There is such a thing as a bad milkshake

For my birthday (well, it was on my birthday) a few coworkers decided we should have a milkshake taste test. Seeing as we are not located in the culinary mecca of the city, we only had a few places to choose from so we did the best with what we had. We tested chocolate shakes from:

Steak and Shake (chocolate and Hershey's Special Dark)
Burger King
Wendy's
Dairy Queen

Steak and Shake Chocolate

The Steak and Shake chocolate was a very good chocolate shake. There was an even chocolate taste and it felt like real ice cream. Some comments included, "light chocolate taste", "really good" and "thin."

Burger King Chocolate

When we took the lid off the Burger King chocolate, we were confused. The shake looked white. An initial taste seemed to suggest that there was a light chocolate taste, but that it was underwhelming. Our only guess was that it was white chocolate and that BK got the order wrong. We tucked in and it was complete crap. Comments included, "marshmallow fluff," "cream" and "poor white chocolate." Oddly enough, one of our testers actually enjoyed the taste. I have to assume he hates chocolate. Fortunately he did like this shake because while finishing it off, he discovered what the problem was:

It seems the way Burger King makes their shakes is to stick the chocolate in the bottom, add the neutral milk shake liquid and then mix it up. It seems that they forgot to mix this one up.

Steak and Shake Hershey's Special Dark

The Steak and Shake Hershey's Special Dark shake was also tasty, if not a bit too chocolaty. It had a similar texture to the first Steak and Shake shake. (remember this: Metro Station - Shake It) One taster has problem with the froze chocolate chips being disconcerting to eat with the smooth shake. Other comments included, "smooth," "a bit too chocolaty" and "rich."

Frosty Chocolate Shake

Let's get one thing straight. A Frosty is not a shake. A Frosty is a frosty and I don't want to delve into religious beliefs here, but I assume that if there is a heaven, there are Frostys there and if there is a hell, there are none.

That being said, Wendy's felt the need to shame the Frosty by offering shakes. I did think for a moment that if you took a Frosty and let it melt a little, you'd get a shake. I've never eaten a Frosty slow enough to see it melt, so I was a bit curious. Maybe this might be delicious.

Wrong.

The Wendy's Chocolate shake is terrible. Too chocolaty and not smooth. Other comments included, "madness" and "worse than a Frosty."

The can only assume that this chocolate shake idea came out after Dave Thomas died or right before and it killed him.

Dairy Queen Chocolate Shake

Expectations were low for the Dairy Queen chocolate shake. I mean, it's Dairy Queen.

We were wrong.

The Dairy Queen shake was delicious. Smooth, a great chocolate taste. The classic chocolate shake. I realize that the Dairy Queen shake may not be hand dipped and mostly processed, but it was an awesome shake.

In the end, the Dairy Queen chocolate was rated highest and the Steak and Shake chocolate came in a close second.

And just so you are aware, the guy who thought the BK shake was delicious had all his votes thrown out.

Shake shake shake shake shake it.

Five Guys Burger vs Graffiti Burger

Until today, I had not taken the opportunity to eat at Five Guys Burger or Graffiti Burger. We were debating which one we should go to. So as a good friend of mine once said, "When given two options, take the third." So we got both.

Keegan went to Graffiti Burger and I went to Five Guys. We decided to get a cheeseburger with ketchup, mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato plus a regular sized fry. We parted ways and met back up after my flight from western Dublin got back in.

The bag on the left is Five Guys and the right is Graffiti.  The Five Guys has fry grease on the bag and the Graffiti bag has "We have tasty buns!" written on the side.  That or the grease on the Graffiti bag randomly spelled words.

Looking in the top of the Five Guys bag, you see a bunch of fries scattered. This is done on purpose at the store. When your order is complete, they put the wrapped burger in, a cup of fries and they dump a small container of fries in on top of everything.

The Graffiti fries are contained in another bag. Here's what they looked like:

So we unbagged the bags to see the contents. First Five guys:

Bag with grease
Burger in foil
Fries in cup
Extra fries (on company plate)
3 - 4 napkins
receipt

Here's Graffiti:

Bag with marker (or magic grease)
Fry bag
Plastic container with burger inside
Pickle spear wrapped in wax paper
A bazillion ketchup packets
Napkins
Receipt with Keegan's name spelled Kigean

One thing that I heard about Five Guys was that they were expensive.  They were not cheap, but Graffiti and Five Guys were about the same price, both around $8.50 for the burger and fries.

Here is the Five Guys burger cut open:

Here is the Graffiti burger cut open:

Both burgers weighed exactly the same at around 12 ounces. (I think... I have to double check this number with Kigeeane tomorrow.)

Here are your heroes:

NOM NOM NOM NOM:

RESULTS!
Five Guys won hands down. It all came down to the meat. Five Guys was more savory. There was definitely meatier, richer taste with Five Guys. Keieganne agreed.

But wait... what about those fries? Graffiti took honors in the fry department. They cooked their fries a bit longer and their taste edged out Five Guys. But not enough for me to stop at two places to get my lunch.

Five Guys wins. I have to admit that I went in thinking that Five Guys was going to be overpriced and under quality, but I was wrong.