Heineken Experience Tour

The Heineken Experience Tour takes place at the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam, Holland where the family company and brand was founded. Heineken Beer is one of the most, if not the most, popular brands of beer in the world. The tour is designed to give fans of the beer a peak into the history, production and marketing of the beer. Whilst on my Study Abroad trip in Belgium, I had the opportunity to visit Amsterdam for a day and take the tour.

I will admit, I was not looking forward to the Heineken Tour at first. Over the space of a month we had toured 4 breweries in Belgium and I was over learning ‘more’ about hops/barley/yeast and the fermenting process. Little did I know this was going to be the BEST brewery tour ever!

The tour is self guided, which was great because you can go at your own pace without feeling like you’re holding up the rest of the group. The first part of the tour explained the rich history of the family owned company and the transitions of the packages of the beer.

The next part of the tour showed the process of brewing… Again, I loved that  the tour was self paced so we were free to stop and watch a demonstration here and there and move on – I really enjoyed the freestyle of the tour, definitely made it a lot more enjoyable than the other brewery tours I went on.

Hops and Barley…. important ingredients!

Next up was the “Brew You Ride” – I don’t want to give away details and spoil the surprise for anyone that has yet to go but lets just say, it’s nothing like you’ve ever experienced before – you are go throw the motions of being brewed – literally…..

Following the ride was the opportunity to taste the beer – what’s a brewery tour without a tasting? Of course, I had tried Heineken before but nothing tastes better than free beer. Lucky for me, I actually won TWO free glasses of beer. The beer tender asked “what is Heineken Beer often referred to” – I thought it was a trick question because the answer was so ‘easy’. When no-one answered, I said “Liquid Gold” and along came the second glass of beer. I thank my awesome guy friends who often call it just that.

Free Beer!!

You’d think the tour would’ve ended there. No Sir, it did not. The real fun began next. They were smart in calling it the ‘Heineken Experience Tour’ because it was indeed an experience. The rest of the tour went a lot into the marketing of Heineken. There was a special section for viewing retro commercials; a lounge with loud music and party scenes on huge screens; 007 James Bond features; a DJ game-room and other interactive systems.

Pretending to be a DJ

Last but not least, the Heineken store – not your typical souvenir shop. Everything from retro memorabilia to shirts to beer glasses that you could get your loved one’s name in it carved into it.

If I get the chance to go back to Amsterdam I would definitely do this tour again. My classmates and I were short on time so we didn’t get to do absolutely everything. It is a must do if you take a trip to Amsterdam, whether or not you’re a beer drinker. I recommend budgeting at least 2 hours to do the tour, the store alone will take up 30 minutes because there are so many intriguing items to buy.

Have you taken the Heineken Experience Tour? Have you ever toured their other breweries in another country?

Foodie February

It appears February is the month for foodies in Orlando. 2 great events coming up this month that I will DEFINITELY be going to:

Chili Cookoff & Downtown Food & Wine Festival

Picture Source: orlandochilicookoff.com

The Orlando Chili Cookoff will take place this Saturday (Feb. 9th) at Festival Park in Downtown Orlando. I don’t know if it’s the cold weather that we’ve been having lately but almost every night I have a craving for Chili! I’m going with my notepad to jot down my faves and cast my vote. The winner of the People’s Choice Award will receive $1500 cash prize. Ticket will be $12 at the gate for adults and $3 for kids 12 years and under.

Picture Source: http://downtownfoodandwinefest.cbslocal.com

Then there’s the Downtown Food & Wine Festival on Saturday Feb. 23 & Sunday Feb. 24th at the Lake Eola Park in Downtown Orlando. I am SUPER excited about this event! Not because there will be food and wine but because there will also be amazing entertainment (All American Rejects & Andy Grammer will be performing) and the entry cost is MINIMAL! Typically Wine & Food Festivals run for $50+ and most times that is just the entry fee and you have to buy samples from there. The Downtown Wine & Food Fest is only $15 for tickets purchased at the gate – more than likely samples will be on sale, but at least I can determine how much I want to spend and not be worried if I “got my money’s worth”. They do give you the option of purchasing VIP tickets for $95 that have several different items included.. For more info on ticket costs, click here.

Will you be attending any of these events? Are there any other events coming up in February or the rest of the year that I should check out?

Working at Super Bowl XLIV

In 2010, the Super Bowl [New Orleans Saints vs Indianapolis Colts] was held in Miami, Florida at the SunLife Stadium. I had the golden opportunity to work at the game! Best community service EVER! My colleagues and I worked as beertenders (we sold beer and snacks)  at the pre-gaming events outside the stadium. Maybe not the most exciting role but it was definitely a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I had fun (at least until the beer ran out and the fans got rowdy).

It was such a long day. All volunteers had to meet at 7am at a local school to pick up badges and ‘uniforms’. We then took yellow school buses to the Stadium where we met our team leaders to get our assignment. Our team was split into 4 different beer stands.

Friends from school that I volunteered with

One of our Beer Stands

Your eyes are not deceiving you! That’s right, $10 for a cup of beer!

Of course with getting to the Stadium so early, and the events not starting until 2pm, we had a lot of time on our hands to explore the grounds.

What I’d look like if I was a Football Player I guess

Behind the End-Zone

Inside the Stadium before the fans poured in

Met some interesting folk…

Once 2pm came around, the event grounds was packed! Fans decked out in football memorabilia. Periodically fans from each team would start their chanting. Everything went smoothly until we ran out of beer. We were called names, cursed at,  told they are going to sue Coors… At one point I was scared they were going to climb over the table and shake the tank to make sure we weren’t lying. Eventually reps came around and informed us they weren’t refilling our tank because they wanted people to start heading into the stadium – wish they told us that from the beginning so we didn’t have to endure such embarrassment and torment! But such is life in the customer service industry – gotta roll with the punches!

By 5:30pm, everyone cleared out and went inside the Stadium – which left us to count our cash tin and clear up.

Amongst the 4 stands our team managed, we sold over $70,000 worth of beer! And that doesn’t include the several other beer stands that were spread out throughout the grounds. THAT’S ALOTTA BEER!

They gave us the option to go inside and continue working in the stands during the game but at that point, my feet were ready to go with or without the rest of my body. The few that went inside actually met a few celebs like Amanda Bynes, LMFAO and Mike the Situation from Jersey Shore.

All in all it was a fun day & kudos to the Saints on their win.

Have you ever been to a Super Bowl whether it was for work or leisure? What was your experience like?

Urban Flats – My absolute favorite restaurant

I kinda feel like a nerd writing about my favorite restaurant but this past week I introduced 2 of my co-workers to Urban Flats, they LOVED it and were surprised that they never ate there before, so I decided I would share my little hidden gem of awesome with everyone 🙂

Urban Flats is a chic, up-scale, casual dining restaurant and wine bar, that specializes in gourmet flatbreads, wraps, “flatwiches” and small plates. It’s located in Downtown Orlando on Church St. with a few other locations in Florida.

I think my favorite things about Urban Flats is that their portions are PERFECT and their prices are very affordable (items ranging from $5-$12). They have a full bar and a variety of wines to compliment each dish.

During the week they have “Wine Down Wednesdays”, for $20 you can sample a variety of wines and appetizer/flatbread pairings. On Thursdays, they have specials for Ladies Night: $5 flatbreads, $4 cocktails and free dessert.

Here are the flatbreads we tried:

OVEN ROASTED VEGETABLE FLAT : sun-dried tomato pesto topped with roasted vegetables and parmesan cheese

MIDWESTERN FLAT : tender sliced steak and roasted potatoes with cheddar and mozzarella cheeses, red onion, bacon bits, scallions and a sour cream drizzle

For our free dessert we each got a mini ice cream sandwich: 2 warm tollhouse chocolate chip cookies with ice cream in the middle… As soon as they came out we downed them, totally forgot to take a pic.

Take a look at their menu!

What’s your favorite restaurant? Have you ever eaten at Urban Flats? Which flatbread/dish have you tried?

Cabin Fever

For the last 5 years, I’ve traveled to somewhere new almost every year:

Australia, Summer 2008

Sydney

Germany, May 2010

Reichstag, Berlin

Belgium/France/Holland Summer 2011

Brussels

Paris

Heineken Brewery, Amsterdam

Cozumel, Mexico, April 2011 (first cruise)

Cozumel from the cruise port

Cruise ships!

Now I’m starting to get antsy… I want to be travelling again! My issue is, I want to go to too many places with not enough vacation days from work… *womp womp*… Oh yea, and my money tree isn’t bearing enough to fund more than one trip at a time.

So! To overcome my ‘Cabin Fever’ I’m going to just have to take local adventures until I’ve harvested enough money for a real trip overseas. I’m trying not to get too bummed that I can’t take an extravagant trip abroad every time I stumble upon an image of a picturesque city in Europe (Pinterest makes it VERY difficult!) so I figure taking these little trips to places close by will soothe my travel bug.

Some plans I have for the next few months are:

• Weekend trip to St. Augustine, FL – quaint historic city in NorthEast Florida
• Short 3-4 day cruise to the Bahamas – sometimes I see some really great last minute deals
• Roadtrip to Atlanta – so many random attractions there I want to check out

What are your travel plans for 2013??