You Thirsty? Take The Ultimate Beverage Tour In York Durham Headwaters...

Here is a copy of my freelance article for Huffington Post on Drinking Your Way Through York Durham Headwaters (Original Post). Home to 60% of the Greenbelt’s protected fertile farmland and many conservation areas, this heart of Ontario’s countryside is a burgeoning scene in multiple award-winning cutting-edge craft beverages made farm-to-bottle. Quench your thirst for adventure, engage in fascinating stories from brewers firsthand and support local producers. A bounty of homegrown treasures awaits you!

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A burgeoning beverage scene exists less than an hour outside Toronto, and it's worth discovering. Cutting edge, award-winning craft breweries, cideries, distilleries and wineries abound in the York Durham Headwaters region.

Presented in partnership with Ontario Tourism and York Durham Headwaters, here's a small sampling of some of the area's best spots to quench your thirst for libationary adventure.

Old Flame Brewing Co., 135 Perry St., Port Perry

Old Flame Brewing Co. set up shop in an old Ontario Carriage Works building, transforming the original structure into a beer-lover's paradise. Taste specialty bevvies on tap or take a behind-the-scenes tour to see how craft brew is made.

The Second Wedge Brewing Company, 14 Victoria St., Uxbridge

The Second Wedge Brewing Company is a brewery, tasting room, bottle shop and beer garden dedicated to crafting flavourful ales. This year, you can follow co-founder Joanne Richter on a beer and cheese tour through the region. Named "Boxcars and Beer: The Cheese Train," this experience is 90 minutes of pure bliss -- because nothing is better than beer and cheese. Incerpt- Learn more on My Post about my full experience on the cheese train.

All Aboard on Uxbridge's Boxcars and Beers: The Cheese Train

Incerpt-- Enjoying a nice day with my pal Ann with flights, lunch and loads of goodies to take home.

Noteables: the Pear Cider with Lavender and the Normandy Apple Bread
made with apple cider, chopped apples grown on site and cinnamon!

Spirit Tree Estate Cidery, 1137 Boston Mills Rd., Caledon

Located in the picturesque, rolling hills of Caledon, Spirit Tree Estate Cidery is an award-winning cidery and so much more. Its bakery, bistro and farm shop make it a culinary destination to be savoured. It prides itself on its many environmentally friendly practices. And perhaps most uniquely, Spirit Tree's owners practice the centuries-old art of wassailing, a ceremony each winter in which the trees in the apple orchard are sung to in order to ensure a good harvest the following year.

Adamo Estate Winery, 793366 3rd Line EHS, Mono

Adamo Estate Winery is a labour of love for the Adamo family. They took a chance on an unchartered terroir, burying vines in the winter to protect them from the cold, hand-picking the fruit and bottling on site. Indeed remarkable that this young winery is already the recipient of multiple international wine awards. Tour the vineyards, sample at the tasting bar, and pair your visit with a stay at the winery's sister property, Hockley Valley Resort.

Grand Spirits Distillery Inc., 22 Mill St., East Grand Valley

The newly opened Grand Spirits Distillery is the first legal purveyor of gin and whisky in the region. Grand Valley was the last wet town in Ontario during Prohibition, so the entrance of the region's first "resto-distillery" promises to "reignite Grand Valley's prohibition-era infamy," their website notes. Their handcrafted spirits are adapted from old regional recipes and use juniper, white oak and wild hickory to flavour their gin and whisky.

Located in a restored 1892 schoolhouse, the distillery has a Speakeasy-themed restaurant bar and a Victorian-themed tasting room.

Last Straw Distillery, 40 Pippin Rd. - Unit #9, Vaughan

This super-cool distillery is for the gin and whisky lover in all of us. Fulfilling their lifelong dream to open a micro-distillery, husband and wife team Don and Ana DiMonte develop each of their spirits from scratch. Dark Side of the Moonshine is a liquor that's aged for a year in an old Tennessee whisky barrel while Blackstrap Rum is a new take on an old classic. It's made from blackstrap molasses and packed with dark-toffee flavour. While you can find Dark Side of the Moonshine and Blackstrap Rum at the LCBO, you can only buy their vodka, gin and darker blends at their distilling workshop in Vaughan. Visit today to learn first-hand how these spirits are made.

These are but a few of the many flavourful locations to raise a glass and toast Ontario's York Durham Headwaters region. When touring the area, please drink responsibly. To learn more, follow what's happening in its ever-growing food and drink scene here.

Beer's History and Toronto's Rorschach Brewery...

If Water is Mother Nature's fuel, then Beer must be Mother Nature's Rocket fuel!

"When men learned how to cultivate, cook and consume grains, we went from cave-dwelling savages to upright citizens."-- National Geographic's film EAT: The Story of Food.

"Who'd knew that when you put together grain, water and a bit of yeast, you can create this fermented alcoholic beverage that is absolutely delicious?"-- Chef Eric Greenspan

30,000 years ago we discovered how to cultivate, cook and consume grains. But what came first- Bread or Beer? According to the doc film- Eat: The Story of Food, bread has artifacts that date back to 30,000 years but none show when beer was actually born. We do know that the earliest recipe for beer came from Mesopotamia, and that in Ancient Egypt, pyramid labourers were paid in beer. Since beer is high in calories, it was an excellent energy drink to keep workers going. The Egyptians were one of the earliest civilizations to brew beer and the large breweries produced as many as 30,000 barrels a year.

Once the ancient food systems switched to agriculture, grains like barley, millet, corn and wheat were made into beer. Additionally, beer was seen as the drink of the common man because it could be made anywhere – it became a moveable feast if you will. Europe was the epicentre of great beer-making but in the US beer varieties were very limited. Further, after the prohibition in the 1920s, it became very hard to find good beer. The trend became to please more people akin to what was happening in the food packaging market. Thus, the flavours were bland and developed to meet the tastes of the masses. They appealed to the lowest common denominator. Put another way, the beer lacked quality. By the 1990s in the US, many microbreweries were springing up in basements and back rooms. More recently, especially over the last 30 years, the renaissance of craft beer has exploded in North America and has even transformed our Ontario beverage landscape. For example, there are now over three hundred breweries all over this great province. The diversity of craft beers, that we now enjoy, is unprecedented in history and ranges from humble to bedazzling. So much so, that the number has now increased by over 100 new breweries in comparison to last year. This explosion in growth is researched and well documented in The Ontario Craft Beer Guide. by Leblanc & St. John who came out with their second edition of the book a few months ago.

Launched just shy of the 2017 publication of The Ontario Craft Beer Guide, we will be sure to find our very own Toronto's Rorschach Brewing Co. in the third edition. Rorschach’s story began in 2006 when three soon-to-become chemical engineers, Matthew Reiner, Chris Ristevski and Mohan Pandit met each other in the halls of the Wallburg building at the University of Toronto. With a joint passion for beer-making, they set up shop in Matthew’s basement studying the magic of fermentation. Extensive travels to research beer-making coupled with countless beer tastings in the years to come and crossing paths with Ben Ragan - a seasoned wine and beer maker - Rorschach Brewing Company was born. Pronounced "ror-shack", the name comes from a psychological test that dates back to the mid-1800s where ambiguous symmetrical inkblots were used to examine a person’s personality and emotions. The foundation of the test shows that each individual can appreciate the ambiguity and complexity of an experience according to their own ‘perceptual set’. 

"Beer, just like food, is a personal experience; no two people’s tastes are exactly the same. Our goal is to facilitate and enhance that experience, and ultimately help to elevate the beer experience."-- Rorschach

Much of the space is decorated with salvaged wood and material.

My family was invited to the brewery by co-owner Mohan Pandit's uncle Nick. Nick and I met at a grocery store a few years back (he was also my guest blogger with his delicious Apple Chickpea Salad recipe). He had just conducted a health & safety orientation with the brewery's staff and wanted me to come check out the goods and enjoy a behind-the-scenes tour with the kids. But first a Sunday romp across the street at the Ashbridges Farmers' Market. It had such a warm, friendly neighbourhood vibe for families, friends and just hanging out.

Fresh, delicious harvest and homemade goods and foods!

The building is the amalgamation of three distinct structures, beginning with the front of the building which is the
original brick home built in 1917. An extension was built onto the rear of property and used for boat building from 1932
until the mid 1950s. The warehouse that was built in 1970 was adjoined with the existing two buildings in 2008.

Photo Credit: Rorschach Brewery Co.
From left to right: Co-Owners Mohan, Matthew and Chris and Manager Ben 

4oz. tasters were the way to go with so many to choose from on tap. The full sensory notes described for each one made it that much harder to select a few. We went for a range of light and dark beer.

Enjoying the experience on the patio with the crew.

My twins enjoying some handcrafted sodas in silver birch beer and old tyme orange!

My favourite of the lot was the "counterconditioning" blueberry IPA brewed with oats and hopped with mosaic, citra and ekunot hops, fresh blueberry puree, notes of blueberry, red fruit, citrus and pine, hints of vanilla and stone fruit.... smooth, light-bodied, flavourful to the nose and tongue, and refreshingly enjoyable to the finish!

Love the gorgeous spacious rooftop patio and family-friendly atmosphere!

What's beer without some munchies... A nice selection of tapas-sharing plates, we noshed on nachos with pico de gallo and guac, fried calamari (nice touch with the fried pickled hot pepper rings), fries, battered-fried eggplant spears (Omgosh so deelish), and jerk-rubbed chicken wings!

We had a nice surprise meeting with the previous owners of the location, and proprietors of Le Papillon on the Park, Paul and Danielle Bigue, who stopped in for some food and drinks.

My French-speaking husband having a nice French conversation :D. 

The tour begins....  Here the refrigerated kegs of beer are hooked up with tubes that snake up to the rooftop patio's bar to serve beer from their taps.

And it all starts with the grains... 

The stuff of our foods that is the most basic, and everything is celebrated from that simplicity! 

Bread, pizza, pasta, beer...

Nolan was our awesome, very knowledgeable and friendly behind-the-scenes tour guide....

Photo Credits: Nick Pandit

Giant hectolitre tanks fill the back space connected to the casual restaurant in front.

The beer-making process is very technical and labourous that takes days from brewing to bottling. Chefs of beer see grains as the canvas, and then paint with herbs, hops and other ingredients to add flavour and build character.

The mega-bottling machine.

They are looking forward to growing their own herbs, vegetables and flowers on their rooftop garden for the brewery. A huge plus is they have a large free parking lot right beside their building! Check them out this summer: https://www.rorschachbrewing.com/

"As a small brewery and tasting room, we intend to experiment with different brewing styles, unique ingredients and innovative techniques, but we will always have a heavy focus on the specific styles of beer that we enjoy to brew and drink. We strive to craft beers that are both full of flavour and make us want to have another." -- Rorschach Brewery Co.

All Aboard on Uxbridge's Boxcars and Beers: The Cheese Train...

Did you know that barely an hour out of the city, Ontario's countryside is a vibrant hub of rural communities rich in ever-growing hidden culinary and drinking gems? I didn't. Landing a cool writing assignment with HuffPost in partnership with York Durham Headwaters Tourism to give a snapshot of the trendy breweries, distilleries and wineries in the rural north (home to 60% of the Greenbelt’s protected fertile farmland) being published in August, I discovered there's so much there to satisfy our taste of adventure. With the bounty of homegrown treasures close to our front door, you can sip and savour to your heart's content with multiple award-winning cutting-edge craft beverages and beautiful farm-to-table menus, and support our local producers.

One amazing new experience being served up is The Boxcars and Beers – The Cheese Train, a culinary adventure with the York-Durham Heritage Railway and Second Wedge Brewery Co. through the glorious Oak Ridges Moraine; they serve a guided craft beers and local cheeses tasting on a 1.5-hour ride that starts from Stouffville and ends in Uxbridge.  I had the privilege of being invited to the culinary media event that began on the "tasty" train to Uxbridge, a taste & tour with the brew master at Second Wedge, lunch treats with nearby Urban Pantry Restaurant and finished with a hands-on cooking demo with chef and owner of The Passionate Cook's Essentials. It was a unique kind of daytrip adventure for all the senses indeed.

Pairings of local cheeses and Second Wedge Brewery Co. beers awaits!

The York-Durham heritage railway train was built in 1800 and used to deliver alcohol to Toronto's Distillery District. It was shut down and then in 1923 the Canadian National took it over. The last passenger train was in 1962 with the last freight in 1980. The railway operates excursion trains over a 20 km route between the historic towns of Stouffville and Uxbridge. The round trip takes approximately 2 hours and 30 minutes.

The conductor's meet and greet with a historical introduction about the heritage railway.

The local fine cheese plate-- among these a brie, cheddar, and a mild blue.

Organic, unsulphated apricots-- sweet like candy. Notice they are not orange!

Left: Fromager cheese expert Cecilia Smith from The Passionate Cook's Essentials and
 The Second Wedge Brewing Co. co-owner Joanne Richter in background.

Boxcars and Beers guests are presented with a selection of five cheeses paired with five beers from The Second Wedge. A couple of cheese tasting tips that I learned. Serve cheese at room temperature for optimal flavour and texture. Take a bite of the cheese to enjoy it's flavour by itself, then place a piece of cheese on roof of mouth and savour the cheese gradually as you sip your beer.  

Such picturesque natural farmland beauty on a gorgeous sunny day!

Cecilia carefully selected the cheese to match with the characteristics of the various beers offered at Second Wedge. Mild tasting cheese like brie was paired with their blonde ale Elgin Blonde, while a smokey savoury cheese paired well with Day Tripper-- a beer made with toasted malt and piney citrusy hops, and a strong blue cheese enjoyed along their dark porter beer Rain Maker (with caramel chocolatety notes). The local stories and education of how each of the fromage and craft beverages are made were both fascinating and entertaining! What a laid back way to enjoy the scenic train views and learn something new.

Arrival in Uxbridge- the Trail Capital of Canada with over 3000 trails, this destination is a mecca for hikers, adventurists and cyclists- part of the Ontario By Bike network.

Second Wedge Brewing Co. is named after its Uxbridge location on the second of four wedges of the Oak Ridges Moraine. 100% locally owned, Second Wedge is a brewery, tasting room, bottle shop and beer garden dedicated to crafting flavourful ales full of character.

Brew Master Doug Warren walks us through the steps of beer making-- first showing the ingredients used: hops and wheat. I learned that hops role is the seasoning that does two things: create aroma and flavour, and also the bitterness to balance out sweetness.

Grain filter acts like a giant drip coffee machine.

Professional Photographer #whateverittakes

Urban Pantry Chef discussing the delicious treats with farm fresh ingredients ready to be noshed. Bison sliders, red pepper jelly, goat cheese on brioche; pulled pork, smoked apple fennel BBQ sauce, red onion jam on brioche, and vegetarian option: wilted greens with boursin on crostini topped with cranberries and almonds.

Pulled pork and bison sliders.

The gorgeous beer garden to sip, savour and relax in.
A popular rest stop for cyclists, families and dog walkers.

Our last stop was upscale culinary studio and retail store The Passionate Cook's Essentials. The gorgeous shop boasts top-of-the-line kitchenware, artisan cheese, small batch charcuterie and specialty gourmet foods (including those delectable organic dried apricots on the train's cheese platter). 

Charming owner Lisa Hutchinson and Chef Erin Monaghan from their adjoining bistro demonstrated handmade thin crust pizzas using San Marzano tomatoes, beer (from Second Wedge) in their pizza dough with local cheeses, porchetta and fresh basil. They offer a slew of cooking classes and how-to-make pizza is one that always sell out and fast!

The crust was so light, crispy and tasty.... it must have been the beer in it :).

Lisa and her stunning hot-out-of-the-oven pizza!

A parting gift from The Second Wedge... Thank you :D

Looking for something different and a one-of-a-kind experience, hop on and try The Boxcars and Beers: The Cheese Train scheduled three times this summer. Click here for more details. Also visit yorkdurhamheadwaters.ca or discoveruxbridge.ca for more information.