One of the Pacific Northwest’s newest and fastest growing cideries has found success by fusing traditional cider apples with modern culinary varietals, and by creating cocktail inspired seasonals, setting themselves apart within the cider world. This is the story of Yonder Cider of Seattle and Wenatchee Washington.
Founded by Caitlin Braam, Yonder Cider’s initial manifestation existed as a pop-up taproom in her garage, serving the Phinney Ridge neighborhood of Seattle, in July of 2020. Simultaneously, Braam founded a premium juice and custom fermentation operation called The Source Cider in Wenatchee, Washington – a town that refers to itself as the Apple Capital of the World.
Before venturing into Cider, Braam spent two years working in broadcast journalism in Minnesota and South Dakota. Moving to Seattle in 2008, she made a lateral move into the world of public relations, ultimately starting her own creative firm in 2011, a consultancy for those in the food, beverage and hospitality industry.
Her next chapter began at Seattle Cider and Two Beers Brewing where she handled their public relations and ultimately becoming its president in 2016. Lastly, before the pandemic, Braam worked as a brand strategist for Angry Orchard then, once again, opted to run her own freelance consultancy.
While Yonder Cider had great success operating out of Braam’s garage during covid, the endeavor wouldn’t have been possible without her pushing the city to ease zoning laws, which enabled the sale of alcohol in a residential neighborhood. While the pop-up spot stayed open until February of 2022, they also opened a joint taproom in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle, along side Bale Breaker Brewing, in September of 2021. A few years later, the separate entities of Yonder Cider & The Source Cider officially merged to form one company, and in 2024, Yonder opened a second taproom in Cashmere, Washington (Yonder East), just down the road from Wenatchee.
Since the beginning, Yonder has set itself apart in the cider market with it’s clean, yet bold, branding and use of color. Each of their four flagship ciders (Yonder Dry, Vantage Semi-Dry, and Palisades Blackberry & Sage) is dressed in it’s own unique & vibrant color combination, plus each of their seasonal releases up the ante with even more energetic vibes. And if you’ve ever wondered where the names of Yonder’s ciders come from, they’re all small towns located on the eastern slopes of Washington’s Cascade range, none too far from Wenatchee.
Yonder’s Head Cidermaker, Monique Tribble, has worked closely with Braam since her start there in October of 2020. Prior to her arrival, Tribble worked for wineries in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, as well as Arizona, before beginning her first job as a cider maker at Wandering Aengus Cider. She went on to have stints at Seattle Cider and Republic of Cider before settling in at Yonder’s Wenatchee production facility.
Regularly utilizing over 20 different apple varietals in their blends, Yonder presses their own cider-specific apples in the fall, then regularly presses culinary apples year-round. While all of their flagships start with Fuji and Honeycrisp apples, from there they diverge to include Roxbury Russet, Ashmead’s Kernel, Porter’s Perfection, and Wickson Crab (Yonder Dry), or Roxbury Russet, Dabinett, and various red fleshed apples (Palisades), or Golden Russet, Dabinett, and various red fleshed apples (Vantage).
Their seasonal releases have definitive cocktail profiles with Coulee emulating a mezcal cocktail (infused with pineapple, lime and a hint of cardamom), Cashmere being inspired by the Negroni cocktail (with tart cranberry, dark cherry and a hint of bitter orange), and the next available seasonal, Mazama, inspired by a summery vermouth (lemon verbena, fennel seed, and orange peel). Each, of course, has it’s own unique blend of apple varietals as well.
From there they build out more extravagant blends for special anniversary and collaboration releases, one-off seasonals, and from time to time create single varietal ciders as well. No matter your preferences in cider, or beverages on the whole, there’s a Yonder for you.
We at Day One Distribution have had the pleasure of working with Yonder since August of 2023. In just a few short years, the footprint of Yonder’s availability in Oregon has spread out across the entirety of the Western half of the state with over 360 locations (specialty grocery, taprooms, bottle shops, etc.) offering their cider on draft and/or in cans for purchase.
If you’ve yet to try their cider or wish to order some from the variety we steadily have on hand, please reach out to your friendly Day One sales representative or send us an email via orders@dayonedistro.com.
Content Sourced from the Following: Yonder Cider, Sip Magazine – August 2023, Brewbound, Washington Beer Blog, Brewer Magazine, and Sip Magazine – February 2024
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