Fine Brandy Media Tour Bus experience.

May 21, 2013

Fine Brandy is a collection of thee finest brandies from South Africa which include Oude Meester Demant, Van Ryn’s 12 Year Old Distillers Reserve, Klipdrift Gold, Flight of the Fish Eagle and Collison’s White Gold. I was honored to attend the media tour bus which gave us the background on each brandy.
The tour bus started at the The Cullinan Hotel Foyer. The first cocktail was a Cosmo which was made with the Collisons Brandy. The taste was fulfilling for some of us who know their cocktails (I have to say this was my favorite cocktails for the evening). As we all gathered up and exchanging our thoughts of the Cosmo taste, Elana Afrika, as our M.C for the day gave us a brief of what our evening was going to be like and the reason why we were all there.
From the Cullinan Hotel we went to Mano a Mano while we watched some of the designers video on YouTube explaining their take on the competition and giving us some insight on their ideas for the pop-up bar competition. When we arrived at our second venue we were served with a Fish Eagle cocktails "Rio", which had a lot of ice and lime. Its not my kinda cocktail but it was delicious and it was also paired with some beef strips. While listening to Elana explaining the mixing of the cocktails we were served our third cocktail and we were off to our next stop which was Societi, a very intimate and cosy restaurant which led to our last brandies which were served raw. I have to say, if you are from the faint hearted please do not try these brandies as they are for men and women who know their worth. We were first served with Oude Meester Demant, which I really enjoyed as the taste was thick and smoothing. While chatting away with some of the designers wgo will be taking part on the competition, we were served our last brandy which almost killed me I must add. As I said earlier on I am a cocktail guy depending on where I am, now and then I rarely drink brandy. Van Ryn's 12 Year Old Distillers Reserve taste made me think of men in business as the smell was strong, the taste was thick and burning. This might be because I did not know how to drink it as I gulped a sip and my chest went into a frenzy. It was served with dark chocolate which was to my surprise smoothing to the taste of the brandy, like you have to indulge in one after a sip. As this was our last stop we were then transported back to the tour bus and dropped off at the CTICC for the actual event with our goodie bag consisting of "the brandy bible" (as Elana Afrika mentioned) which gave you insight on how to prepare all the cocktails mentioned above, a brandy pen and a Fine Brandy Glass. As we entered the to the event we got our coupons which were a lot as I was already a bit tipsy but none-the-less I indulged myself to my favorite cocktail of the day, The Collisons Cosmo while listening to the M.C of the event, Pro-Verb, telling us about the event and performances before hand and watching the ginger magician doing his tricks. All-in-all the event was fabulous and thank you once again to Fine Brandy for inviting me and educating me about my cocktails. I can officially say, "I am now a new member of thee Finest Brandies club".