Athens Food Tours, part 1

And now, for something completely different...

This weekend Amy and I had the opportunity to take part in an Athens Food Tour, compliments of my brother, Mike.  For Christmas this year, Mike gave us, my parents, my other brother, and my sister-in-law a gift certificate for an Athens Food Tour.  Athens Food Tours (find them at http://www.athensfoodtours.com/)was begun last year by my brother's friend, Mary Charles, who is also co-owner of their joint pet-sitting business, Five Points Four Paws (http://www.fivepointsfourpaws.com/).

The seven of us and eight others met at the arch Saturday evening to begin the tour.  The first stop on the food tour was actually a vintage clothing store, Community.  Why, you might ask, would a food tour stop at a vintage clothing store?  Good question.  It turns out that this particular store sells hand-made chocolates in addition to the eclectic collection of clothing.  Flavors included dark chocolate caramel red sea salt, Grand Marnier truffle, and Jim Beam truffle.  Amy and I split the caramel sea salt and a Grand Marnier truffle and both were outstanding.  To wash down the treat, Mary Charles had picked up watermelon lemonade from Clocked, which was unique and quite delicious.  Our tour then continued down the street to the Jittery Joe's roasting house.

Jittery Joe's roasting house is quite possibly the best smelling place on earth.  Before you walk through the door, you are greeted by the wonderful aromatic scent of roasting coffee, which only increases in intensity as you enter and tour the building.  At this stop we were offered an opportunity to try various coffee-based beverages.  Mary Charles also provided several local beers to sample, including the Terrapin Sunray wheat beer, the special edition Georgia Theater brew, and an Abita strawberry beer.  Mary Charles acknowledged that Abita is not from Athens, or even from Georgia, but since Abita is a southeastern company, their strawberry beer is seasonal, and it happens to be one of her favorites, she decided to include it as a selection.  

To accompany the beverage selections provided at this location, Mary Charles had brought along perhaps my favorite food of the night, dates stuffed with goat cheese and celery from The National.  It is likely that I would never have ordered this from a menu, but it was one of the most delectable treats I have ever had.  I am craving one even now as I write this post.

Following our treats, we were taken on a tour of the facility by Charlie, the roaster for Jittery Joe's.  He showed us the raw coffee beans, talked us through the roasting process, and demonstrated the canning process by sealing my sister-in-law's phone in a coffee can, which she was happy about since it was her work phone.  Charlie explained some of the intricacies of the roasting process and then proceeded to demonstrate his skill as he smelled the roasting beans every few seconds waiting for a particular smell to disappear.  Before our next stop, Mary Charles informed us that the chaff from the coffee roasting process is a great substance for storing bulbs, in case anyone has a greener thumb than I.

More to come on the tour in my next post.