We Came. We Poured. We Panicked.
Please don't steal our recipes (but also, come try them)
Hey friend,
How’s summer treating you? See or do anything special? We went to a food eating competition - Gullet Stuffer. I’ve never been to one before. Our local Grocery Outlet hosts it every year now (this was the 4th), and it raises money for Seattle Community Fridge. This year was gyozas. We know a couple of the cashiers that volunteered to participate. There’s many ways to donate, but I thought it might make the event more fun if we had an active stake in the game, so we pledged per gyoza to two of the athletes. They gave the option of putting a cap on your pledges, but Chris said if they could eat up to a hundred gyozas, they deserved the pride of earning that amount to Community Fridge. We did some math and felt that we were safe, the competition is 10 minutes long and to eat 100 you’d need to eat one every 6 seconds. One of our friends was in the amateur group and one in the professional’s. We ran into our friend in the professional group and he told us he’s been training, and that his goal was to eat 180!
Our friend in the amateur group got through 26, the winner though, went through a whopping 74! She didn’t practice and had no experience, just calmly put them down one at a time. Pretty exciting. After hundreds more gyozas were prepared, the professionals were up. Our friend we pledged got through 70, incredibly impressive, even if he didn’t reach his goal. His family was there cheering him on, but I knew it was all over when he looked over at the man in a taco costume and saw he was at 100 and still had 3 minutes on the clock. The look of awe and defeat was vivid even from as far back as I was standing. Unfortunately for the taco though, he didn’t look so good when he got to 115. He still had over a minute left but couldn’t do any more, which gave “the ringer” (this guy that flew in from Vegas) time to catch up, and at the last second, right at the bell, crammed 5 in his mouth to beat the taco by 2. (He took the next 2 minutes chewing them, so I personally don’t count his win.) Not only was the event more exciting and more inspiring than I had anticipated, but it was a really fun community event. It raised nearly $7K, tons of people came, they brought their dogs, bought all the t-shirts (they sold out), ate from the local food trucks, and even got real tattoos of gyozas. (Those crazy happy people.) Now that I’ve participated in a couple events, I’m more aware of the organization it takes and Gullet Stuffer did a fantastic job.
Washington Brewers Fest
We had our second festival! It was a two-day event at the Seattle Center. The first hour or so was pretty slow and we were more than a little nervous. People that showed up early were beer… not snobs, but enthusiasts? So they instructed their desires for tiny tastes, and really thought about the cider, and would do like a little head nod, and say “okay” or “that’s good”, and then, “thank you.” As the evening wore on though, then our people came. It got crazy! So many cool people coming up excited by the flavors and the signage. On Friday there were fewer people in general so although we were pretty steadily pouring, there was more time to chat with everyone.
It always catches me off-guard how many people resonate with our theme. We definitely draw in folks that either are Scandinavian or had magical trips to Iceland or Norway, and it’s really fun to hear their stories and connect in that way. And people LOVE the mountain troll / Big Foot vibe. In the past, we’ve had A LOT of business professionals question our sanity when we spell out our name and our theme. And, even though I can often predict the look is coming, it always makes me doubt myself. So it’s incredibly nice to feel that it represents Seattle and the Northwest, and actually have a chance to hear from average people that it does, and that they feel the same way too.
Best of all, people were really happy with our ciders! I had folks tell me that this was their favorite all day, ask where can they get it, and even things like, “my wife really likes this, we’d even be interested in a keg”! We had a huge line all of Saturday, and what was most unexpected, was how much our flavors appeal to people either not originally from here or have mixed heritage. SO many people responded to either the Earl Grey or the Sunny Jackfruit. Tea drinkers from all over the world recognize Earl Grey so I think it’s just approachable, but an incredible amount of people said the jackfruit reminded them of home. They’d talk of the huge jackfruits that used to grow right outside their house and how they missed it, I think I unknowingly picked the apple pie flavor of the tropical parts of the world.
Click on this neat video that Metier Brewing made about the festival, it’s super short and still captures it all:
I’m writing this as if I’m just extremely happy, and although I have a lot to be happy about, I’m my usual, kind of anxious self. There are legit reasons to find. It got a little uncomfortable at the festival. No one where we were had a line like ours, there may have been some tables out on the grass that I just couldn’t see how busy they were, but I didn’t see anyone else have a line at all, let alone a big line. The organizers estimated that each table might go through 16 gallons. We went through 25. It got a little chilly with some of the other makers. There was kind of a weird moment on Friday where a guy was asking me how exactly I got the tea in the cider. It was an innocent question, the person was really young and just wanted to understand what they were about to drink. I noticed far too late that another guy was leaning in to hear my answer and then bolted when I was done like some kind of Slugworth stealing the recipes from Wonka. I didn’t think too much of it, cause whatever, it’s pretty simple stuff. But then the folks at Slightly Furry (a new cidery not that far from us that have been really supportive and kind) came and tried our ciders. And they said we really shouldn’t make any more flavors until we open our own space. I had been planning a few new things to mix it up, and now there’s just this you-better-watch-your-back feeling, like now we have something to lose.
Gig Harbor’s Summer Sips
Cancelled. Three days before the event. Really surprised. This group wanted a lot of information really early. What ciders we were taking, descriptions for them all, payment to participate, all this stuff way earlier than the other festivals have asked for it. The rumor is ticket sales. That could be it. Up until just a couple weeks ago, I’d Google the event, click the tickets and it’d say - SOLD OUT. Then I’d double check and it’d say 2024, and I’d eventually find it for this year. I thought about writing the one email I have to alert them, but I didn’t. I’d already sent the guy three separate emails about my payment, if he had received my application or if he wanted me to print and mail it the way one website said to, and if I could update my flavors. None of these were answered. So I just thought, “oh no, I’m not going to be the one to harass this man again. Maybe there’s just something wrong with the way I Google.”
Chris was skeptical of the ticket-sales excuse, and decided to play detective. He discovered that their Facebook page was covered in posts with poorly done AI images of happy volunteers with mismatched arms and doing odd things like clinging to a festival tent, all advertising the joys of being a volunteer. Chris believes they never got enough help. I think where they went wrong, was still charging volunteers entry tickets, discounted, but still $20! And the only chance to use the tokens was during a lunch break. I could have helped promote volunteering, but whatever credibility I have with you all, I’m sure I’d have lost saying something stupid like you should go all the way to Gig Harbor to pay to help.
Coming Up Events
7th Annual Summer School Brewfest
Saturday July 26th 1-7pm
Anderson School- Haynes Hall (McMenamins Bothell)
Last week, I got an email from our mentor that a keg of Earl Grey was bought. Turns out, McMenamins was interested in having another cider for their festival and our Earl Grey caught their eye. How cool is that? It’s at the “1930s junior-high-turned-adult-playground” (all ages welcome), with 32 beers and ciders, barbecue food specials, and whiskey tastings. They’ll be live music, and I guess there’s a big swimming pool and pinball. Your ticket gets you 10 tasting tickets, and it’s $33 advance and $38 at the door. We’ll definitely get some tickets and hopefully hand out some business cards and promote our next pop-up.
Pop-Up-Pours at Republic of Cider
Sunday July 27th 1-5pm On the Patio!
This will be our second time doing this, and it will be even better than the last! Seriously, I learned a few things.
It’s windy on the patio - the sign stand needs weights, and we have those now
It’s windy on the patio - popcorn will blow away, stow the bag under something
It’s windy on the patio - our menu blew away and cracked (it was cheap, don’t worry) so we’ll secure with tape or not set it out at all
Our last event was really good. There weren’t too many people, but we did have a few fans/friends come and I loved having it be so slow so that we could chat. I’m new to making Instagram posts, and Chris and I spent some time the previous day making a post advertising the pop-up and our cool bottles for taking cider home. We got these epic color-morphing stickers to put on swing-top bottles. Click the image to watch our video:
By the way, we’re doing 2-for-1 fights ($12) and we’d love to see you.
Sunset Supper
Friday, August 15, 2025
I’m all set to promote this, but it’s sold out! My God. Tickets were pricey too. It’s a fundraiser for the Pike Place Market Foundation, and it does look ridiculously fun. If you are going already, please come see us and say hi, and if you don’t have tickets, you should keep your eye out next summer. They do this every year, it’s always picturesque on Puget Sound :), and they’ll be over 100 restaurants, wineries, distilleries, cider, savory things, sweet things, and everything is included in the ticket price. You just run around with your mouth open. I think tickets started at $250, but last I saw they were $500. That being said, all I’ve ever heard is that it’s a blast, it’s delicious, and it’s worth it.
Tumwater Artisian Brewfest
August 16th 1-7
Tumwater Valley Golf Course
K, this you have to go to! (If you can of course, I know it’s further out.) It looks like such a good time. More than 125 beverage choices, delicious food, live music, super size beer pong, corn hole, and stein holding competitions. A $45 ticket gets you unlimited freakn’ pours.
Business Meetings
The weekly business meetings are still a thing. For the last few weeks they’ve been all about promotion. We’ve been trying to hand-out cards to people, I’m attempting to get into using Instagram, getting pop-ups on EverOut, and it’s harder than I thought to consistently update our website for events (keeping it as a priority is the trouble). But! Remember how our mentor wanted us to get shirts, and I wanted to find an ethical merchandise option? The bags came!
See? Earth friendly (thick-leather-like washable paper) and can carry two bottles, plus it has a front pocket. Utility, fashion and sustainability. We’ll have something to take with us now to festivals and recoup some of these cider-related expenses. Chris says we’re now a bag company.
This is also a great tool to get us to keep moving towards legitimacy.
I was asked by the company for my tax exemption number or re-sellers permit (I don’t have one of those, didn’t really know about it). Now, we’re in the process of getting one.
To obtain a special permit we have to get a special license from the tax department - on it.
Accounting - this will help us start learning it (we haven’t actually made any revenue, it’s more Republic of Cider’s thing).
And, I don’t know, it counts as promotion, right? It lets everyone know the values of our brand a little more loud and clear.
I hadn’t intended on selling any online, but if one of you special people want one, you can email me your address and I’ll figure it out. They’re $30 each, if no body buys them, eventually you’ll just discover one in your house someday.
Deeper Dive into How it’s Going
We’re in a weird place. This isn’t going according to plan. This year with our mentor, our goals were to gain industry experience, work hands-on on a commercial scale batch, and see if the general public - not friends and family, like our product. Our first mentor from the SBA really stressed that last one, and we’ve fulfilled that now already. Honestly, we could just be done. Two festivals was enough to prove people like it. But, all the gear cost money, and the festivals are fun, and our current mentor rightly said, “Why not? Some of these festivals will pay for the kegs.” But for gaining experience, nothing has been large scale yet, and so much is involved with getting that opportunity, I don’t think it’s going to happen. But, we’re making our smaller stuff, and I’m pretty confident we can learn anything we don’t know about scaling up other ways.
All of our original goals revolved around gaining confidence and investment, to make ourselves more attractive for funding. And all this focus on promotion now, seems out of step. We don’t have a taproom yet for people to come get what they just enjoyed, so we can’t capitalize and grow this enthusiasm.
We’ve been avidly watching new places for lease (or sale.) When we spoke with an lending group last fall, they said that as soon as we secure a location, then they can talk loans and grants. The bank wants to know where we’ll be and what we need. That depends largely on the size of the space. And, because we want to move fast and maintain this momentum, we could go really small and just get open. So we’re looking at little spots, but the danger with those is that they could be money pits. Is it in a good area? Is the rent too high? Is the infrastructure good for a cidery, cause why is this business leaving? I really don’t want to dive into a dead-end just to have a spot. We did see some large places go up as well the other day, so we’ll be looking into that, and see what feels manageable.
That’s all for this newsletter. Thank you for continuing to be a part of this. It was great seeing some of you come out to the festivals. It meant a lot to us in unfamiliar places. But also everyone that has continued to simply read and follow has made us feel like this is possible. Thank you.
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