Serious Eats
Bar Wars: The Battle for Pomegranate Ice Cream Bar Supremacy
From left: Häagen-Dazs's pomegranate ice cream bar and the one from Sheer Bliss.
It's the Ice Cream Bar Fights coming to you from Serious Eats world headquarters. Today's battle is between two heavyweights:
In the near corner, weighing 3 ounces and measuring 3 3/8 inches tall, 2 inches wide, and 7/8 inches thick, from Oakland, California., Häagen-Dazs Pomegranate Dark Chocolate Ice Cream Bar.
In the far corner, weighing 3 ounces and measuring 3 1/4 inches tall, 2 inches wide, and 7/8 inches thick, from Hallandale, Florida, Sheer Bliss Pomegranate Bar Dipped in Rich Dark Chocolate.
I'm the first to admit that Serious Eats world headquarters is not your typical office environment. Take yesterday, for example. In the morning I brought in boxes of pomegranate ice cream bars to stage the battle of the bars—pomegranate ice cream bars, that is. Robyn, armed with her trusty camera and her seemingly insatiable sweet tooth, documented the battle and was my fellow taster.
Alaina, Adam, Meg, and I had first tasted Häagen-Dazs pomegranate and dark chocolate ice cream bars six months ago, right before they made their way to grocery stores everywhere. I loved the the way the tart, not-quite-acidic taste of the pomegranate ice cream played off the dark chocolate coating. Each bite brought a burst of creamy fruitiness and winelike chocolatiness.
Then about a month ago, I discovered Sheer Bliss pomegranate ice cream studded with dark chocolate chips. It comes in a silly metal container, which, as far as I can tell, does nothing for either the ice cream or the consumer other than make it impossible to temper in its container in the microwave. But I didn't have to eat the container, and the ice cream itself was smooth and rich and mighty fine.
Then two days ago, I discovered that the Sheer Bliss folks were making their own version of the pomegranate ice cream bar encased in dark chocolate. We had no choice. We had to find out which pomegranate ice cream bar reigned supreme.
The ice cream bars come three to a box, so Robyn and I each had our own bars to taste. I started taking bites of each bar, and like a snooty wine taster, I tried swirling the bits of pomegranate ice cream and dark chocolate around my mouth. Robyn did the same, but her swirling induced mild panic. "I can't tell the difference—they're both soooo good," she moaned. I instructed her to fight through her uncertainty so that she could render a judgment.
I thought the Sheer Bliss pomegranate ice cream was not quite as sweet as the Häagen-Dazs version. I liked that tart bite, but I missed the creaminess of the Häagen-Dazs pomegranate ice cream. This was going to be an excruciatingly difficult decision to make, one that could take many bars to render.
Hours later, exhausted, we admitted defeat. We couldn't decide, and a split decision would make no one happy. So we leave it to you to render a verdict. Sorry to cop out on this vitally important issue.