I decided to take up significant space in our freezer to store all four flavors of Tillamook’s Chocolate Collection Ice Cream. Did I have to heat up and eat bags of frozen broccoli, peas, and edamame to make room for the tower of 1.5-quart tubs? Yes. So, thank you, Tillamook, for making me eat a bunch of green vegetables so I could eat a bunch of brown chocolate ice creams.
Brownie Batter
Since the following is the case with three of the four flavors, I’ll get it out of the way here. The ice cream-to-mix-ins and swirls ratio leans heavily to the dairy side, making it hard to get everything in one spoonful. With this flavor, there are brownie dough pieces within the dark chocolate brownie batter ice cream, but they are few and far between. Well, at least, throughout the one-fourth of the container I’ve eaten so far. The smallish pieces have a bold fudge flavor and a pleasant chew that contrasts nicely with the base’s creaminess. But the lack of mix-ins isn’t all that bad because the base has a tasty brownie batter-ish flavor. It definitely tastes different from the bases in the other three varieties, which have a standard chocolate ice cream flavor.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 220 calories, 12 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 80 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 22 grams of sugar (including 18 grams of added sugar), and 5 grams of protein.
Chocolate Hazelnut
Hoping for Nutella vibes here? You’re not getting that. The container contains dark chocolate ice cream with hazelnuts and a hazelnut butter swirl. There are decent-sized hazelnuts, but, oddly, they don’t provide much of any hazelnut taste, only the snap of the nut when I bite into them. Doing all the hazelnut flavor lifting is that stiff hazelnut butter swirl that stands out within the dark chocolate base. Get a spoonful with a hazelnut, some of the swirl, and the base, and you’ve got yourself a Ferrero Rocher on a spoon. But, again, since the mix-ins and swirls aren’t plentiful, most spoonfuls taste like chocolate ice cream.
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 240 calories, 15 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 45 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 5 grams of fiber, 22 grams of sugar (including 17 grams of added sugar), and 6 grams of protein.
German Chocolate Cake
I didn’t think I’d like this one because I’m not a fan of German Chocolate Cake. But the ingredient I dislike about the dessert, shredded coconut, doesn’t show itself much in this flavor, which contains dark chocolate ice cream with a brown sugar coconut swirl, pecans, and chocolate cake pieces. It’s not very coconutty because the swirl is sparse. I’ve gone through about one-fifth of the container and can recall tasting something coconut only twice. But I did bite through three pecan pieces and two cake pieces, which were chewy but not as much as the brownie chunks in the other variety. But, much like the flavor above, there were too many spoonfuls that were just the ice cream base. This was probably the least memorable of them all.
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 230 calories, 13 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 40 milligrams of cholesterol, 65 milligrams of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 23 grams of sugar (including 19 grams of added sugar), and 5 grams of protein.
Dark Chocolate Cookies & Cream
Finally, we have a simple flavor that features dark chocolate ice cream with crunchy cookie pieces. “Crunchy” is how Tillamook describes the cookies on the container, but inside, most are as soft as cookies super soaked in milk. But Tillamook didn’t just add chocolate wafers and dust off cookie crumbs from its hands. It included sandwich cookie chunks, so there are also white creme bits. Oddly, that frozen creme does add some texture that should’ve come from the cookies. Unlike the other varieties, this one had a decent amount of mix-ins. However, I will admit that the photo above doesn’t represent the slightly scarcer layers under it. The cookies add a different, dark chocolatey burst than the ice cream. But like the previous two flavors, get a spoonful without a mix-in, and it’s total choco ice cream.
Rating: 7 out of 10<
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 230 calories, 12 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 85 milligrams of sodium, 28 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 23 grams of sugar (including 19 grams of added sugar), and 5 grams of protein.
Because I had all four flavors and for funsies, I combined them all, and that changed nothing because the chocolate base still dominated most spoonfuls.
I enjoyed all the flavors, but none of them wowed me, even the Brownie Batter one. With most, because the chocolate base is so bold and there are limited mix-ins, they tasted like I was eating regular chocolate ice cream 65-70 percent of the time. I can’t believe I’m kind of complaining about eating regular chocolate ice cream. What kind of monster have I become? Maybe these would’ve been better as pints, so the ice cream-to-mix-in ratio would’ve been better.
Purchased Price: $4.99 each (on sale)
Size: 1.5 quart containers
Purchased at: Safeway
I wish tillamook sold pints!!! I have the same conundrum every time I see a flavor I like ?
Uhhhhh, they do sell pints.
I have no interest in most of the chocolate flavors because I don’t like coconut or nuts, but I did buy the dark chocolate cookies and cream and I really like it. I tried Tillamook for the first time a couple of months ago and I think it’s good ice cream and not super expensive compared to some of the premium brands.
I agree, Tillamook is a good compromise between budget ice cream and the high priced stuff.
Publix chocolate cookie quarry is the GOAT for chocolate cookies and cream. I wish Ben and Jerrys still had their brownie batter ice cream.
I wish Ben and Jerry’s still made their fabulous German Chocolate Cake ice cream, which DID have enough coconut in it!
I agree, JD. Publix ice cream is the absolute best! The Publix frozen yogurt is terrific, too, and actually tastes as great as the ice cream!
You need to get your taste buds checked.
The chocolate hazelnut is perfect. No, you don’t just “bite into it and get the feeling”. The entire ice cream is a strong hazelnut flavor and the chocolate is not overpowering, what are you talking about?
Seriously, go to the doctor and have your health checked. Tillamook is the best ice cream I’ve had since Breyers, Haagen Daaz and all of the rest of the good ones changed ingredients and turned to crap.
I just found this ice cream earlier this year. I have tried multiple flavors and they were so good, but my favorite is White Chocolate Raspberry.
But next time, could I actually have raspberries in the ice cream?
All I received was a carton of vanilla ice cream.
I used to love chocolate hazelnut tilamook ice cream but since about 2-3 months now I feel like the taste has changed for the worse, unfortunately. I don’t like it anymore. It is kind of bitter with huge chunks of very sweet gooey stuff ( I don’t even know what it is)
Used to have nice swirls of buttery hazelnut cream and delicious chocolate flavor but now it’s just not good anymore. I don’t think I will buy it again.