REVIEW: The Appleseed Orchard 2019 Epcot Food and Wine Festival

The Appleseed Orchard marketplace is brand new for the 2019 Epcot Food and Wine Festival which we absolutely can’t wait to tryo try! This marketplace promises to bring lots of apple flavors to Food and Wine this year, just in time for Autumn. How will Appleseed Orchard stand up to the competition? Will this be a must-try booth this year?

The Appleseed Orchard Marketplace:

The Appleseed Orchard is a brand new marketplace, but it has an interesting location taking over the Circle Vision 360 theater that is usually the home of the O Canada! film. That means we are going to the back of the Canada pavilion, through Victoria gardens to get there.

There’s a lovely apple display outside from the main promenade:

Menus are setup outside and signs leading you into one of my favorite hidden places in Epcot, Victoria Gardens:

A look back at the Canada pavilion right now reveals scrims up to hide the refurbishment going on the outside of the pavilion. It’s still a quiet and peaceful area, away from the crowds.

There’s a super cute display down across the pond with all sorts of apple crates of every variety set up:

A closer look at the construction. The new Circle Vision film should be ready in 2020, so we don’t have too long to wait!

Let’s go in!

We are greeted with a smile in Canada, and they even have games for the kids to play while they are waiting:

Here is the theater, now being used as a huge pavilion for Food and Wine. I like the lights hanging up everywhere:

The railings you usually lean against have a table-top of sorts placed on top of them which allows you to place your drinks:

Besides the drinks, one of the best reasons to come to Appleseed Orchard is that it gives you a nice air conditioning break for a while which can be a life-saver in late August or September. Yeah, I’ll be spending a lot of time in here for sure!!

Walking around you can see some cool Appleseed Orchard barrels along the sides of the pavilion:

Boxes of different apple varieties are placed on top:

Another cool touch are all the apple carts placed around the pavilion. They each feature two types of apples like Gala and Golden Delicious at this cart:

Granny Smith and Braeburn on this one:

and my favorite, Honeycrisp and Fuji over here:

There are some fake trees to try and really make the Autumn atmosphere:

As I mentioned before, the pavilion is divided into two halves, the Cider Bar on one side and the Wine Bar on the other. Here is a look at the Cider Bar. Notice the cool jugs filled with cider on the shelves (though they told me it’s not really cider…)

This side also has one of the coolest items at the festival, the Caramel-Apple Popcorn in their super cute red apple holders which you can take home as a souvenir:

On the other side the Wine Bar:

The Appleseed Orchard Menu:

The menu for The Appleseed Orchard in 2019 is brand new and has 2 food items that have never been on a Food and Wine menu before, plus a whole load of apple-inspired beer, cider and wines. It’s split up into two sides: the Wine Bar and the Apple Bar.

For food you can start out with the Charcuterie and Cheese Plate featuring Burton’s Maplewood Farm Applejack Brandy Barrel Aged Maple Syrup. This seems like a good thing to pair with the various wines and beer.

On the sweeter side you can try the Caramel-Apple Popcorn.

For drinks the list of amazing sounding beer, wine, and ciders is too big even to get into yet, but we are huge fans of the Frozen Apple Pie which was available at last year’s festival. There are Flights available for all the drinks so this is a place you’ll want to stop and stay a while at!

Food:

• Charcuterie and Cheese Plate featuring Burton’s Maplewood Farm Applejack Brandy Barrel Aged Maple Syrup ($6.50)
• Caramel-Apple Popcorn (KA) ($10.00)

Beverages:

• Frozen Apple Pie (non-alcoholic) (KA) ($4.00)
• M.I.A. Beer Company Apple Trappe Belgian-Style Tripel Ale, Doral, FL ($4.50)
• Playalinda Brewing Co. Apple Pie Beer, Titusville, FL ($4.50)
• Sea Dog Brewing Co. Green Apple Ale, Clearwater, FL ($4.50)
• Ciderboys Lemon Cello Hard Cider, Stevens Point, WI ($4.50)
• Collective Arts Brewing Cherry Apple Hard Cider, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada ($4.50)
• Woodchuck Hard Cider Spiced Apple, Middlebury, VT ($4.50)
• Forge Cellars Dry Riesling Classique, Seneca Lake ($7.00)
• Conundrum Red Blend, California ($6.00)
• Amavi Cellars Syrah, Walla Walla Valley ($9.00)
• tenshən Rhône Style White Blend, Central Coast ($7.00)
• Lang & Reed Wine Company Cabernet Franc, North Coast ($10.00)
• Frog’s Leap Zinfandel, Napa Valley ($10.00)
• Kurt Russell’s Gogi Wines Pinot Noir, Santa Rita Hills ($16.00)
• Apple Blossom Sky: Fanta® Apple, Ginger Beer, Floodwall Apple Brandy, Burton’s Maplewood Farm Applejack Brandy Barrel Aged Syrup and Mini Marshmallows ($11.00)
• Beer Flight ($9.75)
• Cider Flight ($9.75)
• Wine Flight 1 ($7.75)
• Wine Flight 2 ($9.50)

Cider Bar:

Wine Bar:

Ok, let’s start tasting all this yummy, apple-goodness!

Menu Review:

Charcuterie and Cheese Plate ($6.50):

The charcuterie board was standard, I didn’t find anything totally amazing about it, but we enjoyed it. There is a bit of prosciutto, salami and three cheeses, which have a touch of aged maple syrup on them. We did think that was a nice touch.

One thing we liked too was the amount of crackers they give you, since our common experience at Food and Wine is that they don’t give you enough most of the time.

Overall a good board if you are in the mood for some cheese and meats which might go well with some of our following menu items like the wine flights.

Caramel-Apple Popcorn ($10.00):

This was the showstopper of the pavilion!

Even though the caramel-apple popcorn wasn’t super special in my opinion, the plastic apple cases were a big hit and everyone was taking pictures with them.

As for the popcorn itself, I’d say it was good. It’s very sweet which you can imagine if one of the main ingredients is caramel, and the apple flavor adds a nice touch of tart to it.

For $10 they don’t give you a big portion of popcorn, but you aren’t getting this most likely if you just want popcorn, you’re getting it for the apple.

Frozen Apple Pie ($4.00):

So the frozen apple pie has moved around a bit from marketplace to marketplace, but it always remains a favorite of ours.

I think this is one of the most unique drinks (is it really a drink?) at the Food and Wine Festival, I mean who isn’t tempted to eat a Frozen Apple Pie!?!? 

Even though it’s the only non-alcoholic option here, we really loved it!  It’s super thick with what seems like a slice of apple pie blended down inside the cup.  There are chunks of apple and pie all the way down to the bottom!  We really love the crumbles on top too! 

I can’t say this is our favorite option of the drinks here (hello cider) but it might be the best non-alcoholic drink at Food and Wine this year, which is saying something because there were some really good ones.

Apple Blossom Sky ($11.00):

The Apple Blossom Sky was another solid option at Appleseed Orchard. It had a strong apple taste as you can imagine, but it was slightly fizzy from the ginger beer too.

I thought it went down really smooth and it wasn’t overly strong. The marshmallows on top were a nice addition, even though half of them ended up getting stuck in the ice cubes…

We really enjoyed this, definitely a sweeter drink, but something we would come back for without a second thought.

Beer Flight ($9.75):

Now on to the flights. There are 4 different flights at Appleseed Orchard, 2 Wine, 1 Beer and 1 Hard Cider. Let’s start with the Beer Flight:

I’m usually not a huge beer drinker, but I must say I really enjoyed these.

Let’s start with the M.I.A. Beer Company Apple Trappe Belgian-Style Tripel Ale. It was easy on the palette, but deceptively strong. It definitely has a fruity taste, and a little spicy at the same time.

It was good, but I don’t have to get it again.

Next up we tried the Playalinda Brewing Co. Apple Pie Beer:

This is exactly what it sounds like, Beer + Apple Pie mixed together, and we loved it! There was a strong cinnamon taste and it went down smooth. It doesn’t get more Fall than this!

Last of the beer flight was the Sea Dog Brewing Co. Green Apple Ale:

As much as we like the Apple Pie Beer, we liked the Green Apple even more!! It was light and refreshing and a bit sour like you’d expect from a green apple. Great choice!

Cider Flight ($9.75):

Next we tried the Hard Cider Flight:

Nothing says Autumn like some fresh apple cider, and it’s even better spiked! First we tried the Ciderboys Lemon Cello Hard Cider. This was really yummy, again we lean more towards lighter beer than the dark and this had natural lemony flavors which comes from Florida lemons we found out. The tart is balanced by the sweet apple cider base and a perfect mix imo.

We also had the Collective Arts Brewing Cherry Apple Hard Cider. This was even better and it kind of reminded us of the black cherry cider over at Block and Hans. The color is dark like cherry and it’s very fruity. Think of this like a cherry pie with a bit of apple mixed in. We loved it and will get again!

Lastly there was the Woochuck Hard Cider Spiced Apple. This was more like the apple pie beer and you can taste the spices. Not our favorite but a solid choice.

Overall we loved the Hard Cider Flight and highly recommend it!

Wine Flight 1 ($7.75):

Next we moved on to the Wine Flight number 1:

This flight has a Forge Cellars Dry Riesling Classique, Conundrum Red Blend and Amavi Cellars Syrah.

First off is the Amavi Cellars Syrah. This is a strange wine and not something I was particularly fond of by itself. There are hints of herbs and peppers, mixed with dark fruits. I think it would have been better served with meat or something rather than alone.

The Conundrum Red Blend is fruity, like plums and berries. It has a lot of tannins and the complexity comes out with every sip.

The Forge Cellars Dry Riesling Classique was a very fresh tasting wine. You can taste the lemon and pear flavors throughout. Drier than a normal Resiling and not very sweet.

This wine flight was decent, but not great imo.

Wine Flight 2 ($9.75):

As if one Wine Flight wasn’t enough, we moved on to Wine Flight number 2!

This flight has tenshən Rhône Style White Blend, Lang & Reed Wine Company Cabernet Franc and Frog’s Leap Zinfandel.

First was the Frog’s Leap Zinfandel. If you like Zinfandel this is a good wine. It’s easy to drink and jammy, and a full-bodied wine. Lots of dark fruits and spice.

Next up we tried the Lang & Reed Wine Company Cabernet Franc. It has a high tannin structure, and has flavors of raspberry, violet and herbal scents. It was ok, not as good as the Zinfandel imo.

Last up we tried the tenshən Rhône Style White Blend.

This is also a fruity wine, but more peach and apricot flavors. Very balanced wine and one we would get again.

Booth Summary and Grade:

Overall I really liked the Appleseed Orchard and it is the best place at the whole festival for a drink due to the large number of choices. That of course is predicated on the fact that you like apple as at least the beer and cider all have that taste to them.

The food items weren’t overwhelming, but that’s not the point here. This is a place you come for a drink, and they do it right. I hope it comes back again next year, but it will have to find a home once the Canada pavilion refurbishment is done.

If you have to get just one thing:

Hard Apple Cider Flight

I want you to be able to have the best info on the Festival so you have a great time and don’t waste your time!  Take a look at all of my 2019 Epcot Food and Wine articles including:

• 2024 EPCOT Food and Wine Info Guide
• Complete List of Food and Wine Menus
• Top 10 Best and Worst Snacks at Food and Wine
• Top Food and Wine Booths (Coming Soon)

Your Thoughts:

I want to know what you think about The Appleseed Orchard Review at the 2019 Epcot Food and Wine Festival…

• Which is your favorite item?
• Which do you still want to try?

Let us know in the comments section below!

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