Review: Cookie Nook Holiday Kitchen at Epcot Festival of the Holidays 2017

Cookie Nook arrives at the “Festive Center” for the Festival of the Holidays this year. You might recognize it as the Odyssey Building during the three days that Epcot isn’t hosting one of its various Festivals. This is Craft Beer during Food/Wine.

Here, you’ll find a “healthy” assortment of cookies, in addition to a variety of beers and wines along with the Hot Cocoa.

You can peruse the selection of cookies prior to making a commitment, but you might find that it’s easier to pick up one of each.

As one does.

And did.

Warm Apple Fritter with Cinnamon Ice Cream and Warm Caramel Sauce – $4.75

This was a real winner and may be my choice for best non-beer item at the Nook. The cinnamon ice cream tastes freshly made and the caramel sauce is sweet and comforting. The fritter underneath is light and crispy with a nice tart apple flavor. Really good.

Taste: 9/10

Value: 8/10

Snowflake Sugar Cookie – $4

This is just about what you would expect, though it at least tasted freshly baked with sweet icing and a firm and flavorful cookie underneath. It’s not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m not sure why you’d pay $4 for it either. At least it’s not served in Morocco, where it would be a quarter of the size and cost $3 more.

Taste: 5/10

Value: 3/10

Snickerdoodle Cookie: Sugar Cookie rolled in Cinnamon Sugar – $3.50

This was a pretty forgettable entry; I’d only pick it up if you’ll die if you don’t immediately eat a snickerdoodle. Which is something that can happen.

Taste: 3/10

Value: 3/10

Double Chocolate Peppermint Cookie – $3.50

This was better – a real chocolaty flavor with a nice crunch from all of the sugar crystals and cute peppermint sprinkles. It still seems like a stretch to actually order one for exactly tree fiddy, but I don’t think you’ll be particularly disappointed.

Gingersnap Cookie with Cream Cheese Icing and Cranberry Jam, $4.50

I really enjoyed this one and appreciated that they tried to do more than offering “just” another cookie. The gingersnap was perfectly chewy with a nice ginger flavor. It was accompanied by an intensely sweet cream cheese icing that was cut a bit by the tart cranberry jam on top. I thought it all worked really nicely together and it was my second favorite option here.

Taste: 7/10

Value: 5/10

Sachertorte: Chocolate Cake with Apricot Jam and Dark Chocolate Glaze – $4.75

That’s it on the bottom right. The torte is an incredibly firm cake with an intense dark chocolate flavor, but I would have liked more apricot and cream flavor to help cut the chocolate flavor. I’m not sure it’s special enough to go out of your way for, but it’s here. Just like this website.

Taste: 5/10

Value: 4/10

Decorated Gingerbread Cookie – $4

That’s it in the lower left with what looks like an unfortunate bite out of the poor gingerbread person’s undercarriage. Unless you have an aversion to cream cheese frosting and cranberry, then I think that’s the way to go, but this is a perfectly rudimentary offering if you prefer a gingerbread cookie that’s more straightforward. Just take the picture before you take the bite. Lesson learned.

Taste: 5/10

Value: 3/10

Holiday Tree Sugar Cookie – $4

In the upper right above, the sugar cookie would taste great alongside a holiday meal at home, but there’s “literally” nothing compelling about it. A perfectly good cookie though.

Taste: 5/10

Value: 4/10

Chocolate Chunk Cookie – $3

That’s it in the upper left. It’s the same as most other chocolate chip cookies on property, which is to say just fine, but nothing special.

Taste: 3/10

Value: 3/10

Holiday Beer Flight – $9 with Brew Hub Pumpkin Spice Dunkelweiss, Playalinda Brewing Company Sparkling Christmas Coffee Blonde, and Central 28 Beer Company Joy From the World Holiday Dubble.

Like the flight we saw at the American Holiday Kitchen in the United States Pavilion, this is an assortment of beers with a lot of interesting flavors. Pick one up if you’re into beer.

Cranberry Sprite Punch with Pear Vodka – $9

This tastes like you would expect with a healthy pour of pear vodka making for a particularly festive drink. The pear chunks in the bottom were unexpected and made things a little more interesting. It’s not a “must buy” but it’s also not a super-sweet, frozen cocktail or another coffee drink. It’s not as interesting as the Pomegranate Mule from last year’s Festival of the Arts, but it’s a decent entry and we enjoyed it.

Florida Orange Groves Sparkling Cranberry Wine – $6

This is a light, crisp, sweet wine with a pleasant tartness to each sip. It complements the various cookies well.

Overall, the Cookie Nook is worth a stop for the air-conditioning/heat/cover, plus the fact that Disney holiday shorts play on-screen. The Warm Apple Fritter and Gingersnap Cookie are the most interesting items, in my opinion, and the beer flight is another good opportunity to enjoy some sub-par Florida beers. I may never leave.