Kevtoberfest #7 Mudgee
In the last few years Mudgee, in central New South Wales, has gained a well-deserved reputation as a food and wine lover’s paradise. With more than 40 wineries and many local food producers, it’s easy to fill both the larder and the cellar in Mudgee. With so many choices we could have eaten our way around Mudgee all day, but with Kevtoberfest looming, we had just three destinations in mind.
At Baker Williams Distillery, delicious liqueurs have been crafted on site since 2012. The distiller was generous with his samples and we tasted Limoncello and Orancello, fresh and zingy and flavoured by locally grown citrus. My purchase though was a bottle of the distillery’s signature creation – Butterscotch Schnapps, smooth, sweet and irresistible.
Honey in 25 different varieties is produced at Mudgee Honey Haven. Ironbark, stringy bark and yellow box honey have been flavoured by the blooms of the surrounding bushland, while chilli, lavender and strawberry honey have added ingredients. We sampled many of the products before selecting two – creamed cinnamon honey and ginger honey. But the greatest temptation was the mead, a brew of fermented honey with its origins in ancient Greece. Glen chose the Spiced Mead while my pick was the Honey Mead. (I was so busy tasting honey I forgot to take photos.)
Our afternoon ended at the Mudgee Brewing Company, located in town in a 100 year old wool store once owned by the neighbouring Anglican Church.
While Glen ordered a sampler of eight different beers, I opted for a warming hot chocolate, conveniently accompanied by a generous slice of upside down pineapple coconut cake.
Glen’s brewery purchases included a bottle of the famous Mudgee Mud. Originally made by the Federal Brewery, the label “mud” comes from a time when poor quality water was used and there was more sediment than beer in the bottles! Luckily, today’s Mudgee Mud doesn’t need straining.
While we put our jars of honey in the pantry to have on toast for breakfast, the schnapps, mead and beer were added to the Kevtoberfest stash, for sharing on the party weekend.
Road Trip Tally: Breweries 5/Craft shops 1
Kevtober? I know nothing! I’ve missed something or forgotten something – both equally possible! The Mudgee Mud raised a giggle – but I’d be on your side of the table with the hot chocolate and something tasty to accompany…… Mudgee sounds like a great place to visit!
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Pauline, you need to go back to the start of this series to learn the origins of kevtoberfest. https://theeternaltraveller.wordpress.com/2017/12/05/setting-the-scene/ It’s quite possible you missed it with all your dramas at the end of last year. Never fear, you can easily catch up. 😀
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Heavens Carol, I had no idea I’d missed so many posts – I’m kind of glad I got to catch up here – that was a lovely trip – you make it all so interesting with your descriptions and photos. You travelled a vast distance, but covered such a small part of Australia – such a great country!! I hope we get to join the party before the series is over! 😀
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Oh yes, the party is coming up, but we still have to go through the rest of NSW before we get there. Fasten your seat belt!
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What? I have to choose between a flight of craft beer and a hot chocolate, whipped cream, and upside down pineapple coconut cake? I can’t do it, I just can’t. But…if I had to, the hot chocolate, cream and cake would win out. Sugar always does. Looks like you had a wonderful outing. 🙂
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No reason why you couldn’t have it all, Judy. 🙂 The cake was so good – and included most of the food groups: dairy, fruit, grains…
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I think I would have preferred your choice to Glen’s (but don’t tell Glen)
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I’m not a beer drinker and I didn’t want a cider, so hot chocolate and cake was a great alternative. The hardest part was deciding which cake. They had several delicious ones.
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I think my son would like to accompany Glen on his outings. 😀
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He’d have fun for sure!
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He got quite into his Cornish craft beers when down here!
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So did Mr ET when we were there. We spent a whole morning at the brewery at St Austell. They do nice cake and coffee too. 🙂
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Haha… we drove past there on the way home from Fowey, but too late to visit. He was gutted!
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Well, he’ll just have to come and visit again.
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Butterscotch schnapps 😋
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It’s yummy!
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You had me at Butterscotch Schnapps! 🙂 🙂
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Oh Jo, it’s soooo delicious.
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I’d be with Glen on the beer. That looks amazing!
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He enjoyed it!
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What a fun adventure this has been. Glen looks to be enjoying his beer samples. Those honeys sound delicious, especially the creamed cinnamon honey. Butterscotch Schnapps also sounds fabulous!
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It was all delicious, Cathy. There are still many more posts to go with this road trip. I’m only halfway through the first week. 🙂
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I bet it was, Carol! I’d like a road trip like this. How many weeks were you on the trip? I’m glad to know someone is as behind as I am. I still have four more days to write about in Prague and two days in Japan, and I’ve done nothing with my trips to Cape May and Nashville. So much to do!! Well, I guess it doesn’t matter how long it takes to post, until you get a backlog that is. That’s where I am now, backlogged!
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This road trip was three weeks. When I wrote the series about our five week trip to England, it took a year! That’s okay, I’ll just keep doing a post week until I reach the end.
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That’s the way to do it, Carol. We just keep posting till we’re done. At least we don’t have any deadlines, except for self-imposed ones!
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I promised you a photo of our caravan, Cathy. https://theeternaltraveller.files.wordpress.com/2018/01/20170919_0813050.jpg
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Very nice, Carol. I dream of having a setup like that once Mike retires. Do you take showers in the camper or at a campground? I will need to explore this one of these days. Thanks for sharing this. 🙂
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This caravan doesn’t have an ensuite but if we upgrade, the next one will.
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I’d think that would be a lot more expensive too!
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Yes, but if we’re going to do a lot more caravan trips in retirement it will be worth it. We’re not getting any younger you know! 🙂
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Believe me, I know all about it. When Mike retires, I’m pushing for sure for a RV of some kind!
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Your pineapple coconut cake looks wonderful. That would be my choice also. And hot chocolate is always a winner. Cinnamon butter is delicious on warm dinner rolls. We love road trips and are enjoying your series on this part of Australia.
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It was a bit cool that afternoon so hot chocolate was a winner for me.
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I absolutely love Mudgee and Bakers Williams is so great too! 😀
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I would love to go again and spend more time. There is a nice National Park nearby.
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It must have been hard to choose just three places to focus on, but I’d say you made the right ones. 🙂 The hot chocolate and the pineapple/coconut upside down cake would have had my vote too. Yum, yum.
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The cake was excellent. They had several delicious looking ones and that was a difficult choice too.
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You have made me hungry and thirsty in a jungle lodge where it’s even a struggle to obtain red wine! (first world moans here I know…) I never made it Mudgee while in Oz but I guess it’s another place to add to my list for when I return one day 🙂
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Ooops, sorry. 🙂 Mudgee is definitely worth a visit.
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Good thing I’ve just eaten otherwise I’d be drooling! Love the sound of all those liqueurs and as for that mead, yum. Haven’t had mead in years. A delicious post!
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Miriam, the liqueurs were delicious and I just had to have a bottle of the schnapps. Yum!
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Oh yummm, that sounds divine.
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What an interesting place. Wow 8 beers, they would produce a glow…
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They were just 4 oz glasses, so not a big serve of each. But even that would make me glow! Mr ET could handle it though. 🙂
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