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.
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6 Comments:
Heeey, I don't think I moaned... ;) Or if I did it was because I was consuming 500 calories of ice cream before eating "lunch" (okay, that WAS lunch).
I thought about it some more and I think that even though I'm not a big fan of pomegranate flavor, they both should've had more...pomegranate flavor. One didn't really win over the other in that case. Someone commented on my flickr photo that they liked Sheer Bliss a lot more, but I still don't have a preference. Although both tasted good, neither was so good that I'd buy it for myself.
But they were perfectly good for lunch. Mmm...
roboppy at 10:10AM on 08/17/07
Taste testing ice cream....sounds like a great way to spend a morning! Unfortunately, neither of these products are available here in the Midwest. I'm a HD kind of ice cream eater, tho'
JEP at 12:30PM on 08/17/07
And the winner is......SHEER BLISS!!! Hands down, without a doubt. Why? Many reasons:
The SheerBliss bars have a much more distinctive pomegranate taste. A bit more tart, but in a good way. The ice cream itself is a perfect creamy consistency and the dark chocolate coating is much richer. Also, if you look closely and actually read the labels, you'll notice only the SheerBliss bars are made from pure pomegranate juice, not a blend of other fruit juices. Which is probably why it has a more rich, authentic taste. To be honest, I don't think the other bars should even be allowed the name "Pomegranate".
SheerBliss is the best - you should check out their regular ice cream too, my favorite is the Pomegranate with Dark Chocolate Chips...YUMMM. Check out their Web site to find out where you can get it: www.sheerbliss.com
iheartfood at 1:50AM on 08/18/07
Pomegranate & Dark chocolate
Oh-my-gosh ~ two of my favorites flavors (among many)
I Must try this!! Mmm, perhaps they have a website that you can order these from? I'm over in the Pacific NW and haven't seen this brand yet
Sheer Bliss looks MUCH better than the Haagen-Daz....and I like Haagen Daz
paris221966 at 11:54PM on 08/18/07
Sheer Bliss hands down. I have written about it before. The ice cream is creamy, delicious and highly addictive. My favorite is the Freedom - vanilla ice cream with pomegranate and blueberry swirls - not too sweet but oh, so yummy!
flakevanille at 4:09PM on 08/20/07
Nothing compares to Sheer Bliss,the name says it all,its more then ice cream it's better then any other I have tasted or likely too.
Branics Girl at 8:26PM on 08/20/07