SPICE ROUTE DESTINATION | PAARL

The Western Cape has so much to offer, beyond the city of Cape Town.

Of course there are plenty of famous locations such as Stellenbosch and Franshoek where one can enjoy breathtaking sites and world class wine, however, there are more less explode locations which are well worth the visit.

On my recent trip to Cape Town, this past week, I was able to travel to the Spice Route Destination in Paarl. Paarl is a small town about 45 minutes outside of Cape Town offering unique boutique hotels, bakeries and of course famous wine estates. 

The Spice Route is one of it's kind offering an array of things to do, places to eat and plenty to see all in one location. The Spice Route Destination offers beer tasting, chocolate tasting, gin tasting as well as wine tasting. In addition to this there are three amazing restaurants on site, which offer easy meals to fine dining. 

The Spice Route Destination offers a "Spice Route Passport" where you are able to do tasting at all the locations on site, however, you are able to do individual tasting at the spots that you enjoy more. Of course the team and I opted for the passport. 

We started at the Wilderer for Gin tasting, which gave us a strong kick start to what was a head for the rest of the day. Our second stop was at De Villiers, where we tasted more than 10 different varieties of organic handcrafted chocolate which was absolutely delicious. I am a "chocolate snob" and De Villiers chocolate is one of the most amazing artisan chocolate I have ever tasted. After over indulging on chocolate, we moved on to CBC (Cape Brewing Company) where we tasted four traditional German craft beers. What I enjoyed most about the beer tasting is that CBC is manufactured at the Spice Route and while tasting we got to experience how this beer is crafted.

For our final stop we decided to combine the wine tasting and cured meat tasting together as it was recommended the two compliment each other well, which of course it did. We paired various Spice Route Wines with Richard Bosman cured meats and I must admit the two tastings went to well with each other. 

After a fun filled day of exploring the Spice Route Destination we had the pleasure of enjoying a three course meal at one of South Africa's most renowned Chef's restaurant, "Bertus Basson." I could honestly do an entire blog post on this restaurant as it was such a great experience. Bertus Basson's restaurant at the Spice Route offers a truly South African experience, offering traditional South African cuisine with a modern twist. Not only is this restaurant a wonderful dining experience for international guest wanting to taste traditional South African cuisine, but it is also a unique opportunity for South African's too, as it is rare to find this food at restaurants in the bigger cities. 

If you are looking to explore more of the country side outside of Cape Town, then I would highly recommend visiting the Spice Route Destination. For more information on the Spice Route and all that it offers, click here. 

TC

xoxo