The Plaid Pladd

At this point, I’m pretty sure Chocovine only comes up with new flavors to challenge me. I mean, who else is buying this stuff? So I have to say, they didn’t try very hard with whipped cream flavored Chocovine. It tastes far less horrible than any other flavor of Chocovine I’ve ever tried, and Rob even admitted that he would “totally drink it normally” after testing it pre-competition. It should be noted that this was Rob’s first ever Chocovine servery challenge, so he lacked the other competitors’ bitterness on the subject.

Also this time I took notes during the competition so I don’t have to guess about what was in each thing!!! Instead, I have to decipher my own abbreviations, which is perhaps just as difficult. Also for the first time, I decided we would vote by actually writing our choice down on secret ballot instead of blurting it out one by one. This was to keep Rob from trying to game the vote so that he wins, despite forcing us to drink pickles and strawberries or whatever. I think it worked out pretty well!

The Entries

Berry Good Time by Megan
Ingredients: Milk, strawberry syrup, “a little bit of the chocovine”, sprinkles, whipped cream, colorful straws arranged in a pattern

Megan’s entry tasted pretty much just like strawberry milk, which is delicious. And nothing is ever hurt by the addition of whipped cream and sprinkles. It also had the added interactive component of having to figure out which straw hadn’t been used when it was handed to you. Fun AND educational! Megan’s strategy of using as little chocovine as possible definitely helped in the taste department, though I’m not sure how much it “makes chocovine palatable” as per the rules. I guess she could be showing us that the best way to drink chocovine is not to.

Chocolate Cherry Surprise by Rob
Ingredients: Chocovine, kirsch cherry liqueur, maraschino cherries, whipped cream, the contents of cookies and cream milk straws, and vanilla salt

Rob claimed that this was “the least prepared” he’s ever been for a servery challenge, which, thinking back to when these actually took place in a servery, I can’t believe is true. Instead of just throwing random things from my cupboard into a cup, he at least tried to go with a theme. Unfortunately, that theme was fake cherry flavor, so to me his drink tasted kind of like cough syrup. I know other people are more a fan of that, though, so I don’t judge. The whipped cream and the kirsch mixed made the whipped cream go a little globby and gross-looking, and the tiny balls he cut out of the milk straws didn’t fully dissolve. Still, everyone agreed, WAY better than strawberries and pickles.

Fuck, What’s the name of Mine? by Steven
Ingredients: Chocovine, ice cream, chocolate syrup

Steven made a kind of chocovine milkshake that turned out to be surprisingly tasty! In fact, many of us asked for seconds! I think it helped that it was served chilled, thanks to the ice cream. The intense cold blocked out a lot of the gross aftertaste you often get with chocovine, and let you just concentrate on the chocolate. He decided on the name moments after remembering that you needed a name, and I think it shows.

ChocoPuddingVine by Me
Ingredients: Instant Chocolate Pudding mix, chocovine, milk

Since this was my fourth chocovine challenge, I decided I had to go for something different to really set mine apart. Instead of making a drink, I decided to just replace half the milk in instant pudding with chocovine. So a lot like my blue raspberry/instant potato strategy, but not completely crazy and disgusting. I was a little surprised that the pudding was able to set fairly well just sitting on our table within the 10 minute time limit, and it pretty much tasted like normal chocolate pudding with a little kick. I was gratified to see that some people ate more than the required taste!

The Judging
After a process of secret ballot, Steven was declared the winner!!! This puts him at a 75% Chocovine challenge win rate. Clears his emphasis on presentation and meticulous attention to detail is giving him some kind of unfair advantage.

Rob won Most Improved

Megan won Least Like Chocovine (which is totally a compliment)

And I won Most Innovative possibly at my own insistence.

Overall, I’d say this was the most pleasant Chocovine Challenge ever! No one’s entry was so disgusting that I couldn’t swallow, and nothing will haunt my taste buds for all time. I’m pretty sure that’s never happened before. Seriously, we should have a competition where Original Chocovine’s Squidstache by Rachel and Espresso Chocovine’s The Rob by Thomas duke it out for Most Nauseating Thing Ever.

Also, since everyone always leaves the ingredients they brought to compete with in my kitchen, we’re eventually going to have to have “using up past servery challenge ingredients” servery challenge. Stay tuned.

Past Chocovine Challenges:
The Original
Raspberry
Espresso