Quests- Maui,Hawaii/The Alcohol

While in Maui, we visited a brewery, a distillery and a winery. I'm not much of a drinker anymore (and I've never liked beer), so I was a little leery of these destinations. But they all turned out to be great experiences, and I found some wine and beer that didn't leave me gagging :)

Maui Brewing Company:

We toured the Maui Brewing Company as part of my father-in-law's birthday celebration. We missed our initial tour time, but they placed us into the next one with no problems. While we waited for our tour to being, we ordered drinks. As I mentioned above, I do not like beer! I never have. But I tried the Mana Wheat. As described on their site:

An unfiltered, freshly handcrafted American-style Wheat infused with Maui Gold Pineapple. Our crisp and refreshing wheat ale is lightly hopped to allow the fruity sweetness of the pineapple to shine. The yeast stays in suspension making the ale traditionally cloudy.

ABV 5.5 | IBU 18

It was pretty good, as far as beer goes. I couldn't finish though, so I had to pass it around the table. My husband and father-in-law got these things called flights (I think), so they got to sample six beers a piece. My sister-in-law tried their root beer (which is delicious!) and I can't remember what my mother-in-law got. 

The tour wasn't very long (the facility is really small), but it was fun and the tour guide was cool. At the end of it, you do a tasting and I drank all three without complaint (and one of them was really nasty!). You get to keep your tasting cup and they give you a token for a free drink. I used mine on a root beer. 

Ocean Vodka/Hawaii Sea Spirits Distillery:

We went here right after the brewery, so it might seem like we're alcoholics, but that's just how it worked out. This place was beautiful! They make Ocean Vodka and Deep Island Rum. Even though this facility was also small, the tour went a little longer because everything was spread out (and our tour guide talked a lot lol).They have a bunch of different types of sugar cane they use to make their products, and they're organic if that's a thing for you. There was a tasting at the end of this tour, but they hardly gave you anything to try! Now, I realize that this is more, uh, spirited than beer, but I can actually drink vodka and rum, so it was a little disappointing. You also got a cute shot glass at the end of the tour. 

This little kitty lives there. It made me miss my cat!

Maui Wines:

The winery was so pretty. It had at one time been a ranch, and even a vacation spot for the Hawaiian King way back in the day. At the start of the tour, they give you a taste of Lokelani Rose Wine, it was good. I don't know a darn thing about wine though, so it could be garbage (I don't think so though. My SIL drinks wine, and she liked it). Some people were swilling it around their glasses and stuff. I just drank it. That's how I roll. Anyway, this tour was the longest of the three, I think because everything was very spread out here. There was also a lot of history involved with the property, and they talked a lot about it. After this tour, we got to taste three wines of our choosing. I chose the Hula O Maui, Maui Splash and Framboise. All the wines I chose were flavored or dessert wines, and the Framboise was so sweet and good, it really felt like I was drinking a raspberry dessert. The other two were both pineapple wines, and they were good too. Added bonus, I had a tiny bottle of Stella Rosa Stella Pink in my fridge that I had tried once before and was a little on the fence about. I reopened it after coming home and had a new appreciation for it!

So those are my alcohol related tours. Tomorrow I'll be concluding my posts about Maui with some other things to do while there. Don't forget to check out yesterday's post all about food!

**All photos were taken by me. If you use them, please credit. Thank you!**

Quests- Maui,Hawaii/The Food

During Christmastime, I was in Maui. I had never been to Hawaii before (or on a plane), so it was pretty interesting. I have lots to share, so I'll be breaking it down into a couple of posts. The first post I wanted to do is on the food, because it was very good! (I'll also share a few that were meh and womp womp, just to be fair.)

One of the first things we did when we got there was go grocery shopping. Besides the price of food being way higher than here in CA, the variety of foods in the store were very different than what I'd expect to see at a grocery store here. One of the first foods I saw was this hot dog musubi. I didn't try it, but I was intrigued.

         

Spam is another huge deal over there. It goes back to WWII, and I have nothing against Spam. It was just strange to see it offered in restaurants and to have such huge end caps dedicated to the stuff. Here at home, its usually just shoved at one end of a dusty shelf, and nobody admits to eating it because its considered a poor man's food.

While we did cook in our timeshare sometimes, we also ate at a few restaurants. We ate at L & L Hawaiian BBQ twice because it was very good. They gave generous portions and the prices were so reasonable. I didn't take a picture of my food there, I think its one of the only places I didn't. I was just so hungry I forgot! They also have locations scattered throughout the mainland US and some overseas, check their website and see if they have a location near you. 

We also ate breakfast at a place called Slappy Cakes three times. Their food was soooooo good. I'm not usually a pancake person, but I really tore into theirs! I tried the Blueberry Tart pancakes that was served with house-made lemon curd and the Hawaiian pancakes. I also had the lavender lemonade and the hibiscus lemonade. All of it was tasty, but the lavender lemonade and Hawaiian pancakes were my favorites. There are also griddles in the middle of each table in case you choose the DIY pancake option. I thought about trying that, but I was also feeling lazy since I was on vacation, so that didn't happen. Slappy Cakes also has a restaurant in Portland, and a few overseas as well.

The first meh place we ate at was Sansei. My in-laws loved the food there, but my husband and I were left a little underwhelmed (and no, we're not foodies or anything). The food was really expensive, the portions were small, and it tasted like food we could get at home for half the price. I will say though, that the first thing I tried (which was a mango crab salad handroll), was really good.

There is a great little bakery called Sugar Beach Bake Shop that made the best macarons! I even brought some home with me!

The womp, womp place we ate at was Moose McGillycuddy's. The place was overcrowded, so we were put at a table that was too small for the five of us. The food was comparable to things you can buy premade at a grocery store, and the rest was just flavorless and blah. Not to mention that it made all of us sick. I don't recommend that place at all. 

Genki Sushi was a really fun place to eat. There are conveyor belts that have plates of variously priced sushi travel all through the restaurant. We ordered everything straight from the kitchen (because we don't trust people lol) and it was delicious. The plates are color coated and the waitress just counts up how many of each color you have and that's how they figure our your bill. It was really affordable and tasty. I also had to try some tamago Spam nigiri. You can't go to Hawaii and not eat Spam at least once :)

And to finish up this post (I know, its a long one!), I leave you with a Dole Whip. I never get these at Disneyland, so I figured I would try one where the pineapples are very fresh. It was delicious!

Tomorrow, I'll talk all about the alcohol related tours we took on the island!

**All photos (Except the L&L BBQ and Moose McGillycuddy's logos) were taken by me. If you use them, please credit. Thank you!**

Raid Snacks- Geeky Sprinkles!

Today I would like to share with you a tasty Kickstarter for Geeky Sprinkles! The brainchild of Tara Theoharis (aka The Geeky Hostess), these fun sprinkles are perfect for Doctor Who, Steampunk or wizard enthusiasts.

Her goal is set at $33,500, and her Kickstarter ends on February 19th, 2014. The sprinkles will be made and bottled in the United States, so there's no worry about overseas hangups. There are plenty of incentives at every price point (some featured below), and remember that every little bit helps (for $3 you get Sprinkle Karma. Who couldn't use some good karma in their lives?).

I asked Tara if she plans on expanding her Geeky Sprinkle line to other designs if her Kickstarter reaches funding, and also if there are any other types of cooking supplies she'd like to sell in the future. This is what she said: 

If the Kickstarter is wildly successful, I'd love to branch out to other sprinkle designs. I want to make what the backers want, so I've been listening to suggestions. I've heard requests for pirate and zombie-themed sprinkles as well as a lot of licensed shapes. If it can be small, one color, and recognizable, it's possible!

My dream would be to have a well-known geeky sprinkle and baking accessory brand. Ultimately, we'd have everything a craft or baking store would have, but created exclusively for the brand. Cupcake liners, boxes, recipe cards, tea towels, you name it! 

Any future shapes or cooking supplies is entirely based on how well this Kickstarter goes. I've been thrilled to see the response so far and can't wait to see what the future holds!

I think everything mentioned above sounds fantastic! If you haven't had a chance to read her blog, you should. She has all sorts of creative, geeky and yummy ideas on there. And definitely donate to her Kickstarter, lets see these Geeky Sprinkles in action!

Important links:
Geeky Sprinkles Kickstarter
The Geeky Hostess Blog

Raid Snacks- Battle of the Pumpkin Spice Lattes

Its that time of year again! Everything pumpkin. I love pumpkin, so I think it's great. Its still around the mid to high 80's weather-wise here, so hot drinks aren't ideal right now, but I broke down and drank two today to do this taste comparison for you guys :)

So I chose to compare the Starbucks PSL and the McDonald's McCafe PSL. I chose the smallest size of each on the menu (small at McDonalds and tall at Starbucks). The picture above shows a side by side comparison of the two, and while the Starbucks cup appears taller, both are 12oz. Both were made with no modifications or changes in order to meet the nutritional information you can find online. The McDonald's PSL is 200 calories and cost $2.39. The Starbucks PSL is 300 calories and cost $3.95.

I tried the McDonald's one first, and I thought it was pretty good. The pumpkin spice taste was very muted, and there is no whipped cream, which I thought I was weird (whipped cream and pumpkin go hand in hand in my mind). The Starbucks one however, had whipped cream and the pumpkin spice taste is way more pronounced. It was delicious. If I could, I would probably buy the Starbucks one more (I am also on a mission to get the Gold Starbucks card this year as well), but realistically, I go to McDonald's more, so I see more McCafe PSLs in my future. 

*Price winner- McDonald's

*Taste winner- Starbucks