Isn’t it amazing how we can live in an area for so long and never really play tourist and see the special things our area has to offer?? While I live in Puyallup I am only about an hour away from Seattle, but we rarely tend to go there for a variety of reasons. When Show Me Seattle offered to have me come try out their Coffee, Chocolate, and Wine tour I was thrilled that everything fell into place for a girlfriend and myself to go have a girls day in Seattle!! Huge thanks to Show Me Seattle for hosting us on this tour!!
Now, this was truly the perfect tour to take Jenn with me on, these are all of our favorite things!! I don’t care to drive in Seattle so we had originally planned to take the Sounder up since the Viaduct was closed and it wouldn’t be a bad ride share cost, but traffic looked clear so she drove us! We were able to find public parking easily nearby and walked over to our meeting spot. Now Show Me Seattle will coordinate pick up if the location doesn’t work for you so be sure to reach out to them.
What Is The Show Me Seattle Coffee, Chocolate, and Wine Tour??
The tour is offered Monday thru Friday to people over 21 years of age, and Show me Seattle will pick up at most downtown Seattle hotels, or near Westlake Center, just reach out to coordinate the pickup. The tour is done with an experienced and knowledgeable tour guide on a 14 passenger mini coach! There are three stops to the tour an Exclusive tour, not open to the public, of the Starbucks Roastery Flagship, Tour & Tasting at Fran’s Chocolate’s production facility, and 4 Northwest wines paired with artisan meats & cheeses at Estates Wine Room.
The best part is you don’t have to drive to each destination! Jenn and I both agreed James made the tour so much fun, she has lived in the area her whole life and learned more information! As we drove around we were making notes of where to check out based on his recommendations and stories. Head on over-> here to see all the details on the tour and most up to date information! Plus be sure to check out the other tours they have as well, we are eying the Pikes Place tour.
First Stop on Chocolate, and Wine Tour The Starbucks Roastery!
Now Jenn is a die-hard coffee girl so this was the stop she was excited about! I had no idea that Starbucks had a roastery like this, I really thought it was all factory made. Our Roastery tour guide was Max, a hilarious French man, who is the manager of The Roastery. What amazed me is that ALL of the Starbucks Reserve coffee is made and manufactured in Seattle, and it opened in Dec 2014! While they are making other locations it is amazing to know it all has started here in Seattle! Max will share with you the whole history of how The Roastery came to be and the whole process Starbucks went thru. Everything is food safe and sealed off so the whole process can be seen by the public. Now my favorite part was the bathroom, you can see through the mirror to see the other side! Head on over -> here to see more about the Starbucks Roastery!
As well as The Roastery you can check out Princi, an upscale bakery that serves Rocco Princi’s bread and pizzas, all of which smelled amazing! Plus the ingredients are brought in from Italy to be cooked and served there. I loved the cast iron stoves and ovens that they did all their cooking in, some of it was more modernized but they are truly a site to be seen! Everything looked and smelled amazing in the bakery, the perfect complement to the Starbucks Reserve line. Learn more about the bakery -> here.
Now I can’t believe as a chocolate fanatic I had never had Frans Chocolate!! I love that it has a Seattle born history with the founder Fran Bigelow, and she now has her daughter and son running the business as well now. I love that we were able to watch the chocolate being made, it reminded me of the scenes for I Love Lucy, all of the chocolate is hand made, hand wrapped and inspected as well. Now with Isabella being obsessed with Paris, I loved learning about how Fran took influence from France in her chocolates.
Now as part of the tour you also are able to sample different Frans chocolate. Probably not too surprising this was our favorite part! We were able to sample 4 different Frans chocolates. My personal favorite was the Gray Salt Caramels. Our guide also taught us how the chocolate is made and how Frans works to make sure farmers are compensated and are part of fair trade as well as organic. Plus did you know that Obama’s favorite chocolate is the Smoked Salat Chocolate Carmel, they even had a Frans box with the presidential seal for the 8 years he was in office! Head on over -> here to learn more about Frans Chocolate.
Now, this was my first time to a wine room like this, and I have to say I am in love with the experience!! The first thing that catches your eye is the wall mural it is amazing how they pulled the pictures of their vineyard into this amazing artwork heading back to their tasting room. Now the next favorite part was the spread of food to pair up with the wine. We were able to sample four different wines while we learned about the history of wine in the PNW, I had no idea there are 1074 wineries in Washington! Washington also has the highest percentage of women winemakers in the world. Double Canyon that is carried by The Estates Wine Room is run by a woman winemaker Kate.
Now I love that the meat and cheese were prepared by Chef Peter out of their California winery! Also, the Estates Wine room is the only place you can purchase imported French Champagne I never woudl have guessed you could purchase that in the US! You can also purchase wine in The Estates Wine Room and join their wine club as well. I personally picked up a bottle of Seven Hills Merlot that paired amazingly with my T-Bone steak dinner at home. Be sure ot head on over-> here to learn more about the Estates Wine Room and see the events they are hosting as well!
Have you played a tourist in your city before?? What Show Me Seattle tour would you want to take?
Be sure to follow Show Me Seattle on Social Media to stay in the loop on all their tours and sales!!
Coffee and wine together? That’s all that I need! 😉 Looks like so much fun!
I know right? It was such a fun day and so tasty!
Ooo I didn’t know tho existed. Sounds fun!!
Oh how fun! I’ve done the Fran’s tasting with my kids, but this would be a fun Mom hangout!