For Harry Potter fans, I am sure it would be exciting to experience how Harry and his friends live in the books, including eating like them. When creators at Universal designed the new exhibit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, this is one thing they kept in mind.
Although I am not a Harry Potter fanatic, after receiving a press pass to the new attraction, I, too, was interested. I can’t say that I am familiar with what the characters in the series eat, but I was willing to find out.
The new attraction at Universal Studios opened in July and has attracted fans of the series from all over the world. Hogsmeade, the town out of the story, comes to life in the middle of Florida.
The creators wanted it to be so authentic that they only have certain food and drinks available, and Coke products are not among them. Apparently, they thought that since Coke wasn’t available in the real Hogsmeade, or anywhere else in the books, that it shouldn’t be for sale in the theme park.
I found this ironic, considering that Bud Light was on tap, but I get what they are trying to accomplish and it is a cool idea.
The first Hogsmeade delicacy I tasted was Butterbeer. The drink, which the young wizards drink in the series, was unfamiliar to me, but apparently well known with fans. It was sold two ways: frozen and slushy-like or cold and frothy like a beer. I tried both kinds and although I wasn’t a huge fan of either, I preferred the icy one.
It is not the flavor that I didn’t like; the “beer” tasted like cream soda flavored with a strong spike of butterscotch. I actually liked the flavor. What I didn’t like was the sugar content.
Maybe it had something to do with the fact that it was 11 in the morning, but I could not handle the intense sweetness of the drink. It seriously tasted like it had the sugar content of two sodas. I only drank about half of my Butterbeer and guiltily threw it away.
The second drink I sampled was much better. Also straight out of the novels, the pumpkin juice tasted like liquid pie. Strangely enough, I felt like it tasted more like apple pie than pumpkin. I had the Pumpkin Fizz, which was the juice mixed with soda water, and it was surprisingly refreshing.
For lunch I visited the Three Broomsticks, a restaurant that is also directly from the pages of Harry Potter. The group I was with decided on sharing “the Feast” so I went along with the flow, although the place serves a variety of British inspired fare such as Cornish pasties, fish and chips and shepherd’s pie.
The feast was a meal of ribs, roasted chicken, corn on the cob, mixed vegetables and roasted potatoes all served with a salad. The salad wasn’t anything to write home about, and was soaked with oily dressing. Actually, come to think of it, it reminded me of a second-rate olive garden salad. But, I was hungry so it worked at the time.
I always love corn on the cob, so I definitely enjoyed that part of the meal, but other than that the ribs were the only thing memorable. The ribs were really good; the meat actually fell of the bones. I was shocked that a theme park restaurant had quality barbeque ribs.
For dessert, I wanted to try something from Honeydukes Sweetshop, another namesake from the series. The lines were ridiculous though, and the shop was so crowded I could barely even look at the candy let alone choose some to try. I was actually disappointed that they didn’t have more choices of unique and wizardly candies.
Honeydukes had Bertie-Botts Every Flavour Beans (the one thing I am actually familiar with from the books), chocolate frogs and cauldrons and Fizzing Whizzies candies that tickle your tongue. I know that the jellybeans are available in stores and I just couldn’t handle a solid chocolate frog that day, so I left empty handed.
All in all, I find the idea of keeping so strictly with the theme, especially with the food, appealing. I feel like it makes it that much more magical. But honestly, I think that there needs to be more creativity and more options and hopefully new ideas will be developed.
I would definitely visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter again, and maybe I’ll give Butterbeer another chance.
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