Columbia Gorge - 8 Reviews

Fall is here and so is cider. I love apple cider! It's 1000 times better than normal/boring apple juice. If you disagree then I'm sorry, but we can't be friends. Cider in the Pacific Northwest (at least in Portland) isn't as common as it is in Western New York. This is sad, but don't worry I'm surviving.

Leave it to Columbia Gorge to come up with this beautiful bottle of deliciousness. What are even better are the ingredients: Apples, Ginger Juice. That's it! Two ingredients!! And it's organic on top of it.

The best part is that it tastes EXACTLY how I imagined it was going to. It's a really nice clean and crisp apple cider, with a great ginger burn in the after taste. It doesn't seem that strong at first, but once it hit my stomach, it was strong. Personally I would have love to have had more ginger in this so it was really intense, but I understand they are trying to please everyone and I'm sure most people don't have the ginger tolerance that me and the other Thirsty Dudes have. I hope more companies follow their lead and make cider with ginger in it.

I am under the impression that all green "super food" drinks are delicious. Everyone I've ever tried is good and filling and full of lots of stuff that's good for you. I don't like to drink them on a regular basis because they are very thick. I'd say once a month or every other month I pass the juice cooler at Whole Foods or New Seasons and think "I really need a drink that is good for me for a change". I don't even want to know what all the soda I drink has done to my insides.

This particular green drink has lots of delicious green vegetables that read like the worlds most delicious seaweed salad. Mmmm, now I want sushi. Anyways, there's also a bunch of fruit purees in here that make it sweet so it's not just a liquid salad. Columbia Gorge (or as we call it in Portland, CoGo) succeeds in making another delicious drink.

Speaking of CoGo, it's a bummer for the rest of the USA that they don't have a large distribution. Here in Portland they are in every store right next to Odwalla and Naked (they are basically competitors with them if you will). You know what? Columbia Gorge makes WAAAAAY better drinks than the other two.

Ever since I moved back to Portland, it has been cold. Sure we've had a few days where it hit 55-60 degrees, but for the most part it has been chilly. Since it has been feeling like fall, I've had a craving for apple cider. In Buffalo, it's hard to find cider when in the winter or spring. Luckily, I stumbled upon this bottle of Columbia Gorge. Oh Columbia Gorge, how I missed you. This is my favorite juice company in the Pacific North West and they rarely let me down.

On the other hand, I'm really picky when it comes to apple cider. I've never had cider as good as the stuff made in central and western New York. That is, until now. This cider is fantastic, and reminds of a lot of my favorite ciders back home. It has the perfect tart taste, with lots of flavor too. I thought I had to give up pure apple cider when I decided to move back to Portland, but I'm glad to find out that I was wrong.

After having this tangerine juice, I could never go back to drinking orange juice. Although, this isn't just tangerine despite the front label. It's actually a blend of tangerine, mandarins, and tangelos. I'm not complaining though. I don't know how Columbia Gorge does it, but their juices are so tasty! Somehow this manages to be really refreshing and filling at the same time. If I drank a bottle of this every morning, I'd be set until lunchtime. This has a really nice tart flavor to it, which I really enjoy. Normally I hate pulp in juice, but there's only a slight amount in here and it's really small pieces so it doesn't bother me too much.

Lemonade and ginger= two things I love. I've never had a bad drink from Columbia Gorge, and this did not break the streak. The lemonade is really sweet and refreshing, but then comes the ginger. The ginger sneaks up on your taste buds like a ninja, quick and strong. It makes for a great combination that is a pleasure to drink.

I have a love/hate relationship with this drink. I love it a lot because the ginger juice, lime juice, and the blood orange juice make a great flavor when they're mixed together, but I hate it because it's such a strong combination. It's hard to drink a lot of it at a time due to how much it burns my stomach. I love strong ginger and lemonades/limeades, but this can be even too strong for me at times. The bits of ginger at the bottom are especially hard sometimes. It's a great juice to take a big sip of in the morning to wake you up.

Sometimes when drinking juice that isn't sweetened, it turns out to be very bland. This is definitely not the case with this apple pear cider. The natural sweetness of the two fruits is perfect! The pear taste compliments the apple so well. I've never had apple pear juice before, but I feel like it should be more common. The one thing I was disappointed with was how un-cider like it was. This jug definitely doesn't compare to fresh cider. It's still good, but it's not as strong as traditional apple cider. This is like if you mixed apple cider with pear juice. Do they make pear cider? I'm going to have to look into this.

Warning: do not take a big sip of this the first time you try it. You will be in for a big surprise as the strong taste of lemon juice stings your tongue and singes your insides all the way down until it settles into your stomach. If you have ever drunk pure lemon juice, you know the feeling I'm talking about.
That being said, Columbia Gorge knows how to make good lemonade. If you like yours extra tart, then this one is for you. It's sweetened with agave syrup, which I've never seen before but I welcome the change. It really lets the lemon in the lemonade shine through when it's not loaded with sugar.