the gorge white house

A few Saturdays ago I was lucky enough to jump in a Buick and head to Hood River to sample a variety of ciders, learn about the history behind cider and connect with new people. I was picked up in a Buick Enclave which is a beautiful, super comfy SUV. It was stocked with bottles of water and my favorite KIND bars. 

My driver picked up another participant and then we headed to the meet up and pick which car we would drive out to our first destination, The Gorge White House. 

Kristi and I took the Buick Regal. Kristi safely got us to Cascade Locks and then we switched drivers and I took us to The Gorge White House our first of four stops on our cider tour. 

Of the four places that we visited The Gorge White House was the only one that I had been to before. We have friends who love it and we stopped in with them back in September after apple picking in the Gorge. I had sampled most of the ciders before and once again the apple was my favorite of the five ciders we tried. It was crisp and not too sweet; it almost reminded me of a dry white wine. 

One thing I love about doing a tour with other bloggers is that photographing you food or beverage isn’t strange. Neither is requesting just the right style of pour for the perfect shot. 

Before leaving The Gorge White House they fed us some really delicious food. I got this great curry that was just so perfectly seasoned and I could have eaten two bowls of it. 

Just up the road from The Gorge White House was our second stop, Fox Tail Cider. Fox Tail was quite a bit different than our first stop with ciders made with peach and ginger. My favorite of the five we sampled was the last, the Fox Tail’s Docklands. 

Once we finished up at Fox Tail Cider we piled into the passenger seats of our Buick of choice, I went in the Encore, and we made the trek back to Portland for our third stop. I spent most of the ride taking advantage of the wi-fi hotspot in our car and checked in on emails, instagram and lots of chatting with the hubby.  We made it to Portland Cider House and they had four of their ciders to sample along with one from Cider Riot. I have to say that these five ciders were my favorite of the day. I especially loved the Hop’rageous from Portland Cider, probably because I am a beer lover. Along with these five samples I tasted a few of the 23 other cider options that Portland Cider had on tap. Yes, 28 total ciders on tap at one time! 

I was sad to leave Portland Cider but I’ll be back to try more ciders, play a few games from their huge stack and get out with my cider loving friend. Next up we headed back to the Buicks, this time the LaCrosse, and we made our way to Bushwhacker Cider for dinner and our last cider. 
At Bushwhacker we could or a cider of our choice so Kristi and I decided that we liked the idea of samples and we went for their geek 6-cider sample tray. I have to admit at this time all the cider samples were blending together and I was a bit cider’d out but they were still fun to try. For dinner I had an amazing farro risotto and we ended with some vegan chocolate. 

It was a pretty amazing but long day and I was happy we ended early because I missed my babies so much. It was a great day and I have to give a big thanks to Buick for inviting me to participate in this amazing cider tour. I enjoyed sampling all the ciders and learning a bit more about them and of course getting to socialize with a number of really interesting people. 

So tell me are you a cider drinker? I can’t say that I have turned into a cider drinker but I definitely have a better appreciation for cider after this tour. I didn’t realize just how many different types of ciders there are from super sweet, to dry and crisp to crazy flavors such as chai, mojito and passionfruit. 

*Participants only drove out to our first stop, The Gorge White House, our drivers took over after that and drove us to all of our other destinations and home.