And the 2008 winner of Best Bear Lake Raspberry Shake is . . .
Hometown Drive Inn!!!
Our old hero has returned. That's three out of four years as the clear winner. (I almost wonder if we accidentally switched the Hometown and Quick N Tasty shakes last year.) Hometown's shake got only first or second place nods from each tester, winning with a score 16 points better than 2nd place. And at a speed of 3 minutes 30 seconds, and a reasonable price ($4.05), we highly and officially recommend Hometown Drive Inn.
There were 10 judges this year, and we tested 7 shakes. Shakes were tested on Memorial Day around 3 o'clock. Here are the full rankings:
Best Tasting
1. Hometown Drive Inn - "Raspberry-licious! Excellent! Yum!"
2. La Beau's - "Fresh; Tasty; Sweet"
3. Lakeside Pizza - "lots of raspberries, mellow flavor"
4. Quick N Tasty - "Bland; Vanilla-ey; Delicious!"
5. Merlin's - "Tastes like Strawberry Quik; overly sweet; fake tasting, thick"
6. Bear Lake Pizza - "strong vanilla flavor; bland; not well-mixed"
7. Chevron - "strong vanilla and weak raspberry flavor; fake tasting; runny"
Speed Rankings:
1. QUICKEST: Quick N Tasty - 2 minutes
2. Lakeside Pizza - 3 minutes
3. Hometown Drive Inn - 3 min, 30 seconds
4. Chevron - 7 minutes
5. Merlin's - 10 minutes, 45 seconds
6. Bear Lake Pizza - 11 minutes
7. SLOWEST: Labeau's - 17 minutes!!! for one shake!!!
Price:
1. Quick N Tasty (Quick N Cheap) - $3.45
2. Hometown and Labeau's - $4.05
3. Merlin's - $4.10
4. Chevron - $4.17
5. Lakeside Pizza - $4.25
6. Bear Lake Pizza - $4.31
Note: Lakeside Pizza, Bear Lake Pizza and Chevron use hard ice cream while the rest use soft serve.
Note: While we have somewhat consistent winners, we also have a consistent loser. And since we figure that most wouldn't think about going there for a shake anyway, we will kindly leave Chevron out in future contests.
Note: LaBeau's, if you are reading this, your shakes are good, but there's not a great chance we'd come to you because the service is too slow. Please consider re-thinking your strategy. A person who just orders a shake should get it quickly - EVEN IF (especially if!) the person in front of them in line orders five sandwiches and fries. I noticed that at Hometown, the ladies right in front of me each ordered a shake and fish and chips. Then I ordered one shake. The food arrived in this order: First, the ladies' two shakes; Second, my shake; Third, the ladies' fish and chips orders. This is good, follow this practice.
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The Official Annual Reports of the MFRSTA (M-borg Family Raspberry Shake Testing Association)
About the MFRSTA
Our family has held annual Bear Lake Raspberry Shake Taste Tests since 2005. These are highly scientific, as you can tell by the picture. And having spent many summers in Bear Lake, and having consumed many Bear Lake Raspberry shakes, we consider ourselves talented shake-eaters, er, shake-testers. We have the results and are bringing them to you -our honored public. Feel free to join us here to find out where to go to get the best shake, and where to go if you want to wait 15 minutes for one.
Methodology
This is a double blind test. The shakes are placed in identical cups, and one person assigns numbers to the shakes, writing that number on the bottom of the cup, noting where they came from, and keeping that list secret. A second person then places the shakes in random order, and gives them visible letters A,B,C, etc. Then all participants taste and rank the shakes from 1 to n, 1 being the best, and n being the number of shakes in the taste test. The results are added together, and the shakes are ranked. (Like golf – lowest score wins.) After all the scoring, the origin of the shakes is reavealed, and the honors awarded. Does this make sense? We hope so.
Disclaimer
We are not in any way affiliated with any of the businesses whose shakes we test. We just care that we - and you- get the very best. Plus I just really like making charts and graphs. And it's a good excuse to gorge oneself on raspberry shakes every Memorial Day.
Also Check Out:
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About Bear Lake Raspberry Shakes
Bear Lake is a beautiful blue green lake overlapping Utah and Idaho. The valley has been famous for its raspberries, and consequently for its raspberry shakes which are offered at practically every eating establishment (Drive-in) in Garden City, Utah.
3 comments:
Yum...yes, this info will be very, very helpful during our Bear Lake stay this summer- a sincere thanks for subjecting your tastebuds to much rigorous testing this past weekend!!!
This info really came in handy! I want to help with the ranking sometime!
We just had 14 inches of snow here in NYC and it's like 21 out, but I made my reservations for an annual Memorial Day long weekend trip to Utah and specifically Garden City to our family place. I can't wait to indulge --- maybe I'll see you there. My unscientific test says you're about right on. Thanks for this, it was fun finding it. Regards, Alan
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