The Butterbeer Cream Puff is a Butterbeer Season Standout at Universal Studios Hollywood’s Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Butterbeer Season kicked off at the start of March at Universal Studios Hollywood and today there was a media day for the event, which celebrates all things Butterbeer at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter - via both special Butterbeer-flavored treats and a number of limited time merchandise items.

As an unexpected extra element, the media day kicked off an hour before the park opened, allowing the rare opportunity to see Hogsmeade empty.

On display at the event was all the new merch you can find during Butterbeer Season from now until the event concludes on May 31st. Laughing Place previously provided a run down of those same items over at Universal Orlando Resort (where Butterbeer Season is also occurring) and it’s a fun array of new shirts, hoodies, bags and more - with the flannel looking particularly cozy.

But my main purpose today was to try some Butterbeer treats! And there were quite a few to try, which made me grateful that I went there on a pretty empty stomach, though I probably now have more than enough sugar intake to cover me for the next couple of days. Besides the usual options for Butterbeer as a drink – regular, frozen or hot – plus the ongoing soft serve Butterbeer Ice Cream, as seen below, several other options are available during Butterbeer Season. And if you’re a big fan of the taste of Butterbeer, as I am, that makes for a lot of different ways you can enjoy it.

Sold at the Florean Fortescue’s ice cream counter, the Butterbeer Fudge is, as one might imagine, a very strong, pure taste of Butterbeer. Even with its small size, you’ll likely want to split this one with a friend. Or, you can save it and eat it a bit at a time through the day, of course.

Similarly, the wrapped Butterbeer Flavoured Chocolate Bar doesn’t lie with that name, boasting a ton of concentrated Butterbeer taste - and some pretty cool decoration on the bar itself. The bar is large enough to make for an easy item to share for a small group of friends or family members.

I’d tried the Butterbeer potted cream before but it remains a favorite. It’s pudding-like way to eat Butterbeer that is rich, to be sure, but oh-so tasty, really enhancing the butterscotch-style flavor Butterbeer typically contains.

Also returning as part of Butterbeer Season is the Butterbeer Ice Lolly frozen dessert, which will be sticking around as a year-round item now, available at one of the outdoor food carts. This is actually the one Butterbeer food item that feels too subdued for me though. The coating has a decent Butterbeer taste to it, but it’s notably slight when paired with the actual ice lolly, which barely has any flavor to it at all, and certainly doesn’t taste like Butterbeer. With the lolly itself dominating, it feels lacking compared to the other options.

But among the food items, I’d say the all-new Butterbeer Cream Puff is the highlight. Okay, it doesn’t quite overtake Butterbeer Ice Cream as far as the non-drink items are concerned, but it’s definitely near the top of the list.

What makes it stand out is that it has much more balance than many of the Butterbeer treats do. While I genuinely love the Butterbeer flavor profile overall, and the Butterbeer fudge, chocolate bar and the potted cream are really tasty ways to enjoy it, they are such concentrated, sweet Butterbeer in their taste that it’s hard to have more than a few bites without feeling like you’re hitting your limit on how much sweetness you can have in one go.

By comparison, the Cream Puff has the outer pastry to provide a totally different flavor element, while filled with an abundance of Butterbeer filling inside (which is somewhat similar to what you’d find in the potted cream). That fluffy pastry and the filling make for a great mix, topped off with the small dollop of caramel placed inside the whip cream at the top, which you can either let dribble down as you eat or use to dip if you still do want to go a bit bigger on the sweetness. Where the Ice Lolly makes the Butterbeer flavor feel too subtle, this one lets you fully enjoy it, but with other elements perfectly blending in to offer variation, including a Butterbeer logo-labeled shortbread cookie on top that doesn’t go too big on sweetness, since the filing and the sauce already has you covered in that arena. You can find the Butterbeer Cream Puff at the Three Broomsticks during Butterbeer Season.

Now all that being said, as good as the main meal options are at The Three Broomsticks, Universal, can we perhaps look at doing some menu updates/additions in that arena too? Sweet foods are great, but let’s not forget the savory side of things too!

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