Libation Exploration | Exploring for the Holidays

Photo courtesy of Disney

Welcome back, libation explorers, to another journey into the Parks! DCA’s Festival of Holidays kicked off on November 8^th this year and continues into the new year. If you have ever thought, “DCA is good, but I have too far to walk between places to drink,” then this festival is for you. Every one of the booths set up around Paradise Bay has something to offer beyond small, pricey food portions. You can also spend your Disney Dollars on various, holiday-themed drinks! Pace yourselves, though. While the food at events like these tends to be in smaller portions, the drinks are usually in bigger portions. Share if you must, or just spend a little more time listening to the live music. Read on, explorers!

If you’re into beer, there is plenty to be had. The Brews & Bites booth may use some of Disney’s favorite, cute words to describe food and beer, but it hosts an impressive list of mostly-local beer. Lighter fare like kölsch style beer and fruited lagers pour right along hefty fare like olde ale and double IPAs. If you can’t decide, there are two options for beer flights. One walks you through lighter beers through said olde ale from Alaskan Brewing, ending on everybody’s favorite, Sierra Nevada’s Celebration IPA. The other flight presents a blood orange hefeweizen from SLO Brew, a “jam lager” from Two Pitchers, The Bruery’s horchata-spiced blonde, and Karl Strauss’ breakfast stout. I’m not sure about the “Flavors of the Season” title there, as Celebration and Winter Olde Ale seem more holiday-themed, but whatever. Eleven taps in one booth is pretty impressive.

As you continue your stroll around the bay, you will come across the Favorite Things booth. Assuming you finished your beer flight, you can pick up another one here! Bell’s Brewery sent their Czech-style Pilsner over from Michigan to hang out with Kronenbourg’s witbier. Too tame? Maybe a hazy IPA from Modern Times or Stone’s imperial stout are more your style. OK, OK. I get it. You want blast your taste buds with holiday spirit! Pick up the chocolate cookie milk stout from Virginia’s Legends Brewery and move along.

Still on the beer here. We’ll get through this together, everyone. Let’s ease the transition to mixed drinks with a beer cocktail. At Grandma’s Recipes, you can get a simple Modelo Negra or a Crimson Pear. This drink is Modelo Negra mixed with prickly pear purée with a sugar rim. I don’t know whose grandmother makes a drink like this, but I want to meet her.

Do you prefer something sweet and boozy for your holiday enjoyment? Merry Mashups has horchata spiked with rum cream liqueur. When all else fails, RumChata is probably a safe choice to add to actual horchata. The vanilla pear mule at A Twist on Tradition sounds like it would fit the bill, too. Whisky fans can enjoy a bourbon cranberry cocktail at Winter Sliderland or a warm bourbon cider back at Favorite Things. The cider comes with a bourbon-infused marshmallow floating in it that sounds like a fine idea to me.

Making Spirits Bright seems like the sort of place where you can find a little liquor. Instead, this booth hosts the festival’s wine options. Three different mimosas are available, both individually and in a flight. Apple, pomegranate, and cranberry-blackberry flavors practically beg you to pick up that flight to try all three. There isn’t a huge selection of straight wines available, but the booth has a white and a red flight. A Sauvignon Blanc and a Chardonnay from Napa pair with a French Rosé. The red flight features a Zinfandel from Lodi, a Cab from Paso Robles, and a French Pinot Noir.

Now that’s a lot to drink! Prices for these “festive sips,” as Disney loves to call them, range from $10 to $15 each, including the flights. Pacing yourself helps to not only avoid getting tipsy around Pixar Pier, but also to avoid emptying your bank account. Choose wisely and enjoy! 

My gift to you this holiday season: a recipe that is pretty simple to make that can not only impress the guests, but get you and yours through a few family gatherings unscathed. None of the booths in this year’s festival have a pomegranate mule this year, but it’s a favorite from the past. Dust off one of your copper mugs that you definitely didn’t lift from your local bar for the muliest experience possible:

1 oz vodka

2 oz pomegranate juice

4 oz ginger beer

Garnish with pomegranate seeds and a sprig of fresh rosemary

Add the vodka and pomegranate juice to a cocktail shaker with some ice and shake away. Pour the mix into a copper mug filled with ice. Top off with the ginger beer. Garnish. Done!

I would recommend using a drier ginger beer like Fever Tree instead of the sweeter versions like Reed’s. There’s enough flavor and sugar coming from the pomegranate juice and you don’t want a flavor battle going on in that mug. If you prefer your drinks a bit sweeter, you can add some simple syrup or pomegranate syrup if your liquor store is fancy. As always, you can leave off the garnish, but this one’s pretty simple, cheap, and looks great. 

Happy Holidays, explorers! I know it’s early, but if Disney can put up their tree immediately after Halloween, I think I’m justified. If you visit the Parks, let us know what your favorites were! In the meantime, I think I’m going to figure out how to infuse a marshmallow with bourbon.