Welcome, seekers of the strong and the strange. Today’s cider flight is not here to refresh you. It’s here to convert you to high gravity fruit worship, to orchard mysticism, to the sacred ritual of sipping something that kicks like a velvet boot to the solar plexus. These are the emperors and outlaws of the apple realm—imperial ciders that don’t politely fizz across the palate, but rather erupt, smolder, and sermonize. From the dragon-summoning swagger of Avid’s Black Dragon to the molten raspberry kiss by Incline Cider… from Seattle Cider’s monastic masterpiece to the Wu-Tang–blessed tropical cipher of Newtopia’s Venom… all the way to the sheer boozy gravitas of Super Bad Apple, each pour in this flight is a cider event, cloaked in fruit and armed with intent. Drink slowly. Sip deeply. Bow to no one but Peaks & Pints Monday Cider Flight: Imperial Orchardcore.
Peaks & Pints Monday Cider Flight: Imperial Orchardcore
Newtopia Cyder Venom
8% ABV
Some ciders whisper. Venom hisses. Then slithers up your spine and sings a Wu-Tang lullaby straight to your frontal cortex. Crafted by Newtopia Cyder in collaboration with U-God of Wu-Tang Clan (because, of course, it is), Venom is an imperial serpent in fruit-fanged disguise—blackberry, mango, and pineapple swirling like a tropical cyclone through dry, champagne-fizzed restraint. There’s a flash of vanilla, a dark glint in the pour, and a finish that bites just hard enough to remind you this isn’t your grandmother’s orchard. This is cyder as statement, swagger, and cipher—a fruit-forward invocation meant to strike with flavor, then vanish like smoke. Sip with caution. Or don’t. Wu-Tang is forever.
Seattle Cider Odyssey
8.4% ABV
This is no cider—it’s a relic, a glass-borne grail quest, a fruit-fueled cathedral of imperial intention. Seattle Cider’s Odyssey begins with a custom blend of Washington apples—late-season, gnarled with wisdom—fermented slow and clean with cider-specific yeast until clarity becomes gospel. It’s then back-sweetened, not with candy-store nonsense, but with brown sugar—a molasses whisper that deepens the resonance and sharpens the juice into something lush and learned. The result? A bold, bone-dry pour with light acidity and a fruit-forward incantation of stone fruit, cantaloupe, and orchard musk. First, it sings. Then it smolders. Then it reminds you that some journeys begin with a sip—and end somewhere just left of Olympus.
Incline Cider Imperial Raspberry
8.4% ABV
Born of bold fruit and bolder ambition, this blushing beauty from Incline Cider is no dainty garden sipper—it’s a high-octane love letter to Northwest raspberries, juiced and jostled into imperial form. Crafted with fresh-pressed apples and local berries, Imperial Raspberry balances electric tartness with a lush, summery sweetness, pouring the color of an August sunset kissed by mischief. It’s unapologetically fruit-forward, decidedly pink, and just the right kind of dangerous. And while Incline may have pitched Basecamp in Proctor through 2025, this cider? It’s already set up camp in your bloodstream, whispering promises of patio afternoons that turn into raspberry-tinted reveries. Drink deep. Wander far. Repeat.
Avid Cider Black Dragon
8.5% ABV
Summon the beast. No, really—summon it, for this imperial cider doesn’t gently knock on your taste buds but arrives on leathery wings, trailing blackberry thunder and raspberry lightning, with a plume of dragon fruit smoke curling behind. Black Dragon is the latest mythical banger from Avid Cider’s imperial series, and it drinks like a fruit-charmed spell forged in volcanic stone and orchard twilight. Bold? Yes. Juicy? Absolutely. Harmonious? Like a berry-stained power ballad with a flaming finish. This is no sugar-spun Smaug tale—it’s an electric-fruit invocation for the brave, the thirsty, and the cider-smitten. Unleash accordingly.
2 Towns Ciderhouse Super Bad Apple
12.5% ABV
Oh, it’s bad. Super bad. Not in the James Brown, funk-drenched strut way (though that’s not far off), but in the “hide your chalice and cancel your afternoon plans” kind of way. This imperial bruiser from 2 Towns Ciderhouse takes their legendary Bad Apple—already a meadowfoam-honeyed, oak-aged ode to orchard grandeur—and cranks the dial past logic, past moderation, past noon. Now clocking in at a righteous 12.5 percent, Super Bad Apple is the fermented equivalent of a velvet wrecking ball: rich with baked apple, vanilla oak warmth, and the sticky hum of Willamette Valley meadowfoam honey smuggled in on the breeze. A touch of lingering tartness keeps it honest. The rest? Pure cider indulgence. Sip it slow, sip it loud—this one doesn’t whisper. It testifies.
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