I’m kind of sad … but my 2013 Food and Wine Guinea Pig series has come to a sad, drunk conclusion.
Last Saturday, I hit Epcot with the dudes from At Disney Again and Disney Dweller, and I did a lot of eating and drinking. A lot.
Over the course of about five hours, we managed to knock out a fair number of sips and snacks before Epcot was overrun by frat brothers … and I needed to crawl into bed for a nice, long nap.
But before my epic slide into an Epcot International Food and Wine Coma (which I’m not ashamed to admit lasted over an hour longer than I intended and made me very late for dinner), the guys and I had an awesome, super fun time.
And I know you can’t wait to hear about it …
That’s me with drink number one: Carnaval Moscato White from the Brazil booth. For just $3, I happily enjoyed this dry, bubbly yum. We served it alongside the booth’s pork belly, and it was just the thing to cut through the salty, fatty dish. I’ve never had a moscato that’s sparkling, but I was very, very happy with this one. (Thanks to Jenn from Beers and Ears for the recommendation!)
Drink number two was taken at The Outpost: The Brown Elephant. Isn’t that photo cute?! Neither the elephant nor the drink are really brown, but we decided to go with it. And we couldn’t get enough of this delicious mix. I am not even sure what’s in it other than cream liqueur, but I don’t even care. It tasted like a cross between two of our favorite things: cream soda and egg cream. We were lucky that the glass was large and full, otherwise At Disney Again and I may have suffered our first fight at Disney World.
Here’s where my tale gets a little sad … At the Brewer’s Collection booth, I purchased Beer Flight #1. It started off promising (as the duo from Party Through the Parks and Jenn from Beers and Ears promised it would) with the Grapefruit Beer. I really quite loved it, and actually finished the entire serving. But it was mostly downhill from there. The Oktoberfest wasn’t terrible, but the Verum … well, At Disney Again called it “a bag of hell.” And the faces he made when he sipped the Dunkel? Hilarious! Personally, I didn’t hate the Dunkel–I thought it was very smooth and chocolatey for such a dark beer. But, truth be told, we actually gave the Oktoberfest, Verum and Dunkel to a passing drinking team after taking just a few sips. We’re just not beer drinkers.
We’ve arrived at what I have been calling the half-way point … first dessert! At the Hops & Barley booth, I ordered up an Iron Horse Fairy Tale Cuvee at the recommendation of Katie from Beers and Ears. I expected that this would be a no-brainer for me, but the sparkler was dry and bitter, not at all as sweet as I’d expect such a fruity sparkling wine to be. Not going to lie–we drank the whole thing, no question, but it just wasn’t what I was expecting. I wouldn’t order it again.
Over at my personal favorite Florida Local booth, I ordered up a Cigar City Brewing Company Florida Cracker White Ale, as recommended by Scott from Beers and Ears. This was, for me, the biggest beer winner of the day. Yum yum yum! By this point, At Disney Again wouldn’t even taste my beers, but that was okay with me, as that meant there was more of this citrusy delish wheat beer for me. Super refreshing, which was just what I needed at this fairly late stage of the game.
At this point in the day, I was meant to try the Hoegarrden from the Belgium booth, as suggested by Scott … but I just couldn’t beer anymore. So I decided to do a last minute sub for the Mimosa Royale at the Morocco booth. This certainly wasn’t anything special, but it went down smooth and kept my buzz going, helping me to power through the rest of the afternoon’s insanity … because by this point, Epcot was swiftly becoming overrun by drinking teams and my traveling companions were insisting that a Duffy meet and greet was in order.
Here I am, after five hours in the World Showcase. My hair doesn’t look so good, but I’d say I held up pretty well! And, fabulously and unknowingly, I saved the best for last: Pyramid Weiss Cream Beer. This spicy wheat ale totally won me over, even with its thick, fuzzy head. I just loooooved how the creamy texture made it feel like a dessert! Unfortunately, shortly after this photo was taken, I accidentally kicked the cup over. And thus my stint as an Epcot International Food and Wine Guinea Pig was over.
Would I do it again? Only if you suckers were paying for the drinks!
Seriously, though: the whole thing was really fun, and I was glad to try new things and push the limits of my taste buds. This was also my first Food and Wine experience with At Disney Again. As such, his tastes ran into my orders, so I got to try a lot of new-to-me things that way, too.
Do I think this exercise will help me be more adventurous in the future? Well … I’ll definitely order more wheat beers, but in general, I think I’ll still steer clear of beer. (Sorry, guys!)
I can say, though, that At Disney Again and I will absolutely be ordering The Brown Elephant again. Seriously. We’re going to serve them at every function we host from here on forward. (Who’s got the recipe?) And as a bonus: I think it’s available at The Outpost all year long! Yum!
Special Thanks: All of the photos in this post were taken and edited by At Disney Again. He is an amazing photographer and also happens to be a wonderful, awesome boyfriend. Not only did he wait in super long food lines for me, but he wasn’t even mad when I overslept after this adventure and made us late for dinner with his friends. Thanks, boo!
