Quite a Few Reservations: Summer of Bacon by Burger King

You know that you have a great family when your little sister alerts you that bacon and ice cream are combining forces for a nationwide caloric assault this summer. This is exactly what happened: my sister informed me that Burger King was going to offer a Bacon Sundae to get people into their restaurants. I, being the bold taste tester that I am, immediately scoured the internet to find that June 14th was the magic date this would be arriving. So, as a good steward to all Need Coffee readers, I left work early to make sure I could sample this treat the day of release.

Since I was already at Burger King and I figured two new bacon items were better than one (easy math), I decided I should also try one of the new sandwiches accompanying the bacon sundae on the menu. Now, don’t be alarmed, I will not spend long on the review of the sandwich, because I know what the main event in this review is. I elected to try the Burger King Carolina BBQ Whopper. Now, it must be warned that I was born in South Carolina and BBQ was a big part of my formative eating years. For that reason, I have always had an affinity for the Tangy Carolina style BBQ sauce. According to BK, this is a “grilled burger patty with pepper jack cheese, thick-cut bacon, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, Sweet Southern dressing and Bull’s-Eye Carolina Style BBQ sauce on a sesame seed bun.”

[ad#longpost]You now might be wondering the same thing I was: “What the heck is Sweet Southern dressing?” Apparently, this was originally labelled a Coleslaw Sauce, but that name didn’t test well, so it was changed. Which would make sense, as Carolina BBQ has a sweet, mustard based sauce, and is typically topped with Cole Slaw. Nonetheless, it was time to eat.

The first taste you get is the sweet–probably overly sweet–sauce. I think this is actually the combination of the BBQ and the Southern sauce. It isn’t a bad taste, and in fact, I enjoyed it. It is very sweet, however. Those who enjoy a more savory tasting burger would probably not like the sauce. As for the rest, it was pleasantly surprising. Given my last experience with a new sandwich using a white cheese, the dreaded McCruncher, I had low expectations. But this exceeded them greatly. The bacon was smoky and plentiful, and the burger wasn’t bad–at least for a fast food experience. As a whole, I would say try this burger if you are a fan of Carolina BBQ. It isn’t a burger from Five Guys, but for a $5.99 combo meal item, it was pretty good. It had fresh tasting vegetables, which were thick cut as well. I would eat it again. I say, if you are Bacon Sundae shopping, use this burger as your first course.

Now then, onto the queen of the prom, the Bacon Sundae. I waited until I finished my burger, then went back up and ordered the Sundae. I had warned the manager that I would be having it at the conclusion of my meal and that they should have some fresh bacon for me. He actually complied, which was nice. Anyway, as he rang me up, I noticed that the chocolate fudge sundae and the caramel sundae are both on the dollar menu at this BK. This made me a little less pleased with the $2.49 plus tax I paid for the Bacon Sundae. But hey, it’s bacon, so I just went with it.

The preparation worried me. My cup was swirled with hot fudge and caramel, which in and of itself isn’t troubling–except you’ll notice I didn’t list bacon yet. Then, it was filled with vanilla soft serve. Again, not a negative thing, but I was still perceiving a profound lack of bacon…and I felt myself becoming overwhelmed with fear. Finally, my sundae was taken to the serving line, where freshly crumbled bacon was sprinkled over the top and a whole piece added as a type of sexy garnish. Yes, Bacon IS sexy.

As I returned to my seat, two thoughts were in my head. First, I was hopeful that this would be similar to a Dairy Queen Blizzard, or an Arby’s Swirl, where the main topping was mixed around with the ice cream, so it would have an omnipresent quality. I remember when I worked at Arby’s and we served the Oreo and Reese’s Cup swirl. The instructions were as follows: fill half the cup with ice cream, dump in topping, fill the rest with ice cream, mix in the mixer. It made for a delicious treat–but let me tell you: being the person that prepped the Oreo or Reese’s topping was fantastic. They came in ten pound bags of crumbled mix, and you had to portion it out. The process for that was basically: “one scoop in the cup, one scoop in my mouth, two scoops in my pockets.”

I digress, let me return to the bacon. My second thought was “Hmmm, I could pay one dollar for a Hot Fudge Sundae, one dollar for a Hot Caramel Sundae, and .89 cents for a “side of bacon”, and spend forty cents more than this, but I would end up with two full sundaes! (Yes, folks, that is how the mind of a fat man works.) Anyway, I decided the best approach would be to mix it myself, and I used the spoon to just mix all the bacon, fudge, caramel and ice cream all together and I pushed the large piece of bacon down to the bottom. Now, it was time.

Mmmmm. Bacon. Chocolate. Caramel. Sex. Scotch. Snooze Buttons. Tall spoilers on ’88 Honda Civics. Bob Ross. All of the things that make life pleasurable. That is what went through my mind as I tasted this. NOW, before any of you get confused, this is NOT High Road‘s Spotter Trotter, which in my opinion, is the undisputed king of ice cream (bacony or otherwise). However, I don’t think it is really in competition with it either. This is a bacony-goodness treat that is available quick service through a drive thru. The bacon still had crispness to it, had a smoky quality, and really came through in the taste. The ice cream was typical fast food soft serve, not fantastic, but not distracting either. The blend of fudge and caramel was quite good, especially when drizzling off a piece of bacon onto my head/face as I was staring up at it in awe.

In all honesty, it was actually pretty good. I like all of the ingredients listed and I liked them all together. Is it worth $2.49? I would say no, because if you want bacon and ice cream in holy matrimony you can get a pint of Spotted Trotter for roughly twice that. However, is it worth trying? Absolutely yes. Also, if you happen to be forced to eat at a BK for some reason, then definitely having one of these will make the experience less painful.