I spent some time in Woodinville Washington recently, including cider tasting at the Locust Cider tap room (and lunch at one of my favorite spots, a burger place called Tipsy Cow).  See my notes from visit 1, visit 2, and visit 3.  My husband and a friend joined me, and we shared a flight of five ciders.

<left to right: Hibiscus Wine, Dark Cherry, Aged Apple, Pineapple, and Honey Pear, all 5-6% ABV>

Hibiscus Wine:  This was labeled as being a guest tap with a wine which finished like a cider.  That was a bit confusing though as it was still labeled as 6% (which would be very low for a grape wine) and it didn’t say from where it was from.  Semi-dry with floral and berry notes and a hint of oak.  I couldn’t really tell if it was from grapes or apples, as it was very mild.

Dark Cherry:  My husband’s favorite.  Semi-dry with real cherry flavor but a bitter aftertaste.  Also sold in cans.

Aged Apple:  My favorite (see my full review here), but I wish it was drier.  Sweet to semi-sweet.  Very apple forward with hints of oak.  Also sold in cans.

Pineapple:  My friend’s favorite.  This may have been a one-off / tasting room only release, as it wasn’t their Chili Pineapple.  Semi-sweet.  Not as intense of a pineapple flavor as I expected, and it also had some citrus notes.

Honey Pear:  This one was very different than when I tried it before (see here), as this time it was on the sweeter side of semi-sweet instead of on the drier side of semi-dry.  Way more honey and pear flavor due to the increase in sweetness.  Also sold in cans.

They also had Original Dry, Cilantro Jalapeno, and Spiced Pumpkin.  I was surprised with how sweet all the options were.  The driest were their Original Dry and the Dark Cherry.  Its ironic as Locust started out only making dry ciders (the Dark Cherry used to be their sweetest).  I imagine the market wants sweeter ciders though.  Sweeter ciders tend to be more flavorful than drier ciders when using dessert apples.