Last year, I was treated to a fantastic night of scotch tasting at the Hopscotch festival, which ran November 11 - 16th, 2008. Ginger Beer Man won tickets for us, and we must have sampled about a dozen premium scotches along with tasty bits of food, some beers, and even a tequila.
Pre-sale tickets will be on sale for this year's event on October 1st. Just sign up for their email newsletter on the website, and the event runs November 16 - 22nd, 2009.
The grand tasting event tickets give you admission to the Thursday or Friday main tasting event, five tasting tokens ($1 each) and a little souvenir tasting glass to use as you hop from booth to booth. You buy more tokens at the event, and there is even a complimentary shuttle afterwards (though after all that scotch, it was a great night to waddle off happily to the Main St. skytrain station on our own, from the Rocky Mountaineer Station off terminal (near Home Depot). Various seminars are also included during the evening, so if those interest you, get your name on the list early on in the evening. We wound up needing all the time to make our way around the booths.
Last year, my first year at the fest, was a spectacular event. Some of my favourite tastes of the night were:
- an old single malt by the name of Penderyn (misplaced my notes, but I think this was my favourite)
- fall off the bone ribs made with Jack Daniels and Rickard's beer.
I highly recommend the event. I remember the night fondly.
