Tasting Tuesday – Top 10 Reasons to Take a Food and/or Beer Tour with Taste Winchester History!  For today’s segment, we arrived live at the Broken Window Brewing Company to sample some sudsy goodness and talk tours!
The Broken Window Brewery Team is one of the Winchester Food Tour partners for our History & Hops Brewery, Beer, and Cider tours which just kicked off here officially in 2019 and so we’re quite excited to feature one of our favorite places to visit and partake of what the Brewmasters have to offer.
So let’s move on to our list of reasons why it’s a fantastic idea to sign-up for a food and/or beer tour, whether you’re local, vacationing, or simply passing through Winchester, Virginia with the fun, friendly, and informative guides at Taste Winchester History Food & Beer Tours. (And to do so over and over again!)
#10 – No Planning Involved! Just sign-up and go! The itinerary is already planned for you on either of our tours, so there is a no-hassle activity readily available for you to just join-and-go! Folks, on the food tour you will visit 4 to 6 places and hear about local history as we walk from stop to stop, so it’s a full afternoon. We have already done the research for you, so there are no hours of research online; reading reviews that you don’t know whether to put any stock in or not; there’s no arguments over what one person likes versus what another person likes. Our reputation is on the line and so is that of our tour partners. You can count on our assurance that our goal of entertaining you and keeping you well-fed and well-hydrated is more than worth the price of admission!
#9 – It’s Affordable! Nowadays, a “meal deal” even at a local fast-food joint is going to cost you at least $12 per person on a good day. On our food tour you can expect to visit 4 to 6 eateries. On our beer tour you can expect to visit 4 to 5 breweries, pubs, cider peddler, and one food stop. And none of these outfits skimps! So you better come with an appetite, because you’re not simply getting finger-food samples, you’re going to be seeing full plates.
#8 – ***Small Tour Group Sizes!  Our regular, recurring Food Tours, Beer Tours, and Specialty Tours are capped at 14-16 guests so as to keep things organized and retain a personal feel. I’m sure some of us have experienced those large, daunting tours where you’re in a group of 50 or, the guide(s) are either shouting or blaring at you through a megaphone, and if you have any questions or want to have a discussion, well, good luck with that. We enjoy sitting with our guests and chatting person-to-person or moving between a couple of tables to engage in meaningful dialogue. We truly do want to get to know you and have fun with you for those approximately 3 hours that we get to spend and enjoy with you.
#7 – Engaging All 5 Senses – You’ll see all of the charm that makes Winchester such a great place to live and visit. You’ll hear about local history and local events and activities. You’ll see all of the great architecture and quite likely an event taking place right on the Walking Mall as we move from place to place. You’ll touch some of the great structures and exhibits we pass along the way. And last, but certainly not least, you’ll taste a great variety of delicious food and beverages along the way, all of the textures, flavors, aromas, sights and sounds… tremendous experiences.
#6 – Meet New People, Learn More About Old Friends! Right now our tours are drawing about 50 percent local folks and 50 percent traveling folks. Since starting in September of 2018, we have left with a warm feeling and huge smiles on our faces, as have our patrons, as we learned some new things about each other, whether we’re engaging with the friends we’ve brought on the Winchester Food Tour or engaging with those we’ve met from out of town. Expect a lot of chatter about places we’ve traveled, favorite recipes and foods, favorite beers and ciders, and so much more.
#5 – All Inclusive Price!  On the food tour, all of your food and basic beverages (such as coffee, tea, water) are included in the price! On the beer & cider tour, all of your drink samples are included in the price as is the food at our food stop. There are no hidden costs or extra fees unless you want something additional (for example, a full specific menu item or adult beverage on the food tour). Truth be told, you will be challenged to eat all that is provided on the food tour, so ordering something additional is not likely at all.
#4 – You’re Won’t Eat “Like a Tourist”. We’re not stopping at fast food places or convenience stores, folks, to grab a quick bite on the way to our next stop. You’re eating really great food, freshly prepared, much of the ingredients sourced locally. The food quality is outstanding, the presentation is quite impressive, and you will also have the benefit of informative engagement from the owners, chefs, and staff to learn more about how they got started, what they do, and how they do it.
#3 Local Stories that are Informative and Interesting – You will be learning about neighborhoods, people’s way of life, local eats, ingredients, special monuments and landmarks and more.  Our walking tours in and around Old Town Winchester to visit our local eateries and drinkeries also involve brief stops along the way to learn about local and regional history dating back to the earliest days of our country; the history of the birth of the Town of Winchester and it’s role in Colonial times, Revolutionary times, Civil War times and more. We also touch on the architectural history, historic preservation efforts, and more! It’s not just “textbook stuff” – we introduce you to the unique and oftentimes humorous stories that you generally will not hear about in a history class.
And because we can’t pick just one #1…
#1/#2 INTERCHANGABLY – THE FOOD AND THE BREWS! Â
Fresh prepared, local foods with locally sourced ingredients. Fresh prepared, local brews, handmade recipes. And endless variety of flavors and tastes and smells in artistic presentations.
Variety that Will Bring You Back Again and Again! And we’re talking about three types of variety. The first application of the word “variety” is on a single-tour application. No two venues are alike, so each partner is offering you something that is unique and different from the next and all of it is magnificent.
The second application of the word “variety” are for those who we hope find the tour experience so wonderful that they will come back again in the future! You see, our roster consists of plenty of partners, so the establishments are rotated in and out of the tour on a random basis to keep things interesting, and that’s on both tours. On the beer tour, the focus is on our growing local brewery growth and are the featured stops, but we can and do mix in other partners for a change of pace and so that we can maximize the selection of tastings for you.
The third application of the word “variety” has to do with our non-food stops, where we can approach an endless stream of storytelling about history in and around Winchester, a great number of historical buildings and monuments, and other associated tidbits of information to keep the tours fresh and interesting each time.
You can come back again and again and learn about something new, eat something new, or drink something new as our local breweries are always churning out something fresh and new for people to try.
***Private tours may can be arranged that exceed our regular recurring tour cap of 14-16 patrons on any dates with advanced notice. Please note, you must call or email as far in advance as possible as we must plan with our tour partners to ensure larger groups can be accommodated on any given day of the week. If our partners are available, we will get you taken care of.
But wait! THERE’S MORE!!! The video below is not the above-listed Top 10… we did a little more humorous take on the Top 10 List that we hope will make you at the very least smile, if not laugh heartily! Watch below, with Misty, Kayla, and Anthony!
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