Cedar Draw Cider

Cedar Draw Cider pours from a converted blue shipping container at 20305 Highway 30 in Buhl, Twin Falls County. The Capital Press, writing in 2024, called the tasting room a converted boxcar. Ten ciders are on tap, with two house-made sodas and one rotating local beer. The sodas on the cidery’s own list are root beer and strawberry cream, and the Capital Press also counted a peach creme. Cider goes home in bottles, growlers, and howlers, which are half-growlers. The tasting room is open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evenings, with seating indoors and out.

Outside stand a covered wall tent and a greenhouse, where chairs can be carried in when the weather turns. The 2024 account adds a fire pit. Through the summer of 2026 the cidery’s posts promised shade in the orchard “by 6,” and those posts call the place The Draw. A visitor writing in July 2026 included the cats among the company.

Trucks in the yard

On most weekends a food truck parks at the cidery. The 2026 season brought A Comer, with Mexican fusion; Tacos El Güey, with tacos de lengua and barbacoa from 5 to 8; and Aftermath Eats, formerly The Burger Trailer, whose finger steaks the cidery urged everyone to try. Table and Vine came with charcuterie, and Twin Flames with what the cidery called “chef-made plates.” There were also 208 BBQ and The Corn Dog Company. Magic Valley Food Dude ran a Brazilian barbecue night, Sunday brunch pop-ups, and, in July, a two-day pizza oven takeover.

That oven has its own history here. The Capital Press reported in 2024 that the cidery served food from a wood-fired pizza oven and that a busy Saturday could bring 80 to 100 people, who ordered about 60 pizzas. Ahead of the July 2026 takeover, the cidery wrote, “We know you miss the pizza.” On the first night the pizza sold out. The next day the truck needed more prep time and pushed its start back from 3 to about 5.

When a truck cancels, outside food is welcome, and visitors can order delivery from the local pizza and taco places. On weekends without a truck in September 2026, Table and Vine made $10 personal charcuterie boxes for pickup at the tasting room. The counter keeps chips, beef sticks, and cheese curds from Evan’s Farmstead, another Buhl business. Alongside the cider that September were wine from Split Rail and the last of the summer’s Pacifico. The October 2026 calendar lists Twin Flames on the 10th, Tacos El Guey on the 16th, carne asada from A Comer on Thursday the 22nd, and Aftermath Eats on the 24th.

Behind the bar in 2026 was Diane, whom the cidery called “our awesome bartender.” That May she put together a pamper basket that customers could enter on behalf of any grad, teacher, mom, or nurse. The same month the cidery announced that John Mason was stepping back from bartending to pursue a career in elementary education. “For most of you he was the first one to pour you a drink here at the cidery and would remember you when you returned,” the post read. His last two shifts were Saturday, May 9, and Saturday, May 30.

Plum, quince, and crabapple

The ciders change as the fruit harvests turn through the year. By 2021 Emily Mason had developed more than a dozen recipes. The first was Sour Empress, an Italian plum cider. The Capital Press notes that technically it is a “jerkum,” since it is made from plums. Visit Idaho reported in 2021 that she makes one batch a year, usually around Thanksgiving. Spice Queen is fresh-pressed apple cider infused with cardamom, which Visit Idaho described as citrusy, woodsy, and highly fragrant, and most popular in fall and winter. In December 2021 the Northwest Cider Association put it in its Discover Box as one of six ciders.

A customer once hesitated over War Worthy, which is made from quince that Mason buys from Symms Fruit Ranch in southwestern Idaho. “It tastes a bit floral like an intense pear but with tropical notes like a guava,” Mason told her. She named it, she said, because “quince is a little-known ancient fruit rumored to be the golden apple that sparked the Trojan War.” Cherry Bakewell uses Santa Ana cherries and has, in her words, “a burst of cherry followed by a light almond finish.” Her personal favorite is Wickson Vixen. “I use crabapples from our orchard, fermented with an English cider yeast and aged for six months,” she said. At the 2022 Idaho Wine Competition, where judges tasted 164 wines and 13 ciders, Wickson Vixen took best of class and a gold medal.

She has also worked with apples, chokecherries, and pears. The home orchard holds only cider apple varieties. The 2026 taps carried Strawberry Mojito, made with strawberry, mint, and “a hint of rum.” Blueberry Thai Basil and Mango Jalapeno returned that summer, and Summer Freckle came in its single batch for the year. In August the cidery added Guava Rosemary, made with local rosemary.

Mr. Harvey’s two hundred acres

According to the Masons, the farm’s story begins in 1908, when Mr. H. Harvey planted 200 acres of Italian plums in Buhl. The Capital Press gives his name as W.H. Harvey. The Masons say his plums traveled to the Cedar Draw train station to be exported. A century later just 3 acres remained, along with Harvey’s farmhouse, which the Masons bought to raise their family. The Capital Press counted 14 plum trees still standing. Its 2024 profile also listed the family as two sons, then 16 and 12, and a daughter, 9.

A nurse and a counselor

Emily Mason grew up in Hagerman, up the road from Buhl, and went to Yakima, Washington, for nursing school. She spent 16 years in Washington, working in pediatric oncology and as a nurse manager, before returning to Idaho. The cidery’s site says she was an oncology nurse for nearly 20 years. The Capital Press put it at 22.

On the farm, the plums needed a use. Mason had been making cider at home for family and friends, and they encouraged her to start a commercial cidery. “I love being a nurse, and I may go back to it someday. But the creativity factor isn’t there,” she told the Capital Press. She established Cedar Draw Cider in 2018. In 2019 she and John served their first cider from a keg, and in November 2020 they opened the tasting room. By late 2021 she had quit nursing to work at the cidery full time. Visit Idaho reported that year that Cedar Draw ciders were sold at 13 markets, breweries, and restaurants across southern Idaho.

John Mason handled sales and distribution as well as the tasting room. The cidery’s own page introduces him this way: “He used to be a drug and alcohol counselor before selling you alcohol. Yes.” Emily described the division of labor: “He’s kind of the front of the house guy, and I make all the cider.” In 2021 she put production at about 5,000 gallons a year. The cidery’s site and the 2024 profile give 4,000.

The Masons have planted 60 trees on the land. Some of the plum trees are at least 100 years old, and she has planted new starts taken from the originals. “They’re all from the same genetic line,” she said.