Review: Farm Fresh 2017 Epcot Food and Wine Festival

Farm Fresh is the first Marketplace you’ll run into on the walk towards Mexico. Greece takes up residence on this side of World Showcase this year a little further up.

Both food items are new with the Macaroni ‘n Cheese moving to Active Eats this year.

Crispy Chicken with Griddled Cornbread and Red Eye Gravy – $4.75

The portion size immediately struck me as small given the $4.75 price tag. The white-meat chicken breast, which was woefully overcooked, comes in at just about an ounce and a half. It also seemed like the chicken was having a competition with the cornbread to see which one could prove to be more dry. The gravy added a comforting element with an intense salty bitterness that may be too much for some – the cornbread wasn’t sweet enough to adequately contrast and it ended up making the chicken soggy. I don’t see a ton of upside here. Even if you love the flavor, it’s not much more than four bites of something that’s done just as well or better at a dozen on-property outlets. You might put the money towards the Fried Chicken Sandwich at Homecomin’.

Taste: 3/10

Value: 3/10

Roasted Beet Salad with Green Beans, Feta Cheese, Minus 8 Vinaigrette and Toasted Walnuts – $3.75

Straight from Schrute Farms, I gave last year’s Pickled Beet Salad a 7/10 on taste. This one is even better – there’s a ton going on here with the tangy cheese, sweet beets, piquant onions, and earthy walnuts all combining to create a fully flavored, nuanced salad. The variety of textures is really interesting too with the sweet crunchy walnuts and crisp greens creating a really fresh dish One of the best salads of any Epcot Festival in recent memory and a pretty decent portion too.

Taste: 9/10

Value: 8/10

Cider Flight – $9

As with all Epcot Beer/Cider Flights, the individual offerings arrive in 6-ounce cups while the flight is served with three 4-ounce cups. Thus, the 6-ounce ciders/beers cost 67 cents per ounce while the Flight ciders/beers are more expensive at 75 cents per ounce. So if you’ve got a group going, you may want to elect to just purchase three full-size portions – you’ll come away with more liquid at a lower price-per-ounce.

Gumption is also produced by Woodchuck, so you have two Vermont Ciders represented. The Citrus Freak tasted a little more artificial than I like, though I appreciated how dry it was with only a mild sweetness, making it easier to drink.

The Woodchuck Raspberry is also on the artificial side with some hints of raspberry and a mild overall sweetness. Not a lot of apple, but pretty forgettable at 4% ABV.

From Two Henry’s in Plant City, Florida, the Elderberry Cream was my favorite of the bunch with a much creamier mouthfeel than the other two, more acidic selections. It was a little sweeter than the other two choices, but not overpoweringly so. Six ounces is about right. If you’re only going to get one, I’d make it this one as the other two are available in your grocer’s beer aisle.

Florida Orange Groves Mango Mama Wine – $5.50

Florida Orange Groves wines are ubiquitous at each of the Food/Wine/Flower/Garden Festivals in one flavor or another. They typically smell better than they taste, though the flavor on the Mango Mama is more intensely sweet than the Key Lime or Pineapple that have appeared in the past. If you have interest, you can pick up a bottle of the same wine at the Festival Center for $19 over $5.50 for two ounces, but if you’d like to try a wine and don’t like your typical cabernet or chardonnay then this is potentially a good choice.