I have been seeing quite a few people talking about this spot in Paarl recently, so I thought we should go check it out on Easter Sunday. The Spice Route in Paarl is pretty much a dream come true if you are looking for a chilled day out, with a host of different things to eat, drink and tour! Check out the sign below to give you an idea of what there is to offer before I take you through my favourites:
With the choice of great restaurants, wine, coffee, chocolate, biltong, pizza, CBC craft beer brewery and a distillery, you are lank spoiled for choice. There’s something for everyone, even if that means having a nap on the grass embankment after a great meal. The chick who did the beer tour and tasting with us was pretty damn clued up about her shit. So I will start with that part of the experience, because I probably enjoyed it the most!
CBC Craft Brewery:
The CBC Craft Brewery. Well where to start really, this place just pours out the awesome. I will start at the top with the epic, open plan production area which is situated behind glass in the tasting room for all to see. I know it is a micro brewery, but the cleanliness compared to the likes of SAB are non comparative.
They do it all on site, from brewing, to bottling, to labelling and even the final steps of boxing the products into cases. Not to mention the fact that they are the guys behind the production of Jack Black Beer. I bet you didn’t know that?
On to my favourite part now, the beer! I first tasted the CBC range at home after my bro brought a few home for us to try. Back then they only had one product that was bottled and ready for the public to consume. I must add their pricing is very good and it’s a mere R25 for the normal tasting, and, just R35 for the master tasting which consists of all 6 of their beers!
I wasn’t a fan of all of them, but the Lager, Pilsener, Amber Weiss and Krystal Weiss were all top class! I didn’t really enjoy the Devil IPA (which was sour) and the Smokey Malt (which tasted like burnt meat). The unfiltered Amber Weiss was definitely my best of the lot though!
Spice Route Wine Tasting:
The wine tasting area is situated alongside the breathtaking outside grass dining area. They offer a host of red and white wines for you to taste, but that’s not all… They also offer you to pair each of the wines with most females favourite, chocolate! If you are the one driving I suggest you use a spittoon, as the portions they poured were quite generous! You can grab a few bottles of the wines you liked from the shop inside to take home with you too.
Inside they had this unique wine design on the wall, with bottles that had been plastered into the backing of their wine, beer and biltong bar. I am quite a sucker for kief mosaic style street art and designs so this I thoughts was definitely worth taking a picture of. Oh, their biltong is also DAMN well priced and the selection/quality is really good! I think I ate R80’s worth on the drive home…
Coffee and Chocolate Tasting:
When you walk into the coffee house the smells that waft into your face are thick, full and for lack of a better word, fucking scrumptious. You can either sit down and order a coffee with their mouth watering chocolate mousse cake, which is made by the blonde belter at the till. You can sit down with a host of other people for an in depth coffee and chocolate tasting, or, you can just buy some beans/chocolates and save them for when you get home.
They have coffee beans and high cocoa chocolate from all over the World. You can expect to find some goodies from Madagascar, Trinidad, Guatemala and a whole load of other destinations I can’t really remember. This is definitely a good place to end off the day, but don’t neglect the desserts at the restaurant(s) because they are out of this Universe!!! Trust me…
They also have an awesome pizzeria with a big selection of unique home made pizzas. I never got to try them, but I will definitely be back with some mates for the more “pizza and getting drunk” vibes. You can follow @SpiceRoutePaarl on twitter if you are interested in asking them anything or visiting the farm. The best part of all was that the car guards don’t even ask you for money when you leave? I guess they are employed by the farm, but that was definitely a first for me 😉
How does one book a table for 7 June 2014, for two people @ Pizzeria
Hey Kirsty Tweet them @SpiceRoutePaarl and they will hook you up. Else you can find their page on Facebook too!