Epcot International Food & Wine Festival is back!! We had so much fun yesterday exploring the different booths and seeing all that Food & Wine had to offer. Not to mention the parks were DEAD which was awesome because it meant not waiting in long lines for food! My plan for food and wine is to try at least one thing from each of the pavilions and I will be doing a series of blog posts to talk about what we liked and didn’t like along the way, but before we get into food, let’s talk about some of the non-food activities you can enjoy that are part of food and wine.
Right now for Passholders the chef Minnie Passholder Magnet is available. We got ours over by electric umbrella, where they will scan your magic band and look at your ID. On October 15th this will switch to a Remy Magnet, so make sure you get the Minnie one while you can! Passholders can also snag the chef Minnie Coaster Set after 4 visits to Food & Wine.
I am a big fan of the Disney World Scavenger Hunts, so we made sure we did the Remy one. I liked that this year they did more to find than just one at each country. We had a lot of fun with it and the prize is awesome! You get to pick one of four cups: either Minnie, Mickey, Figment, or Remy. I, of course, chose Minnie. It costs $6.99 to do the scavenger hunt and once you finish the cup is free!
Now let’s get to the main point of this post… FOOD AND WINE! In previous years I would end up only trying a couple booths each visit because while the portions are smaller than normal Disney portions, they are still a decent size and after a couple you will be full. This year we did it different. We split each dish between four people, which ended up giving each of us only a couple bites, which worked out great because we were able to try more things. 
I forgot to get pictures of everything we ate, but I will make sure that if I have a picture I post it! Our first stop was The Alps, located just outside the Norway Pavilion. We tried the Warm Raclette Swiss Cheese as well as the Blueberry and Almond Frangipane Tart and the Frozen Rosé. I LOVED the Swiss Cheese, but I will say it is pretty strong, so if you are a fan of more mild cheeses, I would probably sit this one out. While I thought the tart was kind of bland, I was apparently the only one, because everyone else thought it was delicious. The one thing me and my mom both agreed on was that the Frozen Rosé was AMAZING and it is definitely one of my favorite things of the day!
If you are a seafood fan, do yourself a favor and make sure you check out Coastal Eats. We ordered the Lump Crab Cake and the Baked Shrimp and Scallop Scampi Dip. I honestly cannot say enough good things about either of these dishes. While both were amazing, the crab cake was definitely my favorite. I would say it is in my top 3 and I would absolutely order it again! Coastal Eats is located outside of World Showcase, between the Character Spot and Journey Into Your Imagination. You can find it in a section called “Next Eats”.
Anyone who knows me knows that if there is any kind of apple dessert, I have to try it. Germany was our next stop where we ordered the Apple Strudel. Holy moly is it delicious! It is served with a warm vanilla sauce and wasn’t nearly as heavy as I expected it to be.
Our next stop was Hops & Barley, located near the Funnel Cake stand at the American Adventure. Here, we ordered the New Brunswick Slider and the Freshly Baked Carrot Cake. The slider is slow-braised beef brisket with horseradish cream, crispy fried onions on a potato roll with pickled vegetables on the side. While it was really good, I don’t know that I loved it enough to order it again. The carrot cake I would order again in a heartbeat!
We took the next couple pavilions off because we needed a little break from stuffing our faces, but picked back up in France where we tried the La Passion Martini Slushy and the Creme Brûlée. The creme brûlée is so good. What sets it apart is the chocolate-hazelnut cream flavor. I would absolutely order it again! The slushy was made from vodka, Gray Goose Le Citron, Cranberry, and Passion Fruit Juice. I really enjoyed it, but it was more alcohol heavy and if I had to pick one frozen drink based on flavor alone, I would still pick the Frozen Rosé at The Alps.
I was super excited to see Hard Cider properly represented at Food & Wine this year. I am not a beer person, and while I like wine, I am by no means knowledgeable enough about it to order the right thing. Cider is normally my go to, so to see an entire pavilion based around Cider was really exciting, but I was somewhat disappointed by the Ciders chosen.
Appleseed Orchard is located in the Canada Pavilion just behind the Kid Kot station. What is really nice about it is that it is inside and air conditioned, so we got a nice chance to cool off and I chatted with some really nice people in there. One thing I was really excited to see is one of my personal favorite cider brands from Wisconsin, Ciderboys, was on the menu. I chose to order the cider flight which was the Ciderboys Lemon Cello Hard Cider, Woodchuck Hard Cider Spiced Apple, and the Collective Arts Brewing Cherry Apple Hard Cider. I love Ciderboys, but I wish they would have picked a different one. The Ciderboys peach and raspberry are both amazing and the lemon doesn’t even come close. To me, it was a poor choice. The other ciders were decent, but to me they were not anything special. Honestly I probably won’t visit this pavilion again.
At Refreshment Port, you will find Duck Confit Poutine with Fig Demi Sauce and Brie Cheese Fondue. FOR SURE order it. Just make sure you have people to share with! The portion is HUGE and it is super rich. Between four people we didn’t even make a dent in it. The refreshment port is located when you enter World Showcase on your way to Canada.
Shimmering Sips is another one located near the entrance to World Showcase. I was really excited to try the Key Lime Mimosa, but I will say it was the most disappointing drink of the day. I am a Florida girl. Anything Key Lime I will jump at the opportunity. The Key Lime mimosa tastes like straight cranberry juice. They do have a cheesecake flight there that is really good and they have a strawberry soft-serve that I am looking forward to trying next time we go.
The last pavilion we tried was the Chocolate Studio. I ordered the Dark Chocolate Raspberry Tart and I LOVED IT. I definitely recommend it for my chocolate lovers out there, but I do want to go back to try their Liquid Nitro Chocolate-Almond Truffle!
So that was our first day of Food & Wine! I look forward to going back and telling you all about the other foods we try! What was your favorite dish at food and wine? Let me know! 
Marvelous Mrs. Morin 