Posted by
Mike and Chris Pettey
on August 14, 2020
Category:
Knott's Berry Farm
Tags:
Dining
Knott's Berry Farm
Knott’s Berry Farm took the opportunity in July and August to host a scaled down version of their annual Boysenberry Festival by offering “Taste of Calico”. The park opened the ghost town area and offered a number of specialty food items, most of which had a boysenberry twist. No rides, no shows. Just food and stores. We were lucky enough to get tasting cards for the final weekend.
There are plenty of other blogs and fan sites out there that have reviewed the health and safety measures, low crowds, operational changes, and other aspects of the event. So we won’t re-hash any of that here.
Instead, we will do what we do best: rank stuff! We sampled all 20 of the various food and beverage offerings that were available with the tasting card, and yes, you’d better believe we’re about to rank every single one.
The Rankings (from least favorite to Favorite)
There are some people who will undoubtedly like this drink. We were not amongst those…it was a bit rough. The basil was just a bit too overpowering for us, and it left a weird aftertaste. That said, depending on how much you enjoy basil, your mileage may vary. For us, this was by far the lowlight.
We’re not huge fans of sausage, but we don’t hate it either. The issue with this was simply how plain it was. The boysenberry flavor supposedly in the sausage was very weak, and didn’t add anything of interest. Even the boysenberry mustard didn’t do much. At the end of the day, this was simply a plain old sausage in a bun. Next, please.
Aside from the nice addition of the cotija cheese, this was another item we found to be rather plain. That said, the corn was nicely cooked, and the added seasonings were a plus.
This is more or less a boysenberry slushie, as opposed to what we’d consider a smoothie. It’s got a nice flavor, not too overpowering, but a berry slushie is just a berry slushie.
A boysenberry slushie with some boysenberry soft serve ice cream on the bottom. This added a nice creaminess to the previous item, but we would have preferred more ice cream. Knott’s serves these regularly, and you can get any ice cream or slushie flavor they have available.
A creamy, fruity drink served at the Starbucks location back by Bear-y Tales. This was very similar to most Starbucks drinks of this nature: LOTS OF SUGAR! The Popping Boba was a nice addition to the mix.
A much better flavor for the lemonade vs. the basil, we found this to be quite refreshing and a nice pairing with the other food items we had.
Freshly cooked churro with essentially a boysenberry jam inside. It’s on the smaller side of things, so that kept it lower on our list than it would have otherwise. It tasted great though!
We’re big bread pudding fans, in general, so we were excited to try this dish. The boysenberry flavor paired nicely with the crème anglaise, but the dish didn’t taste as fresh as we would have preferred. That knocked it down a few points, but overall still a good option.
Mrs. Knott’s biscuits are awesome – one of the highlights of a meal at the Chicken Dinner restaurant. And these were excellent, especially with the butter dipping sauce. The issue? Not enough biscuit bites – we only got about 10, which was enough for about half of the massive gob of butter on the side. That said, we’d still gladly get this again – they were excellent.
You can get a regular size version of this at the park anytime, so this wasn’t exactly a novelty. But we loved how big the portion was – especially compared to the mini churro. Calling this a “mini” funnel cake is underselling it. Great value, and, as always, tastes great.
Hard to go wrong with kettle chips – and you get a very generous portion. The onion dip pairs perfectly with this, and you get plenty of that to boot.
This dish plus the next one were the two “soups” of the event, and both were great. The gumbo uses the same sausage as in our #19 entry, and this made much better use of it. Mixing everything up together with the rice made for maximum enjoyment.
This chili was surprisingly tasty, with tender steak and a good mix of flavors. The muffin was a perfect complement to this as well.
These mac and cheese bites surprised us with how tasty they were. Another dish where the slight spiciness of the sauce added the perfect kick. Add in another generous side of fries, and this was a clear highlight for us.
Now we're starting to get into our favorites. These sliders were everything you’d expect – perfectly tender pulled pork, plus just the right amount of kick from the jalapeno strips.
Who doesn’t like Pretzel Buns? Suffice to say, this sandwich was excellent, with the perfect amount of meat, and a very sizeable side of chips. Great value and great taste.
Wings are always a favorite – it’s tough to beat these – the boysenberry adds just the right amount of sweetness to the BBQ sauce, and the chicken was juicy and slightly crisp.
Coming in at the top spot in our ‘savory’ items is the samosas. These were just about as perfect as you could imagine – crispy on the outside, and full of flavor on the inside. They tasted fresh and authentic. Then, they add the boysenberry chutney for a sweet/sour/spicy twist. This was a clear stand-out in the crowd.
Finally, the coveted # 1 spot goes to this literal slice of heaven. Boysenberry soft serve ice cream sandwiched between two boysenberry snickerdoodle cookies, and then packed with approximately 1000 mini chocolate chips around the side. Could you possibly ask for more? We did – this was the only item we insisted on getting a second serving of the entire night, and if that doesn't speak to how great this was, we don't know what else would. For us, that’s enough to solidify it as the best item of the event.
Written by
Mike and Chris Pettey
YOUR THOUGHTS?
Did you attend Knott's Taste of Calico? Do you agree or disagree with our ranking list? What were your favorite and least favorite items? Let us know in the comments below!
2 Comments
Yum
Yum The boysenberry hand scooped ice cream sandwich looks really good