Reserve (plus I’ve tried Original Dry and Green Tea Infused).

Bourbon Barrel Aged (14% ABV) – This is their newest bottle release, originally only for their club members, but sales were opened up to the public as they had a bit extra (tap room only). Aged 9 months in bourbon barrels. Smells like bourbon with only a hint of apple and oak. Golden orange amber hue. On the sweeter side of Dry. Still. Served room temperature. Light bodied. Moderate acidity, mild tartness, mild bitterness, and mild tannins. Moderate to full flavor profile. I could definitely tell it was 14% ABV, and I think I would have liked to try it cold (or even, shudder, with an ice cube or two), as I think it would have smoothed out a bit. As is, it was a bit much for me. In addition to bourbon, notes of oak and vanilla, and a slight bit of maple and must. Long warming boozy finish. Moderate to high spirit influence. Moderate barrel influence. Very low sessionability. Mild to moderate apple flavor.

Winesap (6.0% ABV) – This is a new cider for them (tap only), a single varietal from Winesap apples. They experimented with a Sidra-style fermentation, aiming to smooth out the tartness of the Winesap apples, and aged it a few months (I assume tank as Ryan didn’t specify barrel). Smells mildly sour and of citrus. Hazy light lemon straw yellow hue. Semi-dry. Only very mild sourness (and I’m admittedly sensitive), less so than in the scent. Mild tartness and acidity. Medium bodied. Frothy mouthfeel but low carbonation. Mildly flavored, with citrus, earthy, yeast, and mineral notes. Quick finish. High sessionability. Mild to moderate apple flavor. This was one of the most unique ciders I’ve ever tasted–very textural more than flavorful. This would be a great refreshing summer cider.

They had a neat handout for tasting notes (reminiscent of this source):

Next I walked down the street to Elemental Hard Cider. I hadn’t realized they had so many taps (12, in comparison to 6 at Locust, although 1 was out). The owners Brian and Christina Callahan were tending bar (I had met them previously at Around the Table in Lynnwood). They were offering Dry (Carbon), Acai (Nitrogen), Ginger, Pomegranate-Rose, Margarita (Jalapeno Lime Cilantro), Apple Pie, Pomegranate (Oxygen), Blood Orange (Calcium), NW Atomic Root Beer, Lavender-Rose Petal, and Grapefruit (Hydrogen).

I’ve previously tried Cherry, Dry (version a & version b), NW Atomic Root Beer (version a & version b), Blood Orange, Seasonal Spiced Apple, Pom-Cherry, and Pomegranate. They are unique in that they have made significant tweaks to their recipes after releasing them, and even bottling them in some cases, thus I have very different tasting notes on the same cider in two cases. I learned they plan to release some ciders in six packs (previously they have only done 16.9 or 22 oz bottles).

<Margarita, Lavender-Rose, and Grapefruit>

Margarita, Jalapeno Lime Cilantro (6.5% ABV) – Smells like lime with hints of cilantro and jalapeno. On the drier side of semi-sweet. Only very mild spiciness (although apparently it can sneak up if you drink a couple pints). The flavor was also mostly lime, although surprisingly only mildly tart. Moderate acidity. A hint of bitterness. Light bodied. Moderate finish length. This would pair really well with mexican food.

Lavender-Rose Petal (6.5% ABV) – Sweet. Full bodied, almost syrupy. Floral and herbal flavor, although I’m not sure I could have guessed it was infused with lavender and rose petals (apparently more rose than lavender with this batch). Low acidity and tartness. Too sweet for me (apparently this is their response to requests for sweeter ciders).

Grapefruit, Hydrogen (6.5% ABV) – Very mild grapefruit scent. On the sweeter side of semi-dry. Mild refreshing grapefruit flavor. Low tartness and acidity. Medium bodied. I’m usually not a huge grapefruit fan, but this was surprisingly nice.

Brian at Elemental had mentioned that Leroy at Woodinville Ciderworks was now pouring Asian Pear cider out of his Flying Dreams Winery tasting room (which specializes in Spanish red wines). I was walking to try to meet up with my husband & friend and walked right by it, so I decided to drop in. They only have one other cider, Tropical, which I tasted at Cider Summit Seattle last summer, but they haven’t bottled yet.

Asian Pear (6.5% ABV) – Semi-dry. Mildly flavored with only a hint of pear (the apple also remains mild). Low tartness and acidity. Light bodied. Citrus, pear, and mineral notes. Moderate finish length. I can see why this is popular, especially with fans of white wine, but its not really my thing, as I like a very flavorful cider.

While I was there I learned they will be bottling Tropical in about 6 weeks, and also a new cider, Pomegranate Dark Cherry, this summer.

I actually ended up back at Elemental to meet my husband and friend as they thought I was still there. They tried a few ciders, and Ginger was their favorite of those.

Locust Bittersweet Reserve remains my favorite Woodinville cider so far. I opened my bottle the night before this group of cidery visits–yum!

Have you been to any cidery tasting room lately?

Elemental Seasonal Spiced Apple

January 6, 2016January 6, 2016 cidersays Elemental, review cider, cider review, cider tasting, Elemental, hard cider, Seasonal Spiced Apple, spiced, spiced cider, washington, Woodinville

Review of Elemental Hard Cider’s Seasonal Spiced Apple cider, from Woodinville WA. This is a seasonal release for them.

Cider: Seasonal Spiced Apple
Cidery: Elemental Hard Cider
Cidery Location: Woodinville WA
ABV: 6.5%
How Supplied: 22oz bottle (also available on tap)
Style: American spiced apple cider

Availability: During Winter in Western WA

Cider Description: none given

Cidery Description: Family owned and operated. Brian and Christina Callahan launched Elemental Hard Cider to bring quality, affordable, and delicious hard cider to the world. We strive to bring fun and exciting flavors to the experienced cider enthusiast, as well as novice cider drinkers. Hand-Crafted Micro ciders Designed For Taste, smoothness, and quality. Each of our hand-crafted ciders are made from only the finest Northwest apples and cold-fermented to preserve the fruit. Our ciders are reminiscent of champagne, they are lightly filtered and mildly effervescent for clean taste. Experience our quality for yourself. Come in often to grab a glass. We are constantly trying out new flavors, so the line-up is always changing.

They have a tasting room in Woodinville WA open on Saturdays & Sundays.

Price: ~$8
Where Bought: Schilling Cider House in Seattle WA
Where Drank: home
How Found: Browsing, upon recommendation from Nathan from The Cider Chronicles

First Impression: Light amber yellow-orange. Mostly still. Smells like sweet apples, cinnamon, and sugar.

Tasting Notes: Semi-dry (so my nose deceived me into thinking it would be sweeter). Moderate tartness. Strong acidity. No sourness or funk. Mild bitterness. Cinnamon-forward, with a touch of nutmeg and cloves, but overall the spice remains moderate. Light bodied. Long finish.

My Opinion: Pretty good. I liked that it wasn’t crazy sweet or heavily spiced. I was surprised however with the level of tartness and acidity.

Most Similar to: This reminds me a bit of 2 Towns Nice & Naughty, which I also found to be semi-dry and not too spiced, but was a significantly higher ABV. I’ve found D’s Wicked Baked Apple and Carlton Cyderworks Sugar and Spice to both be semi-sweet. I had always thought I didn’t like spiced ciders, but I’ve found that to be false.

Closing Notes: This was a great cider to kick off my Christmas break with!

What is your favorite spiced hard cider?

Elemental Cider Tasting Notes

December 28, 2015December 19, 2015 cidersays Elemental, review Around the Table, cider, cider review, cider tasting, Elemental, hard cider, lynnwood, washington, Woodinville

Around the Table, a game pub in Lynnwood WA, recently hosted an Elemental Hard Cider tasting. Although I’m not really into the game portion of their shop, its a great place to pick up a growler of cider, as they usually have a few selections on tap (plus a mead), typically from local cideries. Elemental Cider hails from Woodinville WA, also in the greater Seattle area. Brian and Christina Callahan, founders of Elemental, were there pouring, and it wasn’t too busy so I got to talk with Brian about cider for awhile. Elemental has a tasting room in Woodinville WA. They started off making wine, founding Callahan Cellars, but have since transitioned to cider, closing Callahan Cellars.

I’ve had a number of Elemental’s selections, including past versions of the Carbon and NW Atomic Rootbeer varieties they were sampling. I was surprised how different the recipes were from what I had previously tried, but they said they have continued to tweak them after release, although the current versions should be the permanent ones. Even without knowingly tweaking a recipe, a cider can change significantly batch to batch, year to year.

Blood Orange is a newer variety for them and only available at their tap room, but Carbon and NW Atomic Rootbeer are available in bottles. I think Pom-Cherry is also a newer tap room only variety, but they have a Pomegranate variety dubbed”Oxygen” available in bottles & kegs, and I’ve had a Cherry variety from them from a keg previously.

I started with Carbon, which they describe as a traditional dry hard cider. The cidermaker Brian divulged that they have a special ingredient they use, a touch of lavender, for a little something special. I couldn’t pick up that flavor, but this was rather unique for a basic cider. I’d call it more semi-dry than dry. Its fairly apple-forward, moderately full flavored, and slightly rich. Moderate acidity, mild tartness, and a hint of tannins, with no detectable bitterness, sourness, or funk. Medium bodied.

I learned that they use colder fermenation temperatures than some other cideries to retain more apple flavor in their ciders. I really like when a cider is apple-forward without tasting juice-like (which often happens when they overly back-sweeten a cider with unfermented juice).

This version of Carbon was quite different than the version I tried a couple months ago (which was probably bottled many months before that), which was very pale in color, drier, less flavorful, and had more bitterness & tannins. I enjoyed this new version much better. I’d love if they would make it available in cans, as I’ve been searching for an affordable craft cider (which usually means a multi-pack) that I enjoy, and coming up empty as most are very mildly flavored.

Next was Cherry-Pom, which had a light cherry hue, and with which I picked up more cherry than pomegranate flavor (the Pom mostly presented as tartness), but it remained mild to moderately flavored. It was semi-dry, with mild to moderate acidity. I’m not really a big fan of fruity ciders, but I found no faults with it.

I then tried NW Atomic Rootbeer, which is their root beer made with a cider base (in contrast to a malt base like most hard root beers). It smells almost exactly like the soda version of root beer (moreso than the previous version), but has a hint of apple on the finish (also moreso than the previous version). However, in between, the root beer flavor seemed to be less than the previous version. Brian said that they ferment the apple base dry, so it shouldn’t have much apple flavor remaining, so it may be been perceived on my part (or I had some previous cider remaining in my glass). Overall it was enjoyable, but I remembered liking the previous version better, so I was a bit disappointed.

They’ve actually got some members of the cider community in uproar on this product, saying it isn’t craft cider. Although this is “Alcopop”, I don’t see it as much different than fruit, hopped, or spiced cider…the main difference is that they use caramel coloring. However, its cane sugar based, non-GMO, and the closest you can get to all natural (they are currently trying to go one step further and get the organic version of it). I personally don’t have an issue with the product as they are upfront about what it is.

The final cider was Blood Orange. This seems to be a new fad, as Ace recently released a “Space” blood orange cider (my tasting notes here), as well as some other cideries which don’t distribute in my area (2 Rivers, Bulmers, Country Cider Co, Common Cider Co, & FoxCraft. Thankfully I liked Elemental’s version much better than Ace’s, as it tasted real instead of fake, although rather juice-like. It was full-flavored, but the blood orange portion of the flavor remained mild instead of overpowering. It had a hazy orange hue with a hint of pink. Full bodied. This is a pretty easily likable cider, and seemed to be a hit during the tasting. I thought it was well-done, but its just not a flavor I enjoy.

My favorite of the four ciders was oddly enough the Carbon. I unfortunately liked the previous version of NW Atomic Rootbeer better. I decided to get a half growler of Carbon since I liked it, it was such a good price (about the same as a bottle of their cider which is half the size), and its no fun to leave a tasting empty handed.

They were doing a raffle for giveaways (mostly Elemental Hard Cider & NW Atomic Rootbeer branded glass growlers) for folks who bought a pint of cider. However, I didn’t have a reason to hang out after my cider tasting and a bit of Full Tilt ice cream, so I got a growler and headed home. They were doing the same deal they did with the last cider tasting (Finnriver) where you got the growler glass for free (instead of $5) with a fill, so now I have two 32oz cider growlers. I was able to drink the cider a few nights that week and it actually stayed perfectly fresh and lightly carbonated the whole time.

I look forward to the next cider tasting they have at Around the Table, and trying more ciders from Elemental. They have been commercially producing cider for just over a year, and already have a maximum capacity of 30 barrels a week.

Elemental Carbon (Traditional Dry Cider)

October 8, 2015September 27, 2015 cidersays Elemental, review Carbon, cider, cider review, cider tasting, Elemental, hard cider, Woodinville

Review of ‘Carbon’ from Elemental Hard Cider, their traditional dry cider.

Cider: Carbon (Traditional Dry)
Cidery: Elemental Hard Cider (part of Callahan Cellars)
Cidery Location: Woodinville WA
ABV: 6.5%
How Supplied: 500ml glass bottle

Availability: limited to Western WA at this time (see their website)

Cider Description: Our Traditional Dry Hard Cider is a European inspired cider. The experience is crisp, clean and tart. This is the perfect cider to pair with any meal.

Cidery Description: Each of our hand-crafted ciders are made from only the finest Northwest apples and cold-fermented to preserve the fruit. Our ciders are reminiscent of champagne, they are lightly filtered and mildly effervescent for clean taste. Experience our quality for yourself. Come in often to grab a glass. We are constantly trying out new flavors, so the line-up is always changing. Brian and Christina Callahan launched Elemental Hard Cider to bring quality, affordable, and delicious hard cider to the world. We strive to bring fun and exciting flavors to the experienced cider enthusiast, as well as novice cider drinkers.

Their current lineup includes Carbon (traditional dry), Helium (pear), Oxygen (pomegraniate), Nitrogen (acai), Hydrogen (grapefruit), CO (cherry), Pineapple, Spiced Apple, NW Atomic Root Beer, and Jalapeno Lime Cilantro, although some of those are seasonal and/or special releases.

Price: ~$8
Where Bought: Special Brews in Lynnwood WA
Where Drank: home
How Found: There has been a lot of talk on Facebook and such about this relatively new cidery (May 2014), so I’ve been wanting to give them a try. I actually tried a taste of their Cherry on tap at the Schilling Cider House awhile back, but I didn’t count that so much. Their other varieties I could find in bottles didn’t sound appealing (acai and pomegranate), so I decided to go for their flagship traditional dry cider.

First Impression: Very light color. High carbonation with little bubbles. Dry clean apple scent.

Opinion: Dry. Simple yet complex. Refreshing and clean taste. Moderate acidity, tartness, bitterness, and tannins. Quick finish. Slight earthiness. Champagne-like mouthfeel.

Most Similar to: Argus Fermentables Ciderkin. Like very very similar oddly enough.

Closing Notes: A solid cider, but not really a style I enjoy. I think its a great sparkling wine alternative. I’d be interested to try more of their ciders. However, I go for more of a bold flavor, often barrel aged, and I don’t really see them heading in that direction. I didn’t get a chance to try their NW Atomic Root Beer at Cider Summit, but that seems to be quite popular.

Have you tried Elemental Carbon? What did you think?

Cider Says

A cider enthusiast blog focusing on cider reviews, based in Seattle WA.

Elemental

Woodinville Cider Tasting at Locust & Elemental – Visit 3

Woodinville Cider Tasting 2 – Locust & Elemental

Elemental Hard Cider NW Atomic Root Beer

Woodinville Cider Tasting – Locust, Elemental, & Woodinville Ciderworks

Elemental Seasonal Spiced Apple

Elemental Cider Tasting Notes

Elemental Carbon (Traditional Dry Cider)

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