Western Oz Adventures: Swan Valley

One of the highlights of my trip to Perth was going to Swan Valley. Jex was able to visit it during one of his work trips with some of his office mates and brought home a lot of nice goodies. He wanted to take me there but a prerequisite of going around Swan Valley is a car (or some sort of transportation to bring you around). After summoning my Google-fu I found several Swan Valley tours that we could take but eventually chose the Speed Grazing tour with Taste Bud Tours.

(Note: huge photo dump ahead)

It was raining heavily on the day of our tour and I was already preparing myself for the chance that the tour would be cancelled or postponed. I monitored my email but no notice so we went to the pick-up point. We had trouble locating the pick-up point because we confused the Wellington Tourist Coach Stand with the Wellington Bus Station. We eventually found it and waited in the shed while the rain continued pouring.

After a while the Taste Bud Tours coach bus arrived with Loris, our tour guide, behind the wheel. She did a short introduction and briefing for the tour and we were off!

Our first stop was Yahava Koffee Works. I'm more of a tea person but I do appreciate coffee and its lovely aroma. My parents are heavy coffee drinkers so I was looking forward to getting something for them.

They offer barista training courses. Look at that cute classroom!

This is Pierre

Pierre gave us a background of Yahava, talked about their coffee beans, and let us taste some of their different coffees and syrups.

They have a good variety of coffee and tea...accessories? peripherals? Whatever. They have lots of those things for sale in the store, too.

The store smelled amazing, by the way. I asked them for their strongest and boldest coffee beans and bought a pack to bring home to my parents. They know their coffee and products so if you have a question just ask.

Note the dark, brooding sky in background

Next stop was Cape Lavender, which offers different lavender-themed items ranging from skin products to food.

We got to taste different types of lavender-infused marmalade and jams.

The place has a few tables inside for people who want to hang around.

Freshly baked scones with cream and lavender jam

After several shots of coffee from Yahava it was nice to have something solid in my tummy. We were given scones fresh from the oven to have with some cream and jam. It was glorious! I wanted to have all the scones to myself but I had to share with other people in the tour. Hot scones + cream + lavender jam = awesome breakfast.

Lavender wine

Too early in the day for alcohol? Never! I loved the lavender wine and I am kind of regretting it now that I didn't buy a bottle to bring home.

Right next door was Mago Coffee where I got a small pack of Frangelico-flavored coffee beans for the parents. They smelled really really good, which convinced me to buy them, haha. My parents loved them. The beans didn't just smell good but had great flavor when brewed. Mago Coffee has tons of other unique coffee bean flavors available like Swiss chocolate, Irish cream, cinnamon hazelnut, and amaretto.

Next, we went to Windarra Honey, a quaint little place run by really nice people.

You can buy honey in tubs!

The owner explained their business and how they work with their bees. We got to taste the different types of the raw honey they make. In Manila honey usually comes pasteurized while raw honey is expensive and a bit difficult to come by.

Aside from edible honey they also make honey-related cosmetic products like hand cream and lip balm. We got a bottle of honey for our each of our families.

Our next stop was ice cream! Oggie's Ice Cream Cafe. Rain or shine, hot or cold weather, I will have ice cream! They make their own Italian gelato in interesting flavors like mascarpone & caramelized fig, ginger/gingernut buscuit, and apple pie, which is their best seller.

I'm not a fan of fig but this tasted pretty good

I got a scoop of ginger/gingernut biscuit while Jex had strawberry. He just loves his berry-flavored ice cream.

Maggie's Place is a fresh produce farm stall run by Maggie Edmonds.

Maggie entertained us herself and let us taste different sauces and chutneys that they make from scratch.

We loved the Indian chutney and bought a bottle to bring home.

Unlike most Swan Valley tours the Speed Grazing tour mainly focuses on food but we did visit one winery, the Windy Creek Estate.

Kelly (girl in the photo above) was awesome and let us try their different wines. I didn't used to like wine but I've learned to appreciate and like it. We got to try so many different types of wines that gave me a nice buzz and the need to go pee. I decided to get a bottle of Liqueur Muscat, which I liked the best during my speed taste test, to bring home.

We went to Mondo Nougat next. Jex brought home a bag of soft nougat from them before and my family loved it. They make their nougat in the store and you can even see the kitchen through a big glass window.

Vroom, vroom

Aside from nougat bars they also have these creme de nougat spreads. They didn't offer any free taste for these (and I didn't ask if they did) so I was hesitant to buy one. We, however, did get to try their different nougat bar flavors. The ones Jex brought home before were only the soft chocolate nougat so I didn't know they had other flavors. I loved the lemon one so I decided to get a huge assorted pack of nougat plus one small chocolate nougat only pack. My family (mostly my mom) finished all the nougat in less than 2 weeks. Crazy!

Our last stop was Whistler's Chocolate Company. I am not really a big chocolate lover, just a dessert lover in general, but it was still very interesting going around their store. They have so many different forms of chocolate like barks, bars, brittles, licorice, Easter bunnies, and more.

Free taste

There were so many cute chocolate-themed things around the store. There was even something that looked like a chocolate terrarium the size of a big aquarium. I tried to take a photo but the lighting in the store wasn't that good so I didn't get any good shots.

So, that ended our speed grazing tour Swan Valley. We ended up bringing home bags of goodies from the different stores we visited. The tour was a bit expensive (especially when converted to Philippine Pesos) but I swear it was all worth it. The difference is having a great tour guide who not only gave us a great background story of the area but personally knew the people who owned and ran the different places we visited.

Me with the tour guide and operator of Taste Bud Tours, Loris