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Here in our Shimmering Sips review, we'll cover the desserts available at this booth and one of the mimosas.

Shimmering Sips Review – 2019 Epcot Food & Wine Festival

Shimmering Sips is a booth located near the entrance to World Showcase, across from the Port of Entry store in World Showcase Plaza.   This booth seems to be an amalgam of items from prior festivals.  With the closure of the festival center in the old Wonders of Life Pavilion (this year’s festival center is the in World ShowPlace events pavilion located between the Canada and UK pavilions), the mimosa bar that was located there last year has become the foundation of this booth.  Also offered are three desserts.  The Banana Almond Soft-Serve Sundae from last year’s Almond Orchard booth is one of the desserts offered here.  We’ll cover several of these items here in our Shimmering Sips Review.  Also, if you’re looking for more coverage of the festival, you can check out our Ultimate Guide to the Epcot Food & Wine Festival.

If you haven’t spent enough money already on your Disney World vacation and at the Food and Wine Festival specifically, here is where you can indulge in the most expensive item offered at a Food and Wine global marketplace – a $32 pour of Dom Perignon.  Also offered are pours of Moet and Chandon Imperial Brut and Veuve Clicquot Brut Rose at $17 and $21, respectively.   We did not partake in any of these drinks.  If you’re interested in the entire menu that we found as part of our Shimmering Sips review, there is a picture of it above.

Below we will describe the three desserts offered and the one mimosa we sampled.

Banana Almond Soft-Serve Sundae made with Blue Diamond Almond Breeze Almondmilk, fresh Berries and Chocolate Almond Streusel (Vegan, Kid Approved) – $4.25

This refreshing treat was a big hit with the entire family.   We asked for it without the chocolate almond streusel as last year withholding the streusel made this gluten friendly.   (For the record I asked a couple of cast members if that was still the case this year and no one could confirm it.  I only tried two small bites just in case, due to my gluten sensitivity, and I didn’t have a reaction.  Please verify that this still applies this year if you have a gluten allergy). 

The banana almond soft serve was light and creamy, but the texture was not a typical soft-serve consistency.  I attributed it to the almond milk and that it isn’t made with a soft-serve mix.  It wasn’t off-putting in any way, shape or form, and the girls didn’t notice or comment on it at all. In fact, they devoured it.   The berries were fresh and plump, but it wasn’t merely just fresh berries added to the soft serve.  It was more of a berry syrup that included whole berries.  Those berries added some sweetness to the soft serve.  Mike and I loved the lightness of this dessert and agreed we could have enjoyed another.   We didn’t miss the streusel.  We are assuming it would just provide an extra layer of texture and crunch.  

The Banana Almond Soft-Serve at Shimmering Sips is definitely a dessert that we recommend and can see why it made a return appearance this year!

Cheesecake Trio: Raspberry, Chocolate and New York-style Cheesecake Bites (Vegan, Kid Approved) – $5.00

When they say “bites,” they literally mean bites.  When the cast member handed me this dish, I had to stifle a chuckle because I couldn’t believe how small the individual portions where.  That said, Mike and the girls managed to share these three cheesecake bites between the three of them.   

Mike will adamantly say that he did not enjoy this dessert at all.  Granted, he is not a fan of dark chocolate or raspberry so that sort of automatically eliminated his enjoyment factor as the chocolate cheesecake definitely appeared to be more of a dark chocolate.   He noted the raspberry cheesecake was overly sweet and artificial raspberry tasting.  The New York-style was his “favorite” of the three, but he commented that the graham cracker crust was very dry.

The girls ate up the rest after he tried a bite of each (not that there was a ton, to begin with).   They seemed to enjoy it because it was sweet and a dessert but they were way more interested in the two soft-serve treats.   As these were not gluten friendly, I couldn’t have them, but that was a good thing because it would have been hard to split four ways.

If you are craving cheesecake, do yourself a favor and try the Passion Fruit Cheesecake at Hawaii or the Maple Bourbon Cheesecake at the Cheese Studio.  (Note: we didn’t try this one personally, but we heard great things in many of the reviews we have read).  There is no justifying the price of $5 for this dessert, especially when at the same booth you can have generous portions and much better tasting desserts for less or just a quarter more.

Shimmering Strawberry Soft Serve in a Waffle Cone (Kid Approved, Vegan) – $5.25

You will notice in our picture that our soft serve was served in the same cup as the banana almond soft serve sundae.  This is because they actually ran out of waffle cones that evening.  (Which was the third day of the festival!).   The cast member taking my order alerted me to this immediately upon my ordering it.  Given how much we were eating, it probably wasn’t a bad thing to not have the cone.

Mike and the girls loved the soft serve.  It had a fresh strawberry flavor and not a fake, artificial strawberry flavor.   The only thing we could come up with as to why they named it “shimmering” is they sprinkled the soft serve with some pink sanding sugar which gave it a little texture and sparkle.  

Without the waffle cone, it wasn’t as good of a value at $5.25, but nonetheless, we enjoyed this dessert immensely and recommend you giving it a shot, especially on a hot Florida day!

Tropical Mimosa with Sparkling Wine, Passionfruit, Orange and Guava Juices – $6.00

We are huge fans of the passionfruit/orange/guava juice that is served around the Disney World property.   Mike and I first tried it on a trip to Maui, and we love that we can enjoy this treat on our Disney World vacations.  So when we saw that they made a mimosa using it, we had to give it a try.  Needless to say, the girls were not happy that they couldn’t try it!

You will notice that ours was served in a short glass.  It was supposed to have been served in a plastic champagne flute, but they also ran out of those (hmmmm, sensing a theme here?).  So they gave us the equivalent portion in two cups (the second cup not pictured, but it was not a full second cup, so they really did measure out the servings).  

Since we are fans of the juice and this flavor combination, we loved this mimosa.  Both Mike and I commented that there must not be much sparkling wine as both of us could only detect the slightest hint of the flavor and the bubbles.  I gave up alcohol with the onset of my health issues six years ago except for the occasional sip or two off of Mike’s drinks when we are out.    That said, I have no tolerance left, and I didn’t feel a thing.  So don’t expect much alcohol with these mimosas, but your mileage may vary depending on who is mixing these up.

Wrapping Up

And with that, we’ll wrap up our Shimmering Sips review for the 2019 Epcot Food and Wine Festival.  The soft-serve treats were a refreshing end to our Food and Wine Festival day, but do not bother with the cheesecake bites when there are so many better cheesecake options available.

If you’re looking for more of our Food & Wine Festival reviews, you can check out our Flavors From Fire review or Australia review.

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