Happiness is Chic

I've always loved Harry Potter and since my boyfriend grew up a mere two hours away from Universal Studios, I decided going to The Wizarding World of Harry Potter was a must this Thanksgiving break. I had heard it was really well done but honestly one of the main reasons I wanted to go there was to taste butterbeer! In retrospect, driving four hours and buying $100 tickets might have been excessive to taste glorified soda but it was still totally worth it.

The park was really well done and the details were amazing, but word of warning: Harry Potter World is split up between Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure so you have to buy a park-to-park pass to see both Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade/Hogwarts. Furthermore, this is the only way to ride the Hogwarts Express. Well played Universal Studios, well played. Since we knew we could only stay one day, we decided to go to Universal Studios and see Diagon Alley instead of Hogsmeade because I heard it was visually better and Islands of Adventure was more suited for children and focused on the rides. Because of our time constraints, we made the right decision but if we had longer I would have liked to do both.

Butterbeer Recipe:

-cream soda (I like A&W diet)

-caramel syrup (for coffee/Italian soda)

-whipped cream

Drizzle caramel syrup at the bottom of the glass and then fill the glass with soda and cover in whipped cream. Pour another generous splash of syrup on top of the whipped cream.

I was so pleased with how this recipe turned out. It tastes a lot like the butterbeer at Universal Studios but the main difference is that their whipped cream had a thick, sticky consistency almost like a mix between marshmallow fluff and whipped cream. You can find a lot of other recipes here but I think the key is to buy syrup for coffee/Italian sodas and not syrup for ice cream, which would be thicker and wouldn't mix as well into the soda. I'd love to hear if you decide to try the recipe and/or find a way to make it boozy (an obvious next step).