A sandwich at Helacio's Deli & Cafe, a deli in Berkeley, California.
out of 100 · excellent
Excellent, with one move worth +12.
A club with layers outside the form; six of six roles.
Holding the summit: balance 0.80 or better
Each bar is one pillar of the score, 0 to 100. The tick marks what a sandwich at the summit needs; an amber bar is the one holding this sandwich back.
sourdough roll, toasted: butter; grilled chicken; bacon; avocado; lettuce; tomatoes; red onions; mayo.
Balance
| Axis | Value | Catalog percentile |
|---|---|---|
| salt | 1.0 | 53rd |
| acid | 0.6 | 51st |
| fat | 3.1 | 82nd |
| sweet | 0.2 | 27th |
| umami | 1.6 | 56th |
| heat | 0.0 | 47th |
| bitter | 0.1 | 47th |
87 Balance, out of 100
The seven flavor axes of the whole sandwich, each summed across its layers. The shaded ring is the catalog's middle 80%; the small number under each axis is where this sandwich falls in the catalog. A shape that sits inside the ring is in the range most sandwiches live in; a spike past it is where this one stands apart.
What each layer brings
| Layer | Role | Flavor and texture | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| sourdough rollscored as Sourdough | bread | soft chewy crusty | the frame |
| butter | fat | fat 5 creamy silky | −12 |
| grilled chickenscored as Chicken | protein | umami 3 fat 2 juicy chewy tender | +1 |
| bacon | protein | fat 4 salt 3 umami 3 crispy chewy | −2 |
| avocado | fat | fat 4 creamy soft fresh | −4 |
| lettuce | texture | crunchy juicy fresh | +6 |
| tomatoesscored as Tomato | texture | acid 3 umami 3 sweet 2 juicy soft fresh | +17 |
| red onionsscored as Onion | texture | sweet 2 crunchy juicy fresh | +6 |
| mayoscored as Mayonnaise | sauce | fat 5 acid 2 creamy saucy | −3 |
Points: what the Sandwich Score would lose if that one layer were left out, everything else the same. A negative number means the sandwich scores higher without it. Flavor runs 0 to 5 on each axis.
Pairings
- Sourdough + Butter: grilled cheese law: butter on a tangy crust
- Chicken + Bacon: chicken club logic: smoke on a lean bird
- Chicken + Avocado: california logic: green fat on a lean bird
- Bacon + Avocado: smoke and salt lift buttery avocado
- Bacon + Lettuce: cool crunch against hot smoke
- Bacon + Tomato: smoke against sweet acid, the blt core
- Tomato + Mayonnaise: summer tomato sandwich: acid on rich
How to raise it
- Between you and 90: balance 0.80 or better (0.09 short).
All the sandwiches at Helacio's Deli & Cafe · The menu this was read from · Build your own in the Sandwich Builder