This new cider tasting room is Tacoma’s first. It opened with 12 ciders on tap
Tacoma’s first cider taproom is now open.
Yes, that’s correct. A taproom serving only hard cider.
No IPAs, no stouts, no porters, no beer at all. How unusual for this beer-loving town where an IPA on the tap list seems practically a requirement for a business license.
The tasting room comes from Locust Cider, a Northwest cidery with a production facility and taproom in Woodinville and a tasting room in Ballard.
It opened July 25 at 2805 Sixth Ave. in Tacoma’s Sixth Avenue neighborhood.
The closest thing we’ve had to it here was Cockrell Hard Ciders in the Puyallup Valley, an estate cidery, planted with hundreds of apple trees, with a small tasting room.
Locust’s tasting room is in the middle of a bustling retail, entertainment and dining district, which is precisely why the company selected that spot.
“We’re focusing on the bottom up and connecting with people one on one rather than sending cans into grocery stores,” said co-owner Jason Spears, who operates the company with wife Rebecca. They founded the cidery with Jason’s brother Patrick in 2015.
What is unusual about the 3-year-old cidery is the depth of its cider list.
The Tacoma location comes with 12 taps and those taps dispense only Locust ciders.
“We use our tasting rooms as the R&D lab,” Spears said. “It’s important for us to stay ahead of our competition if we want to grow. We’re not as big as these other guys. We can’t leverage size, or be cheaper. We have to be faster and creative. We make a big point of creating tons and tons of small batches.”
New ciders are practically an everyday thing for Locust.
“Almost every day we have a new small batch through our production facility, anywhere from a 500-gallon or a 50-to-100-gallon batch.”
Those small-batch ciders mean high tap turnover, giving visitors new ciders to try continuously.
The opening week menu listed 12 ciders grouped across four columns with less sweet ciders to the left side of the menu and sweeter ciders listed toward the right.
Serious cider fans will want to keep an eye out for single heirloom varieties, the most coveted of the cidery’s lineup.
Seasonals also dominated the opening tap list.
“The mojito is a crowd favorite,” Spears said of that current mint-heavy seasonal cider. “It takes 1,000 pounds of fresh mint to make.” Visitors should soon look for lavender-blueberry.
As the growing season winds down and summer ingredients, such as watermelon and black currant, disappear, the cidery will focus on flavoring its ciders with spices. One fall seasonal to watch for is a New England-style cider made with dates and brown sugar that should debut around September.
Here’s a first-sip look.
Opening menu: Core ciders listed were original dry cider, dark cherry, honey pear, sweet aged apple and vanilla bean. Seasonals watermelon, mojito and black currant might not be around for long. Also listed were Thai ginger, an heirloom perry (the pear equivalent of apple cider), an heirloom ruby cider and the semi-sweet Hazy Newton Pippin.
By the glass: $5 for core ciders, $7 for premiums.
Flights: Single four-ounce pours are $3. Get a flight of five for $15.
Cans and growlers: Take a growler-to-go ($13 to $19.50) or buy four-packs of cider ($8).
Seating: 50 at high-top and low-top tables built for parties large and small.
Payment: Cards only. No cash accepted.
Kids: Welcome. Crayons and board games in the back, along with an arcade gaming consule.
Eats: Takeout from neighboring The Pizza Press is easy (look for menus on the tables). All outside food welcome.
Locust Cider Tacoma
Where: 2805 Sixth Ave., Tacoma
Info: 206-494-5968 or locustcider.com
Hours: 3-11 p.m. Monday-Thursday; 3 p.m.-midnight Friday; noon-midnight Saturday; noon-9 p.m. Sunday.
This story was originally published August 1, 2018 at 2:00 PM.