It is not a bad way to spend a Saturday – eating and drinking your way around Canberra on a mystery tour organised by the capital's tourism body – and it is best to start it with coffee.
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That was the weekend for a group of food and wine photographers and bloggers who took part in the latest round of VisitCanberra's Human Brochure campaign.
They were taken on a mystery trip to cafes, vineyards and restaurants across the region where they were invited to taste wine, drink coffee and sample local produce and dishes.
The Human Brochure promotional campaign features 101 Canberrans, dubbed "local humans" by the tourism group, who will have the chance to experience a range of activities, restaurants, wineries, culture, sport and other events around the capital.
The idea is that the "local humans", who are divided into categories such as food and wine, family fun and outdoor lovers, will tweet, blog and post photos about everything they do for the campaign. It culminates in the local humans using their new knowledge to organise a big weekend in Canberra for friends or family members who will be whisked to the capital by VisitCanberra.
It was an early start for the food and wine group at the Cupping Room in Civic on Saturday morning, where Ona Coffee founder Sasa Sestic and his team talked them through the art of cupping, or assessing coffee through its taste and aroma, similar to wine tasting.
There was a prize for the best coffee slurp and a chance to taste Mr Sestic's latest coffee creations, including a raspberry coffee concoction that involved dry ice, a tiny teapot of raspberry syrup and wine glasses.
Photographer Jonathan McFeat and Sabeen Saleem, a lifestyle and food blogger, were both on their first 101 Local Humans event.
"I've been really jealous looking at the photos on Facebook and Instagram of everyone on the other trips," he said.
Ms Saleem said she had particularly enjoyed Mr Sestic's cupping demonstration.
"As a big coffee lover, to see somebody so involved in this process and so passionate about it, I've never really heard anybody talk at such expanse about coffee," she said.
Both Mr McFeat and Ms Saleem said they were keen to debunk the myth of Canberra being a boring place devoid of a great food scene.
"I have some very inner city Sydney friends who are food snobs and I'm hoping to show them that Canberra can hold its own in terms of food, wine and coffee,' Mr McFeat said. ''And this is a great start."
Other stops on Saturday's mystery trip included the Poachers Pantry restaurant, the much-lauded Clonakilla winery and the Four Winds Winery at Murrumbateman.
