I arrived at the festival around 2pm and it was already noticeably less crowded than Saturday<\/a>, which was a welcome relief.\u00a0 I met up with my friends in China.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>Here I ordered the Chicken Potstickers and the <\/span><\/span>Francis Ford Coppala Su Yuen Riesling<\/a><\/span><\/span>\u00a0and my friend Laura ordered the Kung Fu Punch with Vodka, which I am assured is not racist, even if you ask for a fortune cookie with it.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>The potstickers are pretty great, but it’s hard to mess those up.\u00a0 They are not significantly different than potstickers you could get at most Chinese restaurants.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>I ordered the riesling because I know in non-food and wine, traditional drinking around the world<\/a><\/span> China is one of my least favorite stops.\u00a0 Most of their drinks are super syrupy sweet, so I just wanted to go with what was hopefully a normal wine.\u00a0 Yes, I do realize that riesling is a sweet wine and if I was trying to avoid that I should have gone with the syrah, however, it was a million degrees outside and I needed cold and boozy.\u00a0 The riesling was a good choice.\u00a0 It wasn’t syrupy like China’s plum wines and it hit the spot.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>The Kung Fu Punch is a solid choice.\u00a0 It’s a fruity tropical juice cocktail (not sure what makes it particularly Chinese outside of the vaguely racist name).\u00a0 It’s citrusy, sweet, and relatively strong without tasting overly like alcohol.\u00a0 This is a great drink for a hot day in the park.\u00a0 It’s refreshing and it gets the job done.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to take a good close up of the order at this stop because we all felt the need to leave rather quickly after Laura asked for a fortune cookie with her drink (which they actually gave us).\u00a0 I assume everyone knows what potstickers look like though, so you’re not missing too much.<\/p>\n Next stop Africa!<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>This stop was a really tough decision for me.\u00a0 I ended up going with the Wolftrap Red wine and Spinach & Paneer Cheese Pocket, but I will definitely be back for the Barbere Style Beef.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>The spinach & paneer cheese pocket’s resemblance to a hot pocket was initially a little off-putting, but it was actually pretty tasty.\u00a0 It’s definitely not one of my favorites, and I probably won’t order it again, but wasn’t bad.<\/p>\n The <\/span><\/span>Wolftrap Red<\/a> was actually very good.\u00a0 That’s one that I would definitely order again!\u00a0 It was a spicier red, but still very easy to drink.\u00a0 This is one of my favorite wines of the festival so far.\u00a0 Here are the tasting notes from the website<\/a>, they know a little more about it than me.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>TASTING NOTES: Ripe blackberries and spicy pepper flavours are met with a soft and supple palate. Good density with lingering flavours and a hint of oak. Unpretentious and easy drinking, this wine should be drunk within three years.<\/p>\n The next stop was one of my favorites, The Brewer’s Collection.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>If you’ve read my previous post you know I’m a sucker for a sampler (and if not, you should).\u00a0 The brewer’s collection offers no food, but a selection of 8 beers, each of which you can order in 6, 12, or 22 oz. glasses.\u00a0 The 22oz. glass even comes in its own plastic stein you get to carry around the park the rest of the day.\u00a0 But alas, I will never have that stein because here they offer their 8 beers divided into 2 flights.\u00a0 Each flight has 4-6oz. beers to try.\u00a0 Now the smart thing for our group to do would have been to get different flights, but everyone who’s ever tried it is absolutely in love with the <\/span><\/span>Schofferhofer Grapefruit<\/a><\/span><\/span> beer.\u00a0 This was a stand out at last years festival and they actually sell it year round in the German Pavilion now.\u00a0 So, everyone went for the Flight #1, which contains a 6oz sample of each, Schofferhofer Grapefruit, <\/span><\/span>Altenmunster Oktoberfest<\/a>, <\/span><\/span>Warsteiner Premium Verum<\/a>, and <\/span><\/span>Warsteiner Premium Dunkel<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>Honestly, I liked all of the beers, but the Verum seemed to be everyone’s least favorite (which of course meant that I finished all of them.)\u00a0 If I had to rank them, I’d say my list would be 1-Grapefruit, 2-Oktoberfest, 3-Dunkel, 4-Verum.\u00a0 But like I said, they’re all good.\u00a0 I would gladly drink any of these beers if I didn’t know a flight existed.\u00a0 You can click the links above to find out what people that are better at beer than I am have to say about each of the beers.<\/p>\n The Grapefruit beer is the clear stand out again this year.\u00a0 The website is entirely in German and has this to say,<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>“Lass es fruchtig Prickeln: Mit Schofferhofer Grapefruit<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>Du hast Lust auf prickelndes Schofferhofer, kombiniert mit fruchtig-herber Grapefruit? Dann lass dich von Schofferhofer Grapefruit erfrischenl Mit nur 2,5 Vol.% schmeckt Schofferhofer Grapefruit am besten elsgekuhlt und direkt aus der Flashe.”<\/p>\n Now, I took a year of German back in high school and this roughly translates into:<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>“Have a prickly, fruity, good time with Schofferhofer Grapefruit!<\/p>\n Do you lust after beer but wish it tasted more like grapefruit? Perfect, we made a prickly fruit beer.\u00a0 Careful though, it only has 2.5% alcohol by volume so you should probably drink some other stuff first to get a good base buzz going.”<\/p>\n Frau Briggs would be so proud.<\/p>\n Now, there are not many downsides to a flight or sampler of any sort, but here is one.<\/p>\n You almost always end up looking like this.\u00a0 Luckily, Brewer’s Collection is one of the few places in the world showcase that actually has a seating area set up with tables and chairs.\u00a0 No trashcan dining here!<\/p>\n Next we hit the Chase Lounge.\u00a0 This was a new offering in the festival center last year exclusively for Disney Chase Visa<\/span><\/span> card holders.\u00a0 This year they have moved the lounge to America, which is the perfect spot for a rest in the middle of the world showcase.\u00a0 All you have to do is show your card to the doorman and be escorted up stairs.\u00a0 Once in the lounge you are treated to free soda, a cash bar, a phone charging station, clean and less crowded restrooms, board games, the opportunity to get wristbands for priority seating at either the Eat To The Beat Concert Series or Illuminations that night, and most importantly… air conditioning.\u00a0 It’s a pretty great offering and only one member of your party needs a card to get everyone in!<\/p>\n <\/span><\/span>I had to leave the party early and head to work, the downside of just pretending to be on vacation.\u00a0 I did have time to stop by Hops & Barley on the way out though.<\/p>\n![\"IMG_7440\"](\"https:\/\/magsonthemove.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/IMG_7440-e1381420146706-510x850.jpg\")
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