Washington-based Endless Orchard Hard Pressed Cider has picked up two awards at the 2024 NW Cider Cup.
A group at Endless Orchard’s award-winning cidery
The awards, announced at Holocene in Portland, Oregon, include best new cidery and a gold medal in the herbed botanical category for Boundless Blueberry Basil Cider.
The NW Cider Cup has been organised since 2016 by the Northwest Cider Association, a regional non-profit with nearly 300 cidery members. The cup is the longest-standing and most competitive blind judging event for ciders and perries in the region.
Endless Orchard is a business unit of Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF) and utilizes only Arctic apples grown by OSF.
“Arctic apples offer a unique non-browning trait, and the result is a cider that is in a class of its own and provides a truly one-of-a-kind drinking experience,” said Don Westcott, president of OSF.
“Endless Orchard leverages that advantage and reflects our continued sustainability commitment and our goal to increase apple utilisation.”
Boundless Blueberry Basil Cider impressed judges with its innovative blend of flavours, balancing ripe blueberries and fresh basil to create a complex cider.
The best new cidery award is given to the cidery with the highest points value from medals among those who have been commercially producing for one year or less.
“These two awards are a testament to our team’s passion for crafting high-quality ciders that showcase the unique flavors and attributes of Arctic apple varieties,” said Vicki Daigneault, general manager of Endless Orchard Cider.
“We are absolutely thrilled to be recognised with these accolades. I am so proud to see how far our team has come in such a short period of time, especially considering we only officially launched our tasting room last month.”
