South Florida Sun-Sentinel Palm Beach (Sunday)
First impressions: Epcot’s pickle milkshake, Muppets at Brew-Wing and more
The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival has arrived at Walt Disney World, and with it are new things to eat and drink, including a pickle milkshake that, as the story goes, comes from the minds at Muppet Labs.
This wackiness is based in the Brew-Wing Lab at the Odyssey marketplace, a former restaurant space that faces the water and is wedged between Epcot’s Test Track ride and the Mexico pavilion. Although the area has been serving, well, brews and wings for a while, Disney has given it makeovers for recent fests, including themes that leaned heavily into the Figment and Orange Bird characters.
Here’s what we saw, sipped and sampled at a media preview on the eve of the Food & Wine kickoff.
The Muppet motif
This festival’s BrewWing look features a wacky laboratory feel with a Muppet bent, which can only mean the presence of Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker.
“You will find a lot of different things that will tell the story of why you should be in this place,” said Dave Kesting, Epcot’s general manager of food and beverage. “So you need to look closely at all the walls, the tables, all the visual cues because there are literally Easter eggs everywhere.”
A lot of that action is up high, sort of the angle from the queue of MuppetVision 3D attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Among the artifacts: An abacus that’s indicating “1971,” Disney officials say.
Posters on the walls explain the “science” behind some of the food offerings, including the electric pickle (“Do NOT try this at home,” we are warned) and the mighty Brussels sprout. Another poster explains the causes of brain freeze and potential solutions. There’s some Fozzie Bear-level humor going on here.
But also look down at the rewrapped tables. Round ones are pie chart; rectangular ones are bar charts. Also check out the fine print, where Muppet Labs lawyers get involved.
You can see Honeydew and Beaker, but only in a prerecorded sort of way.
It’s time to make the milkshake
Brew-Wing Lab is the home of Epcot’s first pickle milkshake. It’s thoughtfully presented in a jar topped with whipped cream and sprinkled stuff with a big green-and-white straw. It looks like it could be a mint chocolate chip offering.
Do not be fooled. You will taste the pickle. The amount of flavoring is somewhere between aftertaste and in-your-face. It’s sweet and not as horrifying as I imagined. It’s icy, rich and creamy so about half a serving might be enough. Maybe ask for two straws?
On about the third sip, I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what else it might taste like. Sea salt and vinegar potato chips, maybe? The pickle milkshake sells for $5.75.
Also for sale is the
Frozen Fusion drink, which is made of Twinings pomegranate and raspberry herbal tea that’s fused with orange ice cream molecules. It’s lighter and more refreshing and doesn’t linger. It’s $4.75.
There are also beers, ciders and flights available at Brew-Wing.
Hot times at Odyssey
The most Muppety name on the Brew-Wing menu is the Unnecessarily Spicy Yet Extremely Tasty Scotch Bonnet Pepper-Curry Wings. It lived up to its name.
Full disclosure: Hot and spicy is not my friend. My stomach lining tends to object. Even a whiff of this dish gave me and tummy pause. And sure enough, one bite had me tossing the wing back onto its plate. Braver souls will do better.
My co-working dining partner has a stronger disposition, but he too had enough quickly. We literally moved those wings to a table out of sight and sniff zone.
My co-worker was happy with the traditional buffalo wings, and I was pleased with the Impossible buffalo chicken tenders, particularly the plantbased blue cheese on top. Also new are the orangecardamom wings, and I heard the peanut butter and jelly sticky wings were very peanuty and very sticky.
The wings entrees and the tenders are $7.50, and the buffalo Brussels sprouts are $5.
These Muppet concoctions spice up the fest a little, and the memory lived on. On the drive back downtown two hours later
I could still sense the pickle on the tip of tongue and the wing in pit of stomach. Or maybe that was the waffle chaser from Connections Eatery.
No regrets. You have time and choices. The Epcot International Food & Wine Festival runs daily through Nov. 18.