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It's the most wonderful time of the year! Flower & Garden Festival is here! This is by far my favorite EPCOT festival. It is so beautiful with all the flowers and topiaries, the food is amazing and of course there is Orange Bird EVERYWHERE so that makes me extra happy (and broke)! The festival just started last Wednesday, February 28th and goes until May 27th so make sure you get to EPCOT before it's gone. Let's dive into all the things we got into the first week of my favorite festival! Merchandise As I mentioned, Orange Bird is everywhere at this festival and the merchandise reflects this. In the past some of the items like the Loungefly bags would sell out in the first few weeks of the festival, so I felt the need to go ahead and get the things I was looking at. There are t-shirts, Spirit Jerseys, ears, coffee cups and all the usual things but also some fun things that are so specific to Flower and Garden Festival. There is a gardening apron, lantern, the cutest orange squeeze mug, flower pot, pitcher, salt & pepper shakers, an Orange Bird pouch that turns into an orange Spaceship Earth and a great Corkcicle tumbler. There is also an adorable Loungefly backpack and a new comer on the scene, the Lug bag that I have been waiting for since Destination D23, it is the cutest! I did wait in line the first day to get a few things just because I am traveling quit a bit for work the next couple of months and these were things I HAD to have. Insert that emoji with the twisted face here. I have no doubt I will end up getting some of the other things too, it's all just so cute! There is even a new Orange Bird/EPCOT Dooney & Bourke collection and a festival exclusive Orange Bird Pandora bracelet with 2 charms that my lovely husband surprised me with.....he's a keeper! Food I LOVE the food at Flower and Garden Festival! It is bright and pretty and tastes so good! There are 17 different food booths throughout World Showcase and special festival items at the Refreshment Outpost, Sunshine Seasons, Swirled Showcase and Connections Cafe. The food stroll at this festival is called the Garden Graze and is full of fantastic plant based foods. This is a great way to try some plant based foods and get a cute prize. There are a ton of new items this year, I believe over 20! We had to try a bunch of things this first week, here's what we had: Trowel & Trellis IMPOSSIBLE Farmhouse Meatball with lentil bread, spinach, marinated vegetables and creamy herb aioli for $6.00 and part of the Garden Graze Chocolate Mousse Terrarium with matcha crumble and chocolate soil for $5.50 and this is a new item for the festival this year. Both of these were delicious and even if you are not vegan or vegetarian you will love these! The Farmhouse Meatball is kind of like a wrap the way it is presented and that is how we ate it as well. The flavors were really good but the aioli might have been better as a spread instead of on top. The Chocolate Mousse was so good and kid approved, the matcha crumble really added a great layer to the flavor and it was super cute! This booth is located close to Port of Entry and outside the Citrus Blossom exit. Pineapple Promenade Pineapple Dole Whip for $6.50 This is obviously something you can get anytime in Magic Kingdom, Disney Springs or the Polynesian but who passes up a chance to get a Dole Whip?? This booth is located by the Port of Entry stores. Tangerine Cafe: Flavors of the Medina Mediterranean Flatbread with chermoula, roasted vegetables, artichoke, olives and feta cheese for $6.00, this is new for the festival this year! Orange Blossom Saffron Cake for $5.00 These were both so good and the Morocco pavilion is always one of my favorites at each festival. The flatbread was much bigger than I though it would be and the rest of my crew were not fans so we didn't finish all of that. It is definitely a good one to share with a group. The orange blossom cake was fantastic and was one of my favorites last year as well. All of us really liked it, it is light and has some great flavors, the candied pistachio's were super good with it. Hanami Frushi: Strawberry, pineapple and lychee wrapped in coconut rice and pick soy wrap served with whipped cream, drizzled raspberry sauce and toasted coconut for $7.75 Steam Bun filled with vegetables and plant based soy meat for $8.50, this is new for the festival this year. Ichigo Breeze Cocktail: Sake with strawberry and watermelon for 7.75, this is new for the festival this year. Frushi is ALWAYS a favorite of ours and one of the first things we get every year when the festival starts. I actually even make it at home in the summer time because we love it so much. It is just so light and fresh tasting and perfect for a hot Florida day. The steam bun was just ok, Jay and the boys were not a fan at all. It had a good soy sauce meets teriyaki flavor to me but the texture wasn't the best. The bun itself was fine but everything being basically pureed together inside the bun was a little meh. Wish it had had a little more to it on the inside. This booth is in the Japan Pavilion I have no doubt we will try many more tasty things at this festival but this was our jumping off point for the first week. Not everything can be as amazing as Frushi but for the most part they were all pretty good. I can't wait to go back and try more fo the new dishes and some old favorites. next time around I'll be focusing on some of the drinks and cocktails. Flowers, Gardens & Topiaries There is no question that EPCOT is at her most beautiful during this festival. There are colors everywhere and the park smells amazing too. Around the water ways the monorail goes around there are the flower quilts. This area is incredible, all the flowers are placed to make gorgeous patterns that look like patchwork on a quilt. Gardens The scavenger hunt for Flower and Garden Festival is Pollen-Nation Scavenger Hunt with Spike the Bee. This takes you on a hunt for Spike around World Showcase to find certain plants in different gardens. Everything from an English Tea Garden in the UK pavilion to a prehistoric garden by Test Track, it's really cool to see all the different plants and learn a little bit about them. The prize for this years scavenger hunt are these little mini corn hole boards and they are so cute! I of course picked the Orange Bird one. Topiaries There are three new topiaries this year and they are super cool! At the main entrance to EPCOT you will find the Wish topiary that lights up at night and is so so cute. It features Asha, Valentino and Star from the movie. Over near Cosmic Rewind you will find a brand new Groot topiary with Groot carrying a giant mixed tape. It's so cute and such a clever addition to me. And finally they have added Miguel and Dante from CoCo and Dante is the first ever projection mapped topiary with his own light up effects at night. Although this one replaced the Three Cabelleros which was one of my favorite topiaries, it is still a really nice addition. Entertainment The Flower and Garden Festival concert series is called Garden Rocks and features all different kids of musical acts from Simple Plan to Richard Marx to Casting Crowns. I feel like this series doesn't host the same level of acts or attract the same volume of audience as the Food and Wine Festival series but it's still a decent line up for free concerts in a Disney park. Conclusion I know I already said this but this is hands down my favorite EPCOT festival for so many reasons. I love all the colors and smells. The food is so good and Orange Bird reigns supreme so how could it not be my favorite?! I do wish they would give Orange Bird his own topiary, they put Figment in the middle of World Celebration this year and I feel like that would have been the perfect spot or OB and Figgy could have stayed over by the Imagination Pavilion. But who am I? Hahahaha! Maybe we should start a petition! I hope you enjoyed todays post and if you are not going to make it to this years Flower and Garden Festival it gave you a little glimpse of it and made you feel like you are there. Thank you all for reading along today and have the most magical day!

Dancing To Disney

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