EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival 2024 Review: Swirled Showcase

The EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival may have a lot of great food, but if you’re attending the event during one of Florida’s many hot days, you may not be eager to eat a simmering meal. Instead, I’d suggest heading over to Swirled Showcase for something to help you cool off.

EPCOT’s Swirled Showcase offered one new treat this year, which we tried along with a returning nonalcoholic apple pie concoction:

• Liquid Nitrogen Frozen Sweet Potato Mousse with Candied Pecans and Maple Caramel Sauce
• Frozen Apple Pie: Apple Pie Filling, Apple Cinnamon Gelato, Cinnamon Apple Cider, topped with Streusel

While the Frozen Apple pie is not new to the park’s Autumn event, we have not tried it before. Honestly, I’m not sure if we will again.

What first appears to be a drink is more of a float topped with apple pie crust (what EPCOT insists was streusel). This would work if the serving size or the cup were larger. If you want to sip the cider, you’ll need to scoop the crust off of the top first. Trust me. Otherwise, you’ll get a mouthful of dry pastry that’ll make you cough.

Thankfully, the far cooler option (literally) made up for the float’s shortcomings.

Thanks to the liquid nitrogen, the sweet potato mousse is served so cold that it defies the Florida heat for a good while. Yes, even as we stood in the sun, the mousse refused to become a goopy mess on the plate. Ah, ’twas nice!

Interestingly, the sweet potato tasted like nothing. The distinctive taste of the starchy root vegetable was missing. This isn’t a negative, as the whole thing has a unique texture and sweetness that work. Also, candied pecans are always a win.

Click here to check out some more food reviews from the 2024 EPCOT International Food and Wine Festival!