We’re CONFLICTED About Disney’s NEW Treats

Mac and Cheese and a TWIX tart? This Festival of Holidays booth certainly has our attention!

2023 Holiday Duets Booth

The 2023 Disney California Adventure Festival of Holidays has officially begun at Disney California Adventure park! The festival runs from now through January 7th, 2024. We’ve shared a look at the booths and menus already, but now we’re heading to one in particular to find out if it’s worth your time and money. Come with us to the Holiday Duets booth to see our FULL thoughts.

Menu

Over at the Holiday Duets booth, you’ll find a variety of available items. There’s a mac and cheese dish, a dessert tart, and a couple of drinks.

2023 Holiday Duets Menu

Now that we’ve taken a look at the menu, let’s dive into the food itself!

Eats

First up, we grabbed the Esquites Carnitas Mac & Cheese with salsa macha and spiced puffed rice for $9We had this item last year (it was at the Merry Mashups booth in 2022), and it was one of our favorite snacks of the entire festival! The different flavors worked well together, and we got a great portion. So how does it stack up in 2023?

Esquites Carnitas Mac & Cheese

Well, we thought this one was great until we got a little too much cilantro in some of the bites — then it got to be a bit overwhelming. However, it’s a very generous portion with lots of tender and flavorful meat! There’s a slight spicy kick to it, but it wasn’t too spicy.

A bite of mac and cheese

Now, it’s time for dessert! We got the NEW Chocolate Tart Made with TWIX Cookie Bar Pieces for $7.50. This treat is a sugar tart filled with caramel and chocolate mousse, topped with TWIX cookie bar pieces and holiday sprinkles.

Chocolate Tart Made with TWIX Cookie Bar Pieces

This was delicious, but the consistency was a bit of a surprise. The middle of the tart was more like a pudding, which was runnier than we expected. It’s very soft and there’s a layer of caramel at the bottom, which makes it quite messy. Overall a nice chocolate flavor though.

Inside the tart

So the food items came in with a fairly good performance…what about the drinks?

Drinks

Both of the drinks on the menu this year are new! First, we got the Cuban Parranda Cocktail, which is made with white rum, falernum, and maraschino liqueurs, soursop nectar, grapefruit juice, and mint syrup garnished with a dried grapefruit wheel. You can grab it for $17. We weren’t a huge fan of this drink, as it was a little too heavy on the rum. If you’re not a rum fan, we recommend that you steer clear of this.

Cuban Parranda Cocktail

Next, we tried the Cantaritos Pineapple drink, which is available for $11.50. This was much more our speed! It’s like a lighter version of Pineapple Fanta, and very refreshing.

Cantaritos Pineapple

So should you go to this booth?

OVERALL

All in all, Holiday Duets is the DEFINITION of mid. Nothing we ate or drank truly disgusted us, but nothing stood out strongly either. We think there’s a lot of potential here if you’re a big fan of any of these flavors, but we’re probably not going to recommend you go running here if you’ve got a limited festival budget.

Holiday Duets spread

That’s it for this booth, but there’s a LOT more where that came from!

Click here to see FULL menus and food photos of EVERY. SINGLE. BOOTH. at the Festival of Holidays at Disneyland Resort!

Trying to plan the PERFECT trip to the Festival? We’ll be keeping you updated on all of the latest. Click our links below for the information you need to know:

And stay tuned for more Disney news!

Will you be visiting the Festival of Holidays? Tell us in the comments!

The post We’re CONFLICTED About Disney’s NEW Treats first appeared on the disney food blog.