Ciders blossom on West Coast - and beyond

Given that cider is becoming big business, with none other than Stella Artois releasing its own Cidre, it's an especially good time for said artisanship and a return to a drink embraced by Americans since colonial times.

Finnriver Dry Hopped Hard Cider ($9/500 ml, 6.5% alcohol): While beer is traditionally hopped before fermentation, adding hops afterward incorporates their flourishy scent but not their bitterness.

In this version from a small organic farm on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, those blossomy hop aromas soar, as with great dry Alsatian Muscat.

[...] the unmistakable pear-drop candy nose, with jasmine tea and clover honey.

Cider ($16/750 ml, 6.9%): Randall Grahm's flights of fermentation fancy extended to cider a few years ago, and his take on perry, or pear cider, mixes in apples and 2 percent quince.