The City Girl Craft Beer Festival Survival Guide
Enjoying craft beer, West Coast City Girl style. Practical tips and tricks for enjoying a day or evening of hoppy libation with fun, grace and gumption. While summer tends to host the bulk of the adult beverage festivals in BC, they happen year round. Particularly in Vancouver and Victoria. The Brit and I recently attended the immensely popular Great Canadian Beer Festival (GCBF) for the first time, and I think it’s one of my favourite festivals I’ve been to—and the weather was perfect! Because the blog has become a little more liquid focused, I’ve attended a lot of craft beer events. Combined with years of sports/concert/corporate event planning, I’ve seen…
Wine Down on a Budget – 5 Affordable BC Wines to Sip On This Summer
With summer shining through, it’s time to sip some lighter wines; pretty Rosés, crisp whites and, and plummy Pinot Noirs. And let’s not forget some vibrant bubbly to toast at all the events of what I like to call ‘celebrate everything’ season. (Weddings, birthdays, bridal and baby showers, graduations, barbecues, you name it… It’s that time of year.) Over the years, I’ve become more conscious of shopping, eating, and drinking local. The reality of this is that it’s not always budget-friendly. But the good news is that there are many quality, affordable BC wines available in the #GetThrifty $20-30 range.
Exploring East Sussex Wine Country with Vine + Country Tours
If you’re not from the UK (or have been living under a rock since Harry married Meghan), your first question is possibly “Where is Sussex?”. Answer: Sussex is in south-east England. Your next question might likely “England has a wine country?” Answer: Yes. East Sussex wine country. Actually, wine countries, plural. And they make damn good wine. When you think of England in terms of alcoholic beverages, you might think of an ale or bitter; maybe a a refreshing gin and tonic. Likely not wine. But East Sussex wine country happens to have soil very friendly to the grapes used for sparkling and Rosé wines. Which has made the their…
Coastal BC Craft Breweries That Make It Worth Going the Extra Road Trip Mile
Continuing with our #friendsinbeerplaces road trip along the Coastal Ale Trail… When I travel, I’m all about convenience, efficiency, and quality. No set order. All three things come in handy when exploring, but sometimes you need to go the extra mile (or ferry) in order to find quality. The road less travelled, if you will. And that is why the Brit and I are big fans of Love Shack Libations and Townsite Brewing – they are craft breweries that go the extra mile for their customers, which makes going off the beaten path completely worth it.
Wander and Sip at These Craft Cider and Beer Tasting Rooms on British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast
Continuing on with our #friendsinbeerplaces road trip, the Brit and I visited two tasting rooms while on the Sunshine Coast (a.k.a. Brewer’s Coast) leg of the trip that are unique in location and purpose: The Bricker Cider Company and Persephone Brewing. They have the fields of dreams. (Don’t worry I won’t use the quote!)
5 Craft Breweries to Visit on Vancouver Island (Where Everyone Knows Your Name)
If you don’t know the TV show whose theme song title I’ve shamelessly used in my post title, you probably weren’t born when it was on the air. Google it. Watch it. It’s fabulous. And the theme song is classic. But to get to my point, the song represents the sense of community that I feel craft breweries and their tasting rooms have brought a back into our social culture. (Even with social media taking over our lives!) It’s something we especially felt when we were on our recent road trip along the east coast of Vancouver Island, checking out some craft breweries along the BC Ale Trail. More on that…
City Girl Whisky Diary: Unique Whisky Cocktails Recipes from The Distillery Bar in Vancouver
Mercury is in retrograde: my laptop died on Easter weekend, work’s been a bit crazy, and my left rotator cuff is telling me it needs a little more love. Aside from that, it’s been a pretty good week. But I’m definitely ready to put my my feet up and have a glass of something lovely. I’m mostly a red wine and dark beer girl, but every now and then I like a fancy cocktail. A Gin and Tonic is usually my favourite, but I’ve come to love whisky cocktails in the last couple years. (This is what happens when you visit Scotland many, many times, and visit a fair amount…
Date Night In
It’s already past the midway point of February! What the what? I had (what I had originally thought were) fairly realistic plans to get some Date Night blog posts done to coincide with Valentine’s day; but in the way of things, work and life got busy, and I need to sleep. But I realized that posting after what I know some call a ‘Hallmark holiday’ works better.
