We continue on from Hawai’i.
Canada returns in the same spot in front of its namesake Pavilion. On the promenade, it’s the booth that you’ll pass after Citrus Blossom.
Both popular food items return for the same money as last year. This may be the lowest number of year-over-year price increases that we see across the Festival. The Beer is a holdover from Flower and Garden, the Merlot returns from last year, and the Inniskillin, which is misspelled on the menu, reappears from a couple of years ago.
Contents
Canadian Cheddar Cheese Soup served with a (Prop & Peller) Pretzel Roll – $5.25
This is a satisfying, rich, creamy, decadent, delicious cheese soup served with a soft, chewy pretzel roll that is best dipped. This is one of the most popular, highest-rated items at the Festival every year. Order one per person and forget that they’re 5+ dollars each.
Taste: 9/10
Value: 4/10
“Le Cellier” Wild Mushroom Beef Filet Mignon with Truffle-Butter Sauce – $8.25
Quality on this typically varies as no two pieces of beef are exactly the same, but I think Disney has improved quality control quite a bit in the last couple of years. Or at least the six steaks that we’ve purchased over the last three years have all been lean, tender, and cooked to a perfect medium. The sauce remains rich and creamy with a real earthy component from the truffle and grilled mushrooms that adorn the top of each piece. Presentation has also improved with the sauce neatly ladled over the meat along with the herb topper. It’s very “Feast” from the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival. At $8+, it remains an expensive proposition, but it’s “only” about $2 more than other beef items for a much higher quality piece of meat.
Taste: 8/10
Value: 6/10
Collective Arts Brewing Blackberry Fruit Beer – $4.50 or $8.50
We’ve seen a lot of beers from Collective Arts Brewing over the last couple of Festivals. This time, we have their Blackberry Fruit Beer, which is a tart, blackberry-forward beer that tastes more like a cider than what we’ve seen here in the past. That’s it on the right as part of a now-unavailable flight.
Inniskillin Ice Wine – $14
The thing about ice wine is that it’s expensive. A 375ml (half the size of a standard bottle) of this will set you back $50+ at the store and it’s among the sweetest liquids you’ll probably ever taste. So Canada only serves about an ounce for the money. It’s a potentially nice opportunity to try the intense, apple-cider-like wine that will coat your mouth for some time to come, but it’s awfully expensive for an ounce served outside in Florida and may be a little harder to adequately savor than you’d like. If you’ve never tried ice wine, you’ll be surprised by how sweet and viscous it is.
Château Des Charmes Merlot – $7
Two years ago, Canada served the winery’s Equuleus Red Blend, which was a fantastic bottle of full-bodied, ripe, and luscious red wine with black currant and dark cherry notes followed by a lingering finish of cedar, vanilla, and chocolate. Their Merlot is not that, tasting either musty or rustic depending on your mood. A big part of the problem may be how Disney handles the wine. This one would benefit from some air, which is not something you’re going to get as the bottles sit out in the heat. I might recommend trying it for around $4, but it’s $3 overpriced, even for the Festival.
Canada is always popular with two of the more accessible food items, along with a solid fruity beer and an opportunity to try an expensive ounce of Ice Wine.
Thanks for the reviews, looking forward to more!