Cider Cocktails
Time to elevate your favourite Avid cider
A good cider doesn’t need much help, but it takes to a cocktail well. Every recipe below is built around a cider that’s in the lineup right now. Have one of your own? Post it, tag @avidcidercompany and use #NWTOTHECORE and we’ll share it.
Please enjoy responsibly — 21+.
Blackberry Fizz
Built around our Blackberry cider, where Northwest blackberry sits against deep pine and muted plum. Bright, tart and not too sweet.
- 2 oz vodka
- 1 large lemon, squeezed (about 3 tbsp juice)
- 2 oz Avid Blackberry cider
- ½ cup fresh blackberries
- 1 oz simple syrup
- Club soda
- Blackberries, a lemon twist and fresh mint, to garnish
Muddle the blackberries in a shaker to express the juice. Add vodka, lemon juice, simple syrup and ice, and shake hard for 10–15 seconds. Strain into a fresh glass over ice, top with the Blackberry cider and fill with club soda. Garnish and serve straight away.
The Mesa Spritz
Mesa Dry is structured and finished dry, which makes it a better spritz base than most ciders — it lengthens the drink instead of sweetening it.
- 2 oz dry vermouth, chilled
- 4 oz Avid Mesa Dry, cold
- ½ oz fresh lime juice
- A splash of soda
- A grapefruit peel and a sprig of rosemary, to garnish
Build over ice in a wine glass: vermouth first, then lime, then the cider poured down the side to keep the carbonation. Top with soda. Express the grapefruit peel over the surface, drop it in with the rosemary, and serve.
Hot Spiced Pear
Spiced Pear & Ginger is already pear, ginger and baking spice, so this barely needs helping — just warmth and a little depth. The autumn one.
- 12 oz Avid Spiced Pear & Ginger
- 1½ oz aged rum or bourbon
- 2 tsp honey
- 2 strips orange peel
- 1 cinnamon stick, 2 whole cloves, 2 slices fresh ginger
Warm the cider gently with the honey, orange peel and spices — keep it well under a simmer, or you will cook off what you came for. Hold for five minutes, strain into mugs, add the rum off the heat and serve with a fresh cinnamon stick.
Yuzu Highball
Yuzu Citrus is bright, dry and built for heat, which is exactly what a highball wants. Tall, cold and almost nothing in the way.
- 1½ oz gin or blanco tequila
- 5 oz Avid Yuzu Citrus, very cold
- ½ oz fresh lime juice
- A pinch of flaky salt
- A long lime peel, to garnish
Fill a tall glass to the top with ice — more ice, not less, keeps it colder and dilutes it slower. Add the spirit, lime and salt, stir once, then pour the cider slowly down a bar spoon. Twist the lime peel over the top and drop it in.
Sandstorm Paloma
Imperial Sandstorm Hazy brings warm citrus over tropical undertones at 8.5%, so it stands up to grapefruit and tequila rather than disappearing underneath them. A strong one — make it for someone, not for everyone.
- 1½ oz blanco tequila
- 4 oz Avid Imperial Sandstorm Hazy
- 2 oz fresh grapefruit juice
- ½ oz fresh lime juice
- A chilli-salt rim and a grapefruit wheel
Rim a tall glass with chilli salt and fill with ice. Add tequila, grapefruit and lime, and stir to combine. Top with the cider, poured slowly. Garnish with the grapefruit wheel.
Blush Sangria
Imperial Pacific Blush is rosé-inspired — light, crisp and berry-bright — so it slots into a sangria where the wine would normally go. Makes a pitcher; build it an hour ahead.
- 24 oz Avid Imperial Pacific Blush, cold
- 3 oz elderflower liqueur
- 1 oz fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup strawberries, halved
- ½ cup raspberries
- A handful of mint
Combine the fruit, elderflower and lemon in a pitcher and leave for an hour in the fridge so the fruit gives something up. Add ice and the cider just before serving — pour it in last so the pitcher still has some lift. Finish with mint.
Huckleberry Smash
Huckleberry runs glacier and lavender over wild huckleberry, which is a lot of aromatics already. Muddled mint and lemon sharpen it rather than competing.
- 2 oz bourbon
- 4 oz Avid Huckleberry
- ¾ oz fresh lemon juice
- ½ oz honey syrup (equal parts honey and warm water)
- 8–10 mint leaves
Clap the mint between your palms and drop it in a shaker — clapping wakes the oils without shredding the leaf, which is what turns a smash bitter. Add bourbon, lemon, honey syrup and ice, shake, and double-strain over crushed ice. Top with the cider and finish with a mint bouquet.