Better With Bacon?

TGIF! And boy do I have a treat for you today! My dear friend Ames, an old college buddy and beer aficionado from Dallas—who has a personal goal of drinking 366 different beers in 2012 (it's a leap year!), was kind enough to accept my invitation to guest blog here. Well, it may have been more of a challenge than an invitation, which was the result of a post he made on Facebook announcing Jack in the Box's new Bacon Milkshake. As Southerners, we often proclaim that everything tastes better with bacon, but can that apply to a milkshake too? So I dared him to try it and then blog about it. And he did! So take it away Ames!

Thanks! It's an honor to be asked by Holley to guest blog on SB in SB, as I'm much more prolific in my drinking (see here and here) than my discriminating palate. But as I've recently turned 40 (I'm sooo much older than Holls), I'm making an effort to consume for quality rather than quantity. However in some respects, I lack discrimination and refinement. Like when it comes to bacon.

During the Super Bowl I was actually put off a bit by the Jack and the Box (JITB) commercial with the annoying guy who announces to his mother that he is going to "marry Bacon." But the following week, I was intrigued and then quickly obsessed with the news that JITB had come out with a bacon milkshake! I quickly proclaimed on Facebook that I was going to try one, and Holls challenged me to do it and then blog about it here.

The same day I got Holley's challenge, I decided I had to try the bacon milkshake. I went through the drive-thru line, placed my order and drove up to the pick-up window. The young lady at the window asked me if I like the bacon milkshake, and I told her it would be my first. I then asked her what she thought about it, to which the young lady—who had multiple facial piercings and looked like she knew the meaning of the phase—said "It's wild, man" and handed it over to me.

My first thought upon seeing it was . . . whipped cream and a cherry? I'd forgotten that JITB tops all of their shakes thusly. So once I got past that I took my first sip: Salt and smoke. The flavors overwhelmed the first sip, which was very confusing given how cold and creamy it was. I didn't even taste bacon until I had the second or third sip. I had to agree with the cashier. It was wild. The combination of the mouthfeel of a milkshake—though it did have some grainy chunks I can only assume were supposed to be bacon—with the smoky, salty, slightly bacony flavory was disconcerting although not off-putting for the first half of the milkshake. Once I reconciled the cold and sweet of the shake with the savory flavors, it really wasn't all that bad.

Now, I'm not saying it was outright great, but I did finish the shake. If you're at all temped to try this—and I do think you owe it to yourself to give it a fair shot—I would recommend getting it without the whipped cream and cherry. The end of the shake was too sweet for my taste once the whipped cream mixed in. But honestly, I'll probably end up getting another (despite the 773 calories and 75 grams of sugar) before this promotion is over. That is if I can squeeze one in between all the beer.

Thanks for letting me share, Holls, and if anyone feels compelled to share a beer to help me meet my goal of drinking 366 different beers this leap year, drop me a line at huttona@yahoo.com or post a comment on my blog.

—Ames