Of course, the main feature of baconfest is the annual taste test. We had a nice collection of bacons this year. We didn’t get as many sort of rare or local varieties as I would have liked (especially compared to last year), but overall I thought everything was really good. It was a pretty wide range of flavors and appearances.
Nathan:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Boar’s Head (Smoked) | 5 | Good crisp – Light |
| Sobie Meats | 6 | A lot more tasty fat (by tasty I mean full body) thicker cut but still a crunch. |
| Nueske’s (Wild Cherrywood Smoked) | 4 | All the fat was at the end instead of throughout |
| ThinkGeek Tactical Bacon | 2 | super thing – nice for crunch but lacked flavor |
| Trader Joe’s Black Forrest Bacon (dry rubbed) | 5 | very similar to #1. A good flavor, very light. |
Amanda:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Boar’s Head (Smoked) | 7 | Sweet. Thin. I liked the crispiness |
| Sobie Meats | 2 | Very meaty taste is strong. Like fish. |
| Nueske’s (Wild Cherrywood Smoked) | 5 | Smokey & salty |
| ThinkGeek Tactical Bacon | 6 | Not much flavor. A good breakfast bacon. |
| Trader Joe’s Black Forrest Bacon (dry rubbed) | 7 | Taste is very different in a good way. I like how thin it is. |
Sara:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Boar’s Head (Smoked) | 8 | thin (which is nice), no overpowering flavors which is also nice |
| Sobie Meats | 5 | blah. has sort of a stale flavor, a little chewy |
| Nueske’s (Wild Cherrywood Smoked) | 7.5 | a little sweet, a little salty, tastes liek a delicious campfire |
| ThinkGeek Tactical Bacon | 4 | I confess to recognizing this one. Honestly, it tastes like nothing, which is better than I expected. The texture is fine |
| Trader Joe’s Black Forrest Bacon (dry rubbed) | 6 | Has a subtly sweet flavor. Not bad, nothing fantastic either. Also, thin in a good way. |
Shane:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Boar’s Head (Smoked) | 5 | average bacon, decent taste, bacon size was a little uneven |
| Sobie Meats | 8 | good appearance, just the right amount of fatty, good after taste, a little smokey |
| Nueske’s (Wild Cherrywood Smoked) | 9 | great flavor, salty, little fatty |
| ThinkGeek Tactical Bacon | 2 | blech |
| Trader Joe’s Black Forrest Bacon (dry rubbed) | 8 | good taste, a little different, more tough than I usually like, but it all came together for me |
Evie:
| Brand | Rating (1-10) | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Boar’s Head (Smoked) | 6 | smiley face |
| Sobie Meats | 1 | frowny face |
| Nueske’s (Wild Cherrywood Smoked) | 2 | unsure face |
| ThinkGeek Tactical Bacon | 10 | smiley face |
| Trader Joe’s Black Forrest Bacon (dry rubbed) | 8 | smiley face |
Overall Results:
| Brand | Average Rating | Average Rating (with Evie) |
|---|---|---|
| Boar’s Head (Smoked) | 6.25 | 6.2 |
| Sobie Meats | 5.25 | 4.4 |
| Nueske’s (Wild Cherrywood Smoked) | 6.375 | 5.5 |
| ThinkGeek Tactical Bacon | 3.5 | 4.8 |
| Trader Joe’s Black Forrest Bacon (dry rubbed) | 6.5 | 6.8 |
Very, very close this year. I can’t believe that Trader Joe’s bacon has won 2 out of 3 years! That’s crazy. It’s also interesting that the winner didn’t change with the inclusion of Evie’s rankings.
Ollie’s ballot was exactly what you would think Ollie’s ballet would be, each one signed with an “O” to be sure there was no hanky panky.
I would like to talk for a minute about the Tactical Bacon from ThinkGeek.
Even though it lost pretty badly, everyone was very impressed with the TacBac. This can of bacon has been sitting in my pantry for more than THREE YEARS. Sara was so disgusted by the idea of it, that she couldn’t even look at the can. And given all that, i would put it up against any of the “precooked” bacons on the market. It was remarkable, and certainly worth eating in the case of a zombie apocalypse. In fact, you’ll notice Evie gave it a full 10! I think this is probably because she doesn’t like strong tastes and it has a pretty muted flavor, but nonetheless, if anybody can give old bacon from a can a 10, I think we’ve got a winner. (Full disclosure, I did drop the slices in the bacon grease from one of the other bacons to better disguise it.)
Shane Halbach 
Seems like only yesterday I was reading about baconfest 2012. Oddly enough, I was thinking about your blog when I wrote a post on The Zombie Preparedness Initiative about how to make bacon post apocalypse.
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Victor! I was wondering if you were still around.
I had not seen the Zombie Preparedness initiative site. The bacon post was great. I’ll be blogging about it, but probably not for a couple of weeks. Got a bit of a backlog at the moment.
Thanks for the heads up (and for making a great site).
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