Heineken Experience

So what does beer, cheese and mustard all have in common…The Dutch love all three of them to be consumed together. That’s right forget beer and nuts and no longer are pretzels going to be making anyone thirsty. Cheese is the way to go and its not really any specific type of cheese, it seems to be just cheese in general. So it was this love of cheese that persuaded me to visit the home of the most iconic beer in the world, Heineken. From the outside the building is quite modest, very similar to the bottle itself. A strong green with a red star to indicate its quality and to also remind the drinker of the brewer’s first gold medal.

It wasn’t until recent times did Heinekens really become a worldwide brand. Okay they have been making beer for a while, however the label and name have gone well beyond the beer itself, distinguishable as the red Coke-a-Cola label however as synonymous with brand quality as Mercedes Bends (and with advertising like this old gem, you can’t blame them) With hundreds of thousands of visitors each week the brewery have developed what could only be described as a 21st century museum dedicated to the Heineken brand and its global domination. The visiting public takes a 2-hour tour through the process of beer making, from the selection of the water to the virtual horse and cart ride through the streets of Amsterdam. (I also found out what is in those big fat metal things). Bars are dotted through out the tour to quench any weary travellers and all the young kids love the hydraulic bottling ride, where you take an exhilarating 3-minute journey as a bottle in the brewery. Once you have passed the Heineken DJ dance floor where you can practice your mixing skills, the tour comes to an end with two free drinks at the brewery’s bar. Beer flows freely here and the brewery has made sure everyone leaves a little tipsy and well informed.

Once the experience has ended Heineken has make it easy to tell everyone how enjoyable the experience was and after a couple of beers, it’s amazing how many of your mates email addresses you can remember, Unfortunately after about 4 beers it amazing how many you forget and I was only able to send myself a email post card (see postcard attached).