Drinking before 8am feels a bit strange unless you're a university student (in which case, at some point it becomes almost mandatory). However, I had the rather strange experience last Thursday of sitting bleary-eyed in businesswear at Ralph's in Mt Eden, beer in one hand and a coffee in the other. If you're a fan of both beverages, I recommend you try the latest offering from Hamilton brewers Good George - the Good George Coffee IPA. I'm not a big beer drinker and there always seems something not quite right about coffee or chocolate flavoured beer, but this was pretty good. A selection of guests also attended the breakfast and coffee-beer event where Good George and Rocket Coffee's collaboration was launched. The morning was kicked off by emcee Jesse Mulligan who revealed his introduction to the stand-up comedy arena. A fresh-faced Waikato uni student, Mulligan entered a stand-up comedy gig on a whim and won, not realising the 'winner' was then required to compete on a national stage against other universities. He dutifully turned up, but came a respectable 8th losing out to a little-known group from Victoria University called Flight of the Conchords. The Conchords went on to win several international awards while Mulligan helped launch a great brew. "We've both had our successes," Mulligan noted.
Breakfast is best
Dairy forecasts may be up but Fonterra isn't relaxing, cashing in on its dairy brand Anchor's sponsorship of the New Zealand Olympic Team. The company hosted a breakfast last week at its Fanshawe St headquarters where guests could grill the athletes on their eating and exercise habits. A healthy breakfast was served while pole vaulter Eliza McCartney, Olympic gold medallist sailors Polly Powrie and Jo Aleh, trampolinist Dylan Schmidt and 2012 Olympics hepthathlete Sarah Cowley talked about their journey to Rio and how they prepare for events. Also speaking was NZ Olympic Committee chief executive Kereyn Smith and High Performance Sport NZ nutritionist Jeni Pearce. The event was held as part of Fonterra's breakfast campaign, encouraging Kiwis to see breakfast as an important meal of the day rather than an optional one. McCartney mixed up one of her morning meals - a chocolate berry smoothie, much to the enjoyment of the guests.
