We know, we know, everyone has their favorites and swear by certain places for the beloved southern drink! But has anyone actually done a bushwasker tour! I mean seriously, we had what we thought was our absolute favorite on the island, I mean we have had several from multiple restaurants and always enjoy the drink but once we actually did this taste test, we were pretty surprised with the results.
We went to 5 restaurants this week to taste each of the "famous bushwackers". This is just something that HAD to be done, it was just soooo hard to try all of these sweet chocolatey frozen drinks lol. So here they are in order of tasting WITH our scoring card. We scored based on; size, price, alcohol content, creaminess, sweetness, and an overall score. We scored 1-5 with 5 being the highest. Now, you can get a floater of what is typically 151 on each of these, but we kept it simple and just used the base bushwacker to keep things as even as possible.
Bahama Bobs
Size: About 16oz
Price: $9.09
Alcohol: 2
Creaminess: 4
Sweetness: 5
Overall: 3.5
Additional notes: they offer 2 different floaters - 151 which is the traditional OR peanut butter whiskey!
All in all, this was more like a milkshake and we weren't terribly impressed with the lack of alcohol.
Tacky Jacks - Fort Morgan
Size: about 16oz
Price: $9.81
Alcohol: 2
Creaminess: 2
Sweetness: 3.5
Overall: 2
Additional Notes: can get a floater but not sure which alcohol at an additional price.
Overall, this one did not have very much chocolate, more of a vanilla flavor and again lacked the alcohol. For this being a popular tourist spot in all of their locations (Fort Morgan, Gulf Shores, and Orange Beach) and they brag on their "famous bushwacker" we were not impressed. It was really lacking. They use paper straws, which is all fine and dandy for less plastic waste but they serve it in a Styrofoam cup which defeats the purpose, and the straw gets limp and yucky.
King Neptunes
Size: about 16oz
Price: $13
Alcohol: 3.5
Creaminess: 4
Sweetness: 3
Overall: 4.5
Additional notes: They did not offer a floater but it can be requested.
Overall, this was one of our favorites! The flavor was great and had a bit more coconut to it which really enhanced the flavor. We talked to the bar tender there and they actually had their staff vote on which "recipe" to use for their signature bushwacker. Now, at $13 a pop you're going to spend some money, but there is quite a bit of alcohol in it. Two of these and you'll be pretty tipsy!
LuLu's Gulf Shores
Size: about 16oz
Price: $10
Alcohol: 2.5
Creaminess: 2
Sweetness: 3.5
Overall: 2.5
Additional notes: This one comes with the floater
Even though this bushwacker comes with the floater, that seems to be all the alcohol in it. For the price, you'd think it would contain more alcohol which is partly why the score was so low, and it wasn't as flavorful as we would have liked.
Beach House Kitchen & Cocktail
Size: about 16oz
Price: $8
Alcohol: 4
Creaminess: 3
Sweetness: 4.5
Overall: 4
Additional Notes: You can get the topper on this for an additional cost
Overall, this is a great bushwacker. Great flavor and price. A couple of these will get you pretty tipsy.
Ok, so in conclusion, we still really enjoy the bushwackers at BeachHouse, but if we want to splurge we will definitely go to King Neptune's. We don't like our drinks too sweet, hello headaches - come one, we aren't 20 anymore (cough 21), And we have a pretty high alcohol tolerance so something weak to us might be over the edge for some others, the bushwackers we make at home are much stronger than these but I will now be adding more coconut - YUM!
Be sure to comment below with your favorite bushwackers and where you get them from! We stayed on the Gulf Shores side of things for all of these and have also previously had them at Flora-Bama, Cobalts, Shrimp Basket, and Crazy Cajun. And if we went to more than just these 5 places for bushwackers in the week we stayed we would need to take out another mortgage!
If you want us to do a second Tour De' Bushwacker, be sure to put your suggestions below and we will get to working on that!