Pour Quest: The Cider Trail

A late-summer road trip through the Pacific Northwest, one award-winning pour at a time

There are few better reasons to get lost for a weekend than something good waiting at the end of the road.

This time, we’re following cider.

Not the anonymous, overly sweet pour that can sometimes define the category, but the cider being made across the Pacific Northwest from apples and pears, old varieties and new ideas, orchards and farms stretching from Oregon through Washington and north into British Columbia. And we already have a rather good map.

The 2026 Northwest Cider Cup brought together commercial cider and perry producers from Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana and British Columbia for its 13th year. Entries were tasted blind by trained judges, more than half of whom were American Cider Association Certified Cider Professionals, and evaluated for appearance, aroma, flavor, mouthfeel and overall balance.

Now the judging is finished, the medals have been handed out, and we’re interested in another question entirely:

Where can we go taste them?

That feels like a road trip, and perhaps a little like a preview of what’s coming next.

First stop: Oregon

If we’re going to chase the 2026 winners, Oregon gives us an obvious place to begin.

The bottle at the top of this year’s competition belongs to 2 Towns Ciderhouse. Its 15th Anniversary cider earned Gold in the Dry Low-Tannin category before taking Best of Show, and 2 Towns wasn’t finished there. The Oregon cidery also took Gold for Original Cosmic Crisp, Ginja Ninja and its 2022 Pommeau, while ultimately being named Large Cidery of the Year.

That’s four very different reasons to stop, but this is where I don’t want our trip to become a greatest-hits checklist. A good road trip leaves room for the unexpected, so we keep going.

Oregon’s Heartland Ciderworks gave the judges The Little Rose, which earned Gold in the Low Alcohol/Alcohol Removed category and ultimately finished as Best of Show Runner-Up.

Then there is RAW Cider Co., named Small Cidery of the Year. RAW gives us an entirely different direction to explore. Its Orchard Cuvée No. 1 won Gold among dry high-tannin ciders, while Perry and Estate Sparkling Perry each earned Gold in their respective perry categories.

Suddenly our cider trip has pears in the passenger seat, and that’s exactly what makes this interesting.

Cross the river. Keep driving.

Washington changes the landscape again.

Here, the winning list takes us from familiar fruit into single-varietal cider, red-fleshed apples, botanicals and producers doing things that make you want to pull over and ask questions.

Finnriver Farm & Cidery earned Gold for Kingston Black, a single-varietal cider. This one deserves a moment.

Wine drinkers are accustomed to ordering by grape: Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir. Cider gives us another vocabulary. Kingston Black. Roxbury Russet. Different apples. Different character. Different reasons for growing them.

The 2026 competition devoted an entire category to single-varietal cider, and Washington producers occupied the Gold and Silver positions: Finnriver’s Kingston Black took Gold and Rootwood Cider Co.’s Roxbury Russet earned Silver.

That alone gives us a road-trip mission: learn the apples and not from a chart, but from the people growing and fermenting them.

Then things turn red

Another stop on this trail should involve something that looks a little unexpected in the glass and this brings us to Union Hill Cider Co.

Union Hill Cider Co. earned Gold for Robert’s Red in the Dry Red-Fleshed Cider category. Oregon’s Bauman’s Cider Company followed with Silver for Mountain Rose SV, while Double Mountain Brewery & Cidery received Bronze for Irene Rosé.

Red-fleshed apples give us exactly the sort of ingredient story we love: something familiar—an apple—that becomes unfamiliar once you begin paying attention. And that is really the point of this trip, we’re not simply hunting medals, we’re learning what grows here.

There are pears, herbs, hops and a few surprises along the way

Keep following the Winners Guide and cider quickly stops meaning one thing. There is Puget Sound Cider Company’s Apple Pear, Gold in the co-fermented fruit category. Empyrical’s Inversion took Gold among dry post-fermentation fruit additions. Offset Ciderworks’ Peach won Gold on the sweeter side.

Then the botanicals arrive: Basil Mint, Ginja Ninja, Alora!

The Gold medalists in the herbed, spiced and hopped divisions came from Seattle Cider Company, 2 Towns Ciderhouse and Bauman’s Cider Company respectively. And somewhere around here, this stops feeling like a cider tasting and begins feeling like exactly the kind of Pacific Northwest adventure we were hoping to find.

North, eventually

Our cider map doesn’t end at the Canadian border. British Columbia is part of the Northwest Cider Cup as well, and Merridale Cidery & Distillery took Gold in Wood/Oaked for Scrumpy. This matters to the larger journey we’re building.

The Pacific Northwest doesn’t fit particularly well inside state lines—or even a national one. Our food and beverage culture moves through agricultural regions, waterways, mountains, orchards and communities that have far more in common with one another than a map might initially suggest.

Following cider lets us travel through that landscape differently, not vineyard to vineyard, orchard to orchard.

And there’s a newcomer worth finding

One of the most interesting names in the 2026 results doesn’t sit at the top of a tasting category. Washington’s Abandoned Orchards was named New Cidery of the Year. The Winners Guide also lists its Pear with Silver among low-tannin perries and Blueberry Cider with Bronze in the sweet post-fermentation fruit category.

A new producer entering an established competition gives us another reason to travel, because Pour Quest shouldn’t only be about finding the famous bottle. Sometimes the better story is finding someone near the beginning.

This is where Pour Quest begins to peek around the corner

There is another reason we’re particularly interested in following this trail right now. On September 8, Pour Quest begins production, with Rachel Erickson heading out across the Pacific Northwest as our host.

The premise is wonderfully simple: We’re going looking for the perfect pour.

Sometimes that may be found in a brewery. Sometimes a distillery. Sometimes somewhere we didn’t expect to stop at all. And while this cider trail isn’t an episode of Pour Quest, it feels very much like its spirit.

Get on the road, meet the makers, ask questions, taste something unfamiliar.

Follow one good recommendation to the next place, and don’t become so attached to the itinerary that you miss what’s happening along the way. That’s the Pacific Northwest we want to explore.