Disney’s Animal Kingdom’s Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop is cute, creamy, and Instagram-ready. Perfect holiday snack — if you love cheesecake, get to Flame Tree Barbecue this month.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom has unleashed a festive dessert beast on Flame Tree Barbecue this December: the Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop. Available December 1–31, this treat is mobile-orderable, which is perfect, because sometimes standing in line at Disney feels like a trial of endurance worthy of Mount Everest…except with more churros and fewer sherpas. Oh, more about standing in a queue needlessly later!

Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop: What Is It?

Price: $6.29
Think white chocolate cheesecake swirled with cranberry-cherry sauce, dipped in dark chocolate, and perched atop a soft Oreo-flavored cookie “crust.” It’s the festive love child of cheesecake and holiday decorations, and it replaces last month’s Pumpkin Cheesecake Pop, which has presumably retired to Florida cheesecake heaven. Of course, it could experience reincarnation next year. For that, we must wait

The new Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop looks like a tiny Christmas tree. Icing swirls mimic holiday lights, green and red frosting shout “holly,” and a light dusting of edible glitter makes you feel like your snack just came from Santa’s workshop. The back of the pop? More holly and leaves, in multiple shades of green, because Walt Disney World apparently doesn’t mess around with one-dimensional dessert art.

Flame Tree Barbecue at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Ordering Process

In our many trip to Flame Tree Barbecue, our luck with mobile ordering has not been great. Still, we planned to order the Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop via mobile order. Yet to our surprise this menu item was not available for mobile ordering. So, that meant standing in the queue at Flame Tree Barbecue. 14 minutes later we reached a cast members to order this seasonal cake pop. After that, it only took a few minutes to get the Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop. They were ready to go in the cooler for cast members to distribute when needed.

Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop: Flavor & Texture

Here’s the deal: it’s cheesecake, first and foremost. The cranberry-cherry swirl is there, but it’s polite — it doesn’t shout “I am a holiday fruit punch” at you. The similar to Oreo-flavored base is soft and gives the pop structure without crumbling all over your Disney sweatshirt (a major win).

However, that dark chocolate coating? Cute, Instagram-ready, and festive. Still, honestly? We think this dessert would be better without it. The cheesecake is the star. The chocolate is more like the guy waving in the back of the class during picture day. Though that guy does a good job holding the cheese ake goodness within the Christmas Tree structure.

It may need a different type of chocolate? We would have preferred a white chocolate or something similar. Either way, the Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop functions as an excellent treat for cheesecake fans.

Concerns

The Cranberry-Cherry Cheesecake Pop suffers from a few issues. One, it will melt even in December. Two, the chocolate coating can be challenging to break. This might lead to a mess if using a fork and a knife. The caveman walkaround method might be best. Three, based on its excellen construction, it looks tough to share without messy issues and confusion

Who Should Eat This

• Cheesecake fans: obvious yes.
• Holiday Instagrammers: yes, yes, and yes.
• People who like desserts with subtle berry flavor, not a fruit explosion: perfect.
• Anyone expecting a cranberry tidal wave? Prepare for a gentle splash instead.

In short: this is a portable, photogenic, mildly festive cheesecake treat. If you love cheesecake, it’s absolutely for you. For more theme park dining reviews, visit MSM News every weekday at noon Eastern. Additionally, we sometimes publish bonus theme park dining reviews, such as this one. As always, eat like you mean it!

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