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?

What to do in Brugge, Beligum (Part II)

Brugge is a northern city in the Flemish Region of Belgium, famous for its canals, medieval architecture and picturesque houses. Brugge is a popular destination for tourists visiting Belgium. Brugge is a quaint get-away from the metropolitan atmosphere of Brussels. If you plan on visiting Brugge, be sure to pack comfortable shoes. About 90% of the streets are made of cobblestone which will wreak havoc on your feet

If you missed Part 1, here it is…

Take a boat ride on the canals
Brugge is known as the ‘Venice of the North” with canals running through the entire city. Take a canal ride and see Brugge in an untraditional way.

My Study Abroad Class on our canal boat ride

Climb the Belfry Tower
The Belfry Tower, or Belfort, is a medieval bell tower located in the main market square in Brugge. This tower is 83 metres tall with 366 steps to the top. Take the narrow winding staircase to the top to see the most amazing view of the city. I do not suggest climbing the tower if you get claustrophobic; don’t like climbing staircases that are similar to ladders; or are afraid of heights.

The Belfry Tower

The magnificent view from the top of the tower

The view of the Market Square from the top of the tower

Take a tour of the De Halve Maan Brewery
Discover how the Brugge Zot and Staffe Hendrik beers are made at the De Halve Maan Brewery. On the tour you will learn about the history of the family owned brewery, how the beers are made, see an amazing view of Brugge as well as a complimentary tasting of one of the beers.  There is also a restaurant and bar on-site where locals enjoy their lunch breaks. This is a great tour for beer enthusiasts and foodies.

Our tour guide telling us all about hops, barley and the other ingredients that go in the beer

I sampled the Brugge Zot – I like!

Basillica of the Holy Blood
This Roman Catholic minor basillica is tucked away in the corner of the Brugg square. If you didn’t know where it was, you would easily miss it. The relic of the Holy Blood is displayed on a side altar inside the church.

Inside the Church

The altar where the relic is displayed

Other activities that I wanted to do but didn’t have the time to:

The Church of Our Lady – The tallest structure in Brugge. It houses the ‘Madonna & Child’ sculpture by Michaelangelo.

The Friet Museum – Friet(s) is Flemish/Dutch for Fries (French fries). If there’s something that Belgians can make – other than Chocolate, Beer and Waffles – it’s FRIES.  They take pride in it too… Hence an entire museum dedicated to the yummy snack.

If you ever plan to visit Brugge, whether on a day excursion or for a few days, there’s lots of fun and interesting activities to do. They are easy to find too!

Have you ever been to Brugge? What did you do?

Why I will never eat prosciutto (or anything similar to it) ever again

Last summer, While on Study Abroad in Belgium, one of our excursions was a visit to Ganda Ham – a pork/ham curing company.

We were led on a tour of the facilities and were told details of how they cure the pork. They produce a variety of pork products; however, our visit mostly explored their dry-cured ham process. Their dry-cured ham is basically what is widely known as prosciutto (the culinary police are probably on their way to my house ready to arrest me). As my culinary housemates kindly explained to me, prosciutto is only produced in Italy, using ‘specially’ bred pigs. Prosciutto or not, I’m never eating anything close to it, AGAIN.

Little did I know, that prosciutto was cured and not….. ‘cooked’. I could’ve sworn it was baked or something. And no, curing is not a method of cooking in my books.

I’ve tried to suppress the memories of this torturous excursion so I will attempt to recollect what the tour entailed.

My class and I arrived to the venue one cold rainy morning (how the weather was MOST mornings). We were seated in a small meeting room, decorated with artistic pictures of ham. Our tour director passed out plastic bags with holes in it for our arms coats and hair nets for us to wear – the fashion police would’ve definitely arrested us on the spot if they saw us.

Serving Suggestion? (I think I'll pass)

We entered the factory. They had just received their shipment of pig legs and the men at the front were inspecting each leg to see if they met their product standards. Any legs that do not meet the criteria are sent back to the vendor.

Inspecting the pig legs...

From there, the legs are set on a conveyer belt to be salted. After being salted, they ‘rest’ on shelves for 3 weeks. In the next room, we saw hams hanging on racks. After 3 weeks of rest, the hams are brushed clean and then hung to mature for 2 months in a cellar. We walked alongside rows and rows and rows and some more rows of racks of legs in the cellar.

After the maturing stage, they are sprayed with water – after they’ve dried for a few weeks, the cut end of the leg is rubbed with a mixture of lard, flour, pepper and salt. The hams are then left to dry in drying rooms.

The maturing stage...

We walked through the drying rooms passing more and more rows of hams. I was so horrified at that point that I stopped committing the rest of the tour to memory. When the tour ended, we went back to the meeting room to shed our plastic bags and hair nets. On the tables were samples of the ham on little chopping boards. Most of us sat and starred at it with disgust and scorn. Only the few daring culinary students of the group sampled the ham.

Honestly, the hams looked like they were rotting on the racks during the ‘maturing’ and drying stages. That sight alone made me nauseous and has scarred me for life. The smell of the factory was GROSS. You know that raw meat stench you smell when you walk pass the butcher/meat section of the supermarket? Imagine that like 10 times intensified, and there’s no way to escape it. I tried to hold my breath but I ran the risk of passing out and falling on the wet and salty floor *cringe*.

So, no more prosciutto for me; all the more for everybody else.

The video just slightly capture how painful the tour was for me: