It’s a whirlwind of excitement at Disney World in the summer—seriously, there’s so much going on. But there’s one event that fills our foodie hearts with joy: Flavors of Florida at Disney Springs!

Beginning on July 1st, 2024, over 30 Disney Springs restaurants come together to share creative dishes and drinks inspired by the state of Florida — rom fresh seafood to citrusy delights, you’ll taste the best of the Sunshine State in every bite. This year, we got a first look at what the event has to offer and we’re sharing a sneak peek with you!

At Flavors of Florida, guests can start on the fun by swinging by the Disney Springs Welcome Center (or any participating spot listed below) to snag an event guide. The guide lists all the participating restaurants and details the dishes they’ve created exclusively for the event — or you can check out the full menus right here on our site!

Disney invited us out to get a sneak peek at what we can expect from the event this year, so let’s get into it.

First things first, we tried a new beer EXCLUSIVE to this event — that’s right, you can’t get Sunshine Stroll anywhere else! It’s a locally brewed orange pilsner made only for Disney Springs and this event. This beer is perfect for a hot day strolling around Disney Springs while you shop.

There’s a zesty citrus flavor that hits you on the back end and makes this beer approachable, even if beer isn’t your favorite. It’s incredibly light and dare we say — refreshing — and would likely pair well with heavy, greasy food and even something lighter like seafood. Plus, it’s exclusive to Disney Springs which makes it even better!

We tried the Tampa-Style Cuban Sandwich from Chef Art Smith’s Homecomin’. This is House-smoked pork, shaved country ham, house-made pickles, yellow mustard, and Swiss cheese pressed between slices of fresh Cuban bread.

This is definitely NOT picky-eater approved. The bread on ours was pretty charred which was overpowering and could be a no-go for some people. The mustard also added some bitterness and wasn’t quite that acidic taste we were hoping for. The ham and pork were both flavored well — they were salty and savory. It was definitely interesting, but isn’t a Tampa Cuban sandwich by any stretch of the imagination.

We washed that down with a Dragon Fruit Mojito made with Bacardi Light Rum, dragon fruit, prickly pear simple syrup, and fresh mint. We think this drink could be dangerous — we could hardly taste the rum. It was super fresh and summery, with really unique flavors thanks to the dragonfruit and prickly pear.

The Florida Key West Pink Shrimp Salad was super refreshing. It’s made with Green tea-infused Japanese soba noodles tossed with shrimp, radish, carrot, cucumber, lettuce, and ponzu sauce.

 

Also from Morimoto Asia, you can grab the Sparkling Shiso Orange cocktail. This is refreshingly simple, house-made shrub, mixed with yuzu, sparkling green tea, and shiso.

And last, but certainly not least — the St. Augustine Datil BBQ Poutine: Crispy pork with datil pepper sauce complemented by Sunshine Stroll beer cheese sauce and slaw made with “swamp cabbage” hearts of palm and chayote squash.

The pork was tender and chewy with tons of flavor. The datil pepper sauce gives it an almost sweet and spicy glaze situation that we certainly didn’t mind. The hearts of palm and squash slaw was a great addition — it was crunchy and provided a great texture. The beer cheese was thick but still tasted light thanks to the beer flavor. We think this one will be a big hit!

This is such a fun event that celebrates the diverse flavors and unique ingredients of the Sunshine State and this year is no exception. Plus, it’s basically like an entire Disney World festival without needing a park ticket — sounds good to us! Stay tuned as we bring you all the latest news and updates going on at Disney World.

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Are you excited for Flavors of Florida? Let us know in the comments!

Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Flavors of Florida at Disney Springs. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ