Trip to Waitrose
By Josh T (Y6, eco-council)
The Waitrose school trip may not sound very exciting but you would be very much surprised. The trip consisted of us walking to the Lexicon, which was just a quick twenty minute walk; having a tour of Waitrose; taste testing and some other exciting events which I will talk about in just a second but first the walk.
The walk does have too much to be said about it so instead I will talk about the great care and safety regulations put in place to keep us (eco council) safe. Firstly, the teachers took no chances and we all had to wear high visibility jackets. Also, it was key that nobody walked on the edges of the path coming up to any main roads the teachers made sure that one of them was at the front. Now enough with the boring bit onto the fun stuff.
If you have never been to a super market (I’m sure you have), then you’re missing out. There are aisles and aisles of a wide variety of products. To help us with our tour, we had the most lovely, charismatic guide, who led us to the taste testing room I have to say (although I’m not an interior designer) it wasn’t the most exciting room. It was just office chairs around an oval table but it wasn’t the looks, it was about the taste. First, pineapple bitter-sweet then it was melon—there was cantaloupe, honeydew and watermelon. We talked about how getting fresh melon not pre-cut melon helps plastic and cost awareness. Next we tried blueberries and raspberries. I was very excited to try them but was rather underwhelmed as they tasted watery. Next was new favourite—dates! They were soft, fruity and with a hint of caramel. They were so tasty I ended up eating two. The next thing was something to wash it down with there was a mystery drink: it was dark and red with no labels, it smelled strange and like vegetables
with just a taste I instantly knew what it was beetroot juice, now I never knew this was a thing you could buy that was all the tasting. And it was very delicious.
They then took us to the freezer. A cold wasteland to store their frozen goodies; from frozen pizzas to frozen pea pods. The walk in fridge was set to a chilly –23 degrees Celsius. We were allowed to stay in for 2 minutes until you could hear your teeth chattering. By the time we left, my nose hairs had frozen over then we went to a slightly warmer 9 degrees Celsius, this is what they use to keep food fresh before it goes into the store front. Then we went out to the store front and we were shown where produces is kept and if
it is or isn’t good for you. We were going to now do a scavenger hunt but were having too much fun and ran out of time. They gave us some fruit and we went to ear our lunch. In total this trip was a ton of fun and we all enjoyed it.
Thank you Waitrose for letting us have a tour.