The first day my wife and moved into Fort Collins we headed to a local brewpub where I naively asked "what is Fat Tire?" Without skipping a beat the waitress replied "you're not from around here." That was almost 17 years ago today when New Belgium and it's flagship Fat Tire (among other amazing brews) where established rising stars of the bustling Colorado craft beer scene. Today, after 30 years in business, New Belgium announced the "in the works sale" to Little Little World Beverages, a global craft arm of Lion, an Australian beverage and food company that is a subsidiary of Japanese beverage giant Kirin.
To sum up the DME scouting team in one word: tenacious. We had a list of 25 breweries in the greater Portland, Oregon area to hit. We had two days. We hit 15 of them with a bonus Rum Bar (literally the namesake) to break it up. Hey, when Pleepleus wants Rum, you get Rum. Let's break down the Portland journey:
If you're thinking "these are otter pops with booze in them!" then you're on the right track. Mix the nostalgia fun of Otter Pops and the timeless fun of Summertime frozen cocktails and you have Costco's hit Skinny Freezer Pops. Yep, last year's rage returns to the freezer section at your nearest Costco!
This author has tried acid, once. Long story short, the world became pleasantly animated and colorful as if I was smack dab in the middle of Wonderland with Alice. Watching the teaser video below of Up Front Brewing's new beer can idea of using augmented reality to animate their beer can designs immediately brought me back to that trip.
Hello Kitty's reach seems to have no boundaries and while the adorable line of wine isn't new, it is being joined by an award winning Pinot Noir and a limited edition Sparkling Rosé along with a bottle redesign across the board. Don't judge, we know many adults who get warm and fuzzy over the mere sight of Hello Kitty, so this is a surefire "low-hanging fruit" gift idea.