Saborea

is a culinary event that has been around for 10 years featuring world-class cooking and drinks. The event offers “foodies” the opportunity to indulge in local cuisine and trendy experiences, in addition to a wide variety of wines, beers, distilled spirits, and an assortment of desserts and coffees. As stated in their website “Gastronomy is a popular segment of the tourism activity and has helped place Puerto Rico on the tourism map as a destination for international foodies. Moreover, as a cultural expression, gastronomy contributes to local, regional, and national economic development. This culinary festival has become the largest and most important one in the Caribbean with thousands of tourists, visitors, and residents attending the event each year.”

Location

The Saborea is a 3 day event, usually help over the weekend. Day 1 is in a Hotel, and the other days are in the Balneario de Carolina. The area of the event in the Balneario is to the right in a grass area near the kids pool. You can get tickets directly in Saborea’s website or from the company in charge of selling tickets. They sell each day separately or have a “weekend pass”. The have a discount for Mastercard members, giveaways, and early bird tickets. Mastercard members also have the benefit of entering the tasting pavilion one hour early and skip the line when the event starts.

Price

Weekend pass $165 or 125 (if mastercard member)
Bubbles and Bites (day 1) $65 or 50 (if mastercard member)
Saborea Sunset (day 2) $65 or 50 (if mastercard member)
Saborea Oceanside Brunch $55 or 40 (if mastercard member)

Itinerary

Bubbles and Bites Day 1:

last year was in the Sheraton and this year in the Intercontinental. This day is during the night from 6pm-11pm. They serve champagne, prosecco and sparkling wine to accompany the “bites”. The bites are the best-selling or most famous dishes of the restaurants being showcased that night.

Saborea Sunset Day 2:

This day is held from 4pm-10pm in the Balneario. They have various areas:

Demo Kitchen Theater: The General Electric (GE) Kitchen Demo Theater, the most educational and entertaining stage of the weekend, where attendees will learn novel kitchen techniques and even a few secrets from the masters.
Tasting Pavilion: The Tasting Pavilion offers a showcase of Puerto Rico’s finest restaurants, plus a wide range of rum, wines, beer and distilled spirits. The tasting pavilion during this day opens at 7pm.
Libation Station: Enjoy a tasting of beer and spirits as well as a sampling of local and international fare.
Brews & Stews: A decadent exhibit and tasting of coffee and desserts — and a delectable opportunity to indulge in local treats and homegrown java. California Wineries: Special guests from California will provide generous sampling of the region’s finest harvests.

Saborea Oceanside Brunch Day 3:

This day is held from 11am-4pm also held in the Balneario. This day is like day 2, in fact some of the restaurants that are in day 2 stay for this day also. However, the menu is different because they serve brunch. The tasting pavilion opens at 12.

Recommendations:

If never been to Saborea: buy the weekend pass because each day they have different restaurants, food, and music. If you can’t afford the weekend pass a great alternative is going on Day 3.
Arrive early: the food will be gone in the last hour of each event
Wear comfortable shoes: the event does have tables and chairs but there will be a lot of walking to taste everything
On day 3 wear sunscreen
Get here on Uber: you can drink as much as you want, avoid paying parking and avoid searching for parking

My experience:

I really had a lot of fun. I bought the weekend pass because I have never been to this event and it was really worth it. The food was exquisite, the chefs were really nice and the drinks were refreshing. I could taste a lot of the dishes offered because they didn’t have gluten or lactose and if they did it could be easily removed. For instance removing the bread from burgers or sandwiches, not eating the tortilla and removing the cheese. There were some things that were off-limits for me like some egg rolls, french toast and desserts but what i did was eat a teeny tiny piece and gave the rest to my mom. I only do this because I have learned from my food allergies that I have a certain threshold of tolerance but I don’t take any risk so I just eat really small bite just to be safe.

More info on these years participants and cooks: info from website.