The 2018 Epcot Flower and Garden Festival kicked off today and while we sift through our reviews, we wanted to compile a short list of our favorite food items from the festival. From drinks to desserts, here are our favorite 8 items of the 2018 Epcot Flower and Garden Festival.

Macaron au Chocolat en Succette – $4.95

This large chocolate macaron lollipop is the perfect walk-around snack. A rich chocolate is layered in the macaron and is complete with decorative crunch balls. You can find the Macaron au Chocolat en Succette at Fleur de Lys in the France Pavilion.

Toasted Pretzel Bread – $5.00

Keeping it simple, we turn to the Toasted Pretzel Bread at Bauernmarkt in Germany. The pretzel bread is stuffed with cheese, covered in melted Gruyere cheese, and then topped off with Black Forest Ham.

Warm Chocolate Cake – $4.00

Found at The Smokehouse in The American Adventure, the Warm Chocolate Cake is served with a Bourbon-salted Caramel Sauce and Spiced Pecans. It is a wonderful take on a classic. It gets all of the required parts correct – it’s a moist cake that has a wonderfully chocolatey taste. It is doused in a Bourbon-salted Caramel Sauce that is present in each bite.

Watermelon Cucumber Slushy – $11.75

The slushy comes in both alcoholic and non-alcoholic varieties, but it’s the alcoholic one that we purchased. The slushy is served with a Tamiami Florida Gin and is the most refreshing item we tried all day. Two cubes of watermelon sit atop the watermelon-flavored drink. The gin has a sugar cane base and employs hints of cucumber, coriander, juniper, and is finished off with tangerine. Of course, the fact that it’s mixed in with a slushy means that you’ll mainly get a watermelon taste, but this drink is delicious and goes down easy.

Bellini – $10.00

Sticking with drinks, we head back to Primavera Kitchen for the Bellini. It’s a sparking wine and peach puree that is almost as refreshing as the Watermelon Cucumber Slushy above. If you find yourself looking for a drink in the Italy Pavilion, you can’t go wrong with the Bellini.

Maple Popcorn Shake – $11.75

Rounding out our drink recommendations is the Maple Popcorn Shake found at Northern Bloom in the Canada Pavilion. This shake is maple through and through. The shake comes in alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions. We opted for the alcoholic version with Crown Royal Maple Whisky. It was a delicious, thick shake that has whisky present in every sip.

Teriyaki Salmon – $6.75

Found at Hanami in the Japan Pavilion, this salmon exceeded expectations for festival salmon. It was covered in a teriyaki glaze and it sat atop a bed of Furikake Seasoned Brown Rice. Every element of this dish struck the right cord. The salmon was flaky and fresh. The teriyaki glaze had a sweet flavor and complimented the salmon nicely, and the bed of rice was perfectly cooked.

Seared Scallops – $6.50

Rounding out our favorite items are the Seared Scallops. Disney largely has the scallops down to an art, but these were exceptionally good. They were smokey and tender and didn’t present an overwhelming fishiness. They were joined by French Green Beans, Butter Potatoes, Brown Butter Vinaigrette, and Applewood-smoked Bacon.

We’ll have a full rundown of the booths we visited in the coming days.