The next stop on the coastal adventure was to Victoria. It is such a beautiful city! It certainly didn't hurt that it was bright and sunny. And so much warmer than Oysterville!
We packed our few days there with a visit to the petting zoo for Harry...
And a visit to the Sea Cidery for Colin and Carrie!
We indulged in the 9 cider flight with some smoked salmon "candy" to keep us from getting too liquoured that fine afternoon. My favorites were:
Kings & Spies: (from their tasting page) Kings & Spies is crafted from a blend of local heritage apples – primarily Kings and Northern Spies – yielding a fruit-forward, Italian-style sparkling cider. Proceeds from this cider support Lifecycles, a Victoria organization that promotes local food security.
~How cool is that? Enjoy some local cider and support others promoting a cause close to me!
Pippins: Newton Pippin apples give structure to this crisp and aromatic dry sparkling cider. Blended with Island grown apples such as Winter Bananas and Sunsets, the result is an aromatic medley of pineapple and fresh fruit notes.
Pommeau: Pommeau is a still aperitif-style cider crafted by slowly fermenting hand-pressed Snow apples, whose Normandy origins date to the 1600’s. Potent yet refined, Pommeau provides a velvety mouthfeel and a rich smoky nose of apple, spices and carmelized sugar.
~Yum, yum, like calvados, or Canados if you live near a BC Liquour store.
And we had a great visit with family: Harry got to see his cousins; Colin got to see his sister and cousin. And I got to eat!
Why, why why, can't there be ONE descent restaurant here that really tries to use local and sustainably grown food? Just one? Oh wait, there's one, but I'm the cook. :) Anyways, we had a great dinner out with Cindy (two for me! Colin drew the short straw to stay home with H), and a lovely lunch on the way up the coast to the Sea Cider House. But if you happen to find yourself on Vancouver Island in search for chocolate, do not go to the Cafe Chocolat. I won't go into details but I'll put it this way... the chocolates are not fresh. By a lot. And! I even wrote them a nice email with pictures of the offending chocolate, and they never even responded so, forget them. NO to Cafe Chocolat.
Eat Island Farm Moose Tracks Ice Cream instead! Vanilla ice cream, a dark chocolate swirl and mini reese's peanut butter cups.
Now, off to Vancouver!
thank you for sharing the same passion for chocolate as i do:)
i love your blogs..
tiff
xoxo
Posted by: tiffany | August 26, 2010 at 08:02 PM