The Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival has been running since the park reopened in mid-July. Unfortunately, not all the marketplaces planned for the festival opened on time. Now after we noticed it preparing to open, Flavors From Fire has finally returned.

Menu for Flavors From Fire at the Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival

Food:

• The Corned Beef Corner Route: Smoked Corned Beef with Crispy Potatoes, Cheese Curds, Pickled Onions, and Beer-Cheese Fondue – $5.25
• The Chimichurri-up Offense: Charred Chimichurri Skirt Steak on a Smoked Corn Cake with Pickled Vegetable Slaw and Cilantro Aïoli – $7.00
• The S’mores Whoopie Pie-lon: Smoked Chocolate Cake, Graham Cracker, Marshmallow, Chocolate Ganache, and Candied Bacon – $4.00

Beverages:

• Bell’s Seasonal Beer, Comstock, MI – $4.50 for 6oz, $8.50 for 12oz
• Edmeades Zinfandel, Mendocino County ($17/bottle) – $5.00
• Swine Brine featuring Jim Beam Bourbon – $9.50

Photos of Menu Items from Flavors From Fire at the Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival

The Corned Beef Corner Route: Smoked Corned Beef with Crispy Potatoes, Cheese Curds, Pickled Onions, and Beer-Cheese Fondue – $5.25

This nearly perfect dish is a returning favorite from 2017. The smoked corned beef is flavorful, tender, and has a great slathering of sauce on it. There’s plenty of chips to help pick up the meat and fondue, all three together a match made in heaven. It’s a must do item, even if it’s a return. Honestly, everything at Flavors from Fire is worth doing. It’s still as delicious as ever, with plenty of toppings. It is a bit difficult to eat on the chip, even with a fork, and this dish was slightly messy as well.

Charred Chimichurri Skirt Steak on a Smoked Corn Cake with Pickled Vegetable Slaw and Cilantro Aïoli – $7.00

This item replaced one of our favorites from 2017 at the Flavors from Fire booth, but that’s okay because it’s just as amazing. There’s an underlying spiciness to the skirt steak that’s rather intense for an Epcot festival, but that’s everything we absolutely adore from this. The coleslaw on top helps to cut back the spice and the aioli rounds out the flavor profile. The smoked corn cake below helps hold everything together making this an absolute winner.

*NEW* The S’mores Whoopie Pie-lon: Smoked Chocolate Cake, Graham Cracker, Marshmallow, Chocolate Ganache, and Candied Bacon – $4.00

The pie itself was light and fluffy, exactly what it should be. It wasn’t overly flavorful.

The marshmallow was fluffy and had a fun texture. It was caramelized on the outside.

The graham cracker was a standard out-of-the-box graham. The chocolate sauce was like hot fudge. It was rich, decadent, and very chocolaty.

Overall, this was a tasty dessert with a nice balance of flavors. You should definitely have something to drink with you though, you’ll need it!

Bell’s Brewery Porter, Comstock, MI (5.6% ABV) – $4.50 for 6oz & $8.50 for 12oz

From Bell’s Brewery: “Our award-winning Porter bridges the gap between malty brown ales and heavily roasted stouts. Notes of chocolate, coffee and roasted barley are offset with just a slight hop bitterness.” The beer is a very light porter. Not too heavy, but balanced well with the heavy dessert.

This beer is very dark in color but much lighter than your average porter. Being light, it pairs well with the very rich chocolate picante dessert here at Flavors from Fire.

Edmeades Zinfandel, Mendocino County – $6.00

Edmeades says their Zinfandel “begins with warm and intense aromas of cinnamon and cloves. Those spices give way to aromas of blackberries, currants, and sage. The texture is round and the fruit expression is concentrated and lush. Soft tannins accentuate the richness of the wine, while pleasant acidity keeps it fresh on the finish.” It comes chilled but it honestly shouldn’t be. It does pair very nicely with the food offered here at this booth.

Although it is chilled which is not typical for a Zin, it makes this “bold” red wine much more drinkable in the “bold” hot Florida heat. This red is big which makes it pair very well with the meat dishes at this booth.

Swine Brine featuring Jim Beam Bourbon – $9.50

In 2017, this surprisingly good drink was made with Evan Williams bourbon. Since then, they have switched to the more well-known Jim Beam bourbon, but no matter – it’s still good! The Swine Brine is definitely one of the most unique cocktails offered at the festival, and many were surprised at just how good (read: weird) this ended up being. It’s a combination of apple juice, lemon juice, bourbon, and mustard, which sounds pretty terrible. Needless to say, everyone in our group grimaced before they tried it, but they ended up enjoying it more than expected. WARNING: It may not be for everyone. Also, don’t dip the pork in.

Location of Flavors From Fire Marketplace at the Taste of EPCOT International Food & Wine Festival

The Flavors from Fire Marketplace is located in Future World West.