I was excited for my Mixology Class at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival! The cost is $15 dollars and Annual Passholders get a discount of $2, but the discount is only available Monday through Thursday, sad face.

The plan was to get a group of friends together to do this class. We picked a date that worked for everyone, the liquor or theme of the class was TBD. I am picky so I was a little worried but wanted to get together with my friends and this was the only day that worked. Unfortunately, only two of us remembered to sign up before they sold out! No worries, we still hung out at Epcot once the class was over.

We find out that the theme of the class is Bourbon…uh oh, I don’t like Bourbon. My plan is to go a little early and get a glass of champagne so the Bourbon goes down easier. I still wanted to do this for the experience and I wasn’t going to quit.

The mixology class is held in the festival center. You will need to check in with your id at the Festival Information stand inside the Festival Center.

I got in line around 5:30 and was pretty close to the front. I ran into friends in line and they had signed up for the class earlier that day. I had looked online that morning and it was still sold out so Disney must reserve some spots to hand out on the day of. If there is a sold out class you are really interested in, head to the Festival Information and see if there are spots available.

They check your ID and then tell you where to sit. It worked out well, we ended up in the middle of the front row. Below is a picture of the setup when you sit down.

A spot for three drinks, a recipe sheet for the drinks and a notepad. There were a small amount of crackers and tap water as well. I took a glance at the recipes and all three drinks are some sort of Old Fashioned! Bourbon, Bourbon, and Whiskey, ugh. I guess I was expecting some creative ingredients and drinks I hadn’t seen before. Not the same drink with slight differences. I mean the last two drinks had basically the same ingredients just different brands!

The presenters do a little spiel and give us a sort of history of the drink while they are teaching us how to make them.

Drink #1 – Basil Hayden 1806 – They asked you to take a sip of the drink first and then tell you to twist your grapefruit rind and put it in the glass and take a second sip. This made it taste SO much better. You could smell the grapefruit as you took a sip. This was the best of the three.

Drink #2 – Maker’s Mark New Old Fashioned –  This drink tasted mostly of alcohol, like medicine type alcohol. I assume it was the Maker’s Mark that made this one unfavorable. They had a piece of Ghiradelli sitting in front of this drink (which you can get free a couple feet away). They didn’t mention it or tell you to eat it with this drink so we didn’t. Honestly, it just seemed like an after thought they threw on so the grapefruit wasn’t alone.

Drink #3 – Alberta Rye Modern Old Fashioned – Ugh wow this one was the worst and it had stuff floating in it. The spice was strong and it was too sweet.

All in all, it was not what we were expecting, but we headed into the World Showcase with a nice buzz for our $15. So not a total loss, lol!

Melissa P.

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