Ice Cream – Page 25 – The Impulsive Buy

REVIEW: KIND Frozen Pints

Dustin / June 24, 2021 / Reviews / 6 Comments

KIND, the purveyor of various fruit & nut bars and other snacks, has released its new Frozen Pints. These frozen non-dairy desserts seem to emulate the flavors of the other products made by KIND.

I snagged three flavors: Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt, Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter, and Caramel Almond Sea Salt. Though I couldn’t find them, there are four other flavors available, including Cherry Cashew and Strawberry.

Before digging in, I examined the ingredients labels and found a surprise. The primary ingredient in all three is pear juice, which I thought was curious. Beyond that, all three employ nuts to establish their non-dairy bases. Eager to see how they fared, I dug right in.

Caramel Almond Sea Salt

The color of this one was lighter than expected, and I could smell the caramel upon opening it. My spoon glided effortlessly through the almond-based frozen dessert. Most non-dairy ice creams that I’ve had were all quite icy, so this creaminess was a pleasant surprise.

As I took my first bite, the smoothness was further reinforced. The caramel immediately walloped me in the taste buds. It seemed to be mostly integrated into the base, but there were some faint caramel ribbons throughout as well. As I acclimated to the caramel, I could sense the saltiness, but it was not overbearing. The almond pieces rounded out the flavor profile and added a nice contrasting crunch. Overall, this is an enjoyable, but slightly unexciting, take on salted caramel.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 290 calories, 15 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 33 grams of carbohydrates, 2 grams of fiber, 19 grams of sugar and 6 grams of protein.

Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter

The Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter’s carton says it’s a “creamy chocolate frozen dessert made from peanuts, with dark chocolate chunks and a peanut butter swirl.” The base looked chocolatey, but also overly grainy.

Upon trying to insert my spoon, I was met with a much fiercer resistance than that of the Caramel Almond Sea Salt. It was quite icy, as is typical of many non-dairy frozen desserts. It tasted primarily like peanut butter, with just a hint of chocolate. The dark chocolate chunks add complexity and crunch while bringing more chocolate flavor to the forefront. The grittiness is noticeable when eating it as well. I prefer the taste of this one over the caramel, but its texture is a bit of a deal-breaker.

Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 280 calories, 16 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 170 milligrams of sodium, 33 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 19 grams of sugar, and 6 grams of protein.

Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt

Like the caramel flavor, the Dark Chocolate Almond Sea Salt is almond-based. Chunks of dark chocolate and almond pieces peeked out of the top. I hesitantly inserted my spoon into the pint and was relieved to find out this one is creamy also. Upon tasting, I was instantly able to tell that almond was the predominant flavor.

The almond pieces and dark chocolate chunks added a rewarding crunch, but there isn’t enough chocolate. This tastes too much like almond-on-almond, which could be remedied by a more generous helping of chocolate. The salt was barely noticeable. The flavor was pleasant enough, but it left me somewhat unsatisfied. The creaminess is the saving grace here.

Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 290 calories, 16 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 240 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 4 grams of fiber, 19 grams of sugar and 6 grams of protein.

Final Observations

The KIND Frozen Pints are certainly in the same spirit as the rest of their products. Their subtle sweetness satisfied on a level akin to KIND’s other offerings. The Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter was the standout flavor for me, by far, but its dreadful consistency significantly lowers its standing. This could be related to the use of peanuts in the base rather than almonds. The Caramel Almond Sea Salt was the sweetest, but none of them are particularly sugary. If you are in the market for a non-dairy ice cream, these may be worth a shot, especially if you are fond of nuts.

Purchased Price: $5.49
Size: 1 pint
Purchased at: Fry’s

REVIEW: Blue Bell Chocolate Sheet Cake Ice Cream

Denis / May 21, 2021 / Reviews / 15 Comments

What is Blue Bell Chocolate Sheet Cake Ice Cream?

Blue Bell’s newest flavor features milk chocolate ice cream with chocolate sheet cake pieces, chopped pecans, and chocolate icing swirl.

How is it?

As one might expect from an ice cream with the word “chocolate” appearing three times in the description, this is pretty chocolatey but not to the extreme or to its detriment. I thought this might be a choco overload situation, however, the different types and textures of chocolate really work well together.

The ice cream base is smooth and creamy, and the chocolate swirl actually did taste more like a fudgy icing than the generic chocolate swirl in many ice creams. As for the cake pieces, they were denser and richer than I was expecting, almost like a brownie, so it was an excellent complement to the ice cream.

The only thing that did not bring much to the table was the pecans. The pieces were quite small and not very plentiful, so you might be a little disappointed if you are a pecan lover. Overall, this flavor was quite delightful, and that’s coming from someone who is not a chocoholic.

Anything else you need to know?

Blue Bell claims this is “inspired by a favorite Texas dessert.” That befuddled me a bit, as I happen to live in Texas and have never heard of the Lone Star State taking credit for the sheet cake.

It turns out that it is not just marketing spin and that a chocolate cake with pecans in sheet form is sometimes called a Texas sheet cake. But I doubt anyone in Wisconsin, or in Texas for that matter, walks into their local Walmart and asks for a Texas sheet cake.

Although I live in Texas, I was not born here, and I do not own a Don’t Mess with Texas T-shirt or belt buckle, so whether or not Texas gets credit for a dessert matters little to me. That’s probably why I gave up on my research after a few minutes upon discovering there seems to be disagreement on both how the “Texas” and “sheet” parts of the name came into being. So the mystery will endure.

Conclusion:

Blue Bell is not breaking new ground here by mixing chocolate ice cream with cake, pecans, and some swirl, but if you are in the mood for a good chocolate treat with a bit of depth to it, then this should hit the spot.

Purchased Price: $2.69
Size: 1 pint
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 260 calories, 14 grams of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 115 milligrams of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of dietary fiber, 26 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.

Blue Bell Ice Cream

REVIEW: Ben & Jerry’s The Tonight Dough Chunks

Marvo / April 22, 2021 / Reviews / 4 Comments

Full disclosure: This review will be partially about Ben & Jerry’s The Tonight Dough Chunks, but mostly a new product pitch to the folks at Ben & Jerry’s.

But before I present a PowerPoint slide deck of my idea, I should probably get the review out of the way.

If you’re not familiar with the ice cream flavor, it features caramel and chocolate ice creams with chocolate cookie swirls and gobs of chocolate chip cookie dough and peanut butter cookie dough. But the pouch above has a mixture of chocolate chip cookie dough and chocolatey coated peanut butter cookie dough chunks.

Is this two cookie dough chunk combination delicious? Absolutely.

But having had almost every single type of Ben & Jerry’s dough chunks, I have to say there’s nothing that really makes it stand out from the other varieties. The two are pretty much the combination of others but in one pouch.

Yes, if you want to get technical, there’s no chocolatey coated peanut butter cookie dough chunks variety. But the peanut butter chocolate chip dough chunks are basically the same thing. If you like those two, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t like this. Although, when I snacked on this, I popped into my mouth one of each simultaneously, and sometimes there was be a solid nutty punch, and other times it’s hard to notice the peanut butter flavor.

But with that said, as much as I enjoy edible cookie dough, I can’t help but feel myself getting bored of it. Yes, there have been several flavors, but how many more different dough chunks are there left? Maybe it’s time to change things up a little.

Now let me get to that PowerPoint I promised…Wait, this projector only has a VGA port. Seriously. Am I in the 90s? Does someone have a VGA to HDMI adapter? No one? Well then, I guess you won’t be treated to my 85 slides about what I’m about to propose to Ben & Jerry’s. Instead, it’ll be 85 words.

Ben & Jerry’s should sell bags of its edible cookie dough with its non-dough mix-ins. It could be called Mix-In Mashups (feel free to use that, Flavor Gurus). For example, I think it would be great to combine the fudge-covered waffle cone pieces in Americone Dream with the company’s chocolate chip cookie dough chunks. It would be a contrast of textures with the cone’s crunch and the cookie dough’s squish. Or maybe have a bag with cinnamon bun dough and fudge brownies.

I might never get my Mix-In Mashups, so I guess I’ll have to settle for the perfectly fine Ben & Jerry’s The Tonight Dough Chunks and all the others in the edible dough bites line.

Purchased Price: $4.59
Size: 8 oz pouch
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2 tbsp/28 grams) 120 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 60 milligrams of sodium, 19 grams of carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of fiber, 11 grams of sugar, and 1 gram of protein.

Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream

REVIEW: Funfetti Light Ice Cream

Sean / April 16, 2021 / Reviews / 7 Comments

What is Funfetti Ice Cream?

One of the, if not THE most iconic cake mix and packaged frosting of all time, Pillsbury’s Funfetti, gets turned into a frozen scoopable treat. It features Funfetti light ice cream with rainbow sprinkles and a cake crunch swirl.

How is it?

The ice cream is…light, and taking it for what it is, it’s not too shabby. It’s relatively light, like literally in the weight sense, although not quite airy. But I’m happy to report it’s not at all gummy like other lower calorie ice creams can be (frozen dairy dessert, yuck).

The Funfetti base’s taste is sweet but not sickeningly so, although more notably sugary than standard vanilla. I actually wish it was a bit sweeter, as I’m very familiar with what the real frosting tastes like, and this doesn’t quite scratch that itch.

Sprinkles are sprinkles, and there’s certainly an abundance of them. They’re sweet and colorful with a pleasant waxy chew that brings the party vibes. The cake crunch swirl is the best part of this experience, with a texture that reminds me of a cross between frosting and fudge with the grittiness of cookie dough. It’s like little bits of cake crumbs rolled into soft sweetness. Delicious.

Anything else you need to know?

Like most light ice cream or anything that comes in a tub this big, I wish I had more of the best component. The cake crunch swirl wasn’t nearly as thick or ample as I would like, but it comes with the territory. It mostly appears in wispy moments that elevate the bite, but I found a couple of bigger pieces towards the middle and they were really great.

Conclusion:

Funfetti ice cream is made for kids. It’s a big, bright, and light tub that does nothing new and doesn’t fail at delivering a caloric and money budget-friendly ice cream that anyone with a basic palate, or children, can appreciate.

Purchased Price: $4.99
Size: 1.5 Quarts
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup, 82g) 160 calories, 4.5 grams of fat, 2.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 65 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 17 grams of sugar, 3 grams of protein.

Funfetti Ice Cream

REVIEW: Outshine Simply Indulgent Bars

Elaine / March 19, 2021 / Reviews / 2 Comments

If you have somehow managed to maintain your New Year’s healthy eating or weight loss resolutions until March – kudos to you! And an even bigger kudos because you have managed to maintain your goals while visiting this website daily – I guess exposure therapy works?

This is the time that most people’s resolutions slowly disappear as the temptations of Super Bowl, Valentine’s Day, and life gets to us all. So why am I even talking about New Year’s resolutions now? Because as I was sampling these Outshine Simply Indulgent Bars and reading the nutrition label, I thought, “Hey, these are relatively healthy and taste pretty decent too!” Of course, healthy is definitely relative. Outshine markets their products as “feel-good” and “wholesome,” but these are different topics for another time.

Let’s focus on the indulgent part of these bars instead. For me, indulgent would be a triple-layer cake with lots of frosting and extra goodies on top and shoved inside. However, this version of indulgent probably conflicts with the simple part of these bars. So while I would not say that these bars are indulgent, they were tasty.

I opened the box, and like other Outshine products, the bars were all orderly placed inside. When taken out, they do not look very exciting and look like all other frozen bars. Similar to their appearance, there was no alluring smell to stimulate my senses either. However, upon the first bite, I immediately could tell that these indeed contained milk – they were actually creamy in flavor!

I started with the mango bar, which also appeared to be softening first. It had a very light mango taste, and I would have appreciated a stronger flavor presence. I decided to move on to the strawberry bar. Again, a light fruit taste. But this one also had some strawberry bits, which I appreciated because of the texture contrast and small flavor bursts. It reminded me of eating a Yoplait yogurt, except in frozen dairy bar form.

Next, I was eager to move to the non-fruit flavors: chocolate and coffee. These are the first two non-fruit flavored products from Outshine, although they have dabbled with chocolate before with its Half Dipped Bars. The chocolate bar reminded me of chocolate milk, where there’s a satisfying chocolate presence, but you aren’t eating a chunk of fudge.

Lastly, there’s the coffee one. I was most excited about this bar because it contains 20 milligrams of caffeine. The coffee taste was definitely present, but still light like the others. This could work well for an afternoon treat with a little buzz.

If you really want to enjoy these bars like you would with ice cream, I recommend you wait until they start to soften or just bite in and let them slowly melt in your mouth. I prefer the texture profile of the first option, though.

In summary, if you are still sticking to your New Year’s health-kick but want a hint of an ice cream treat, these will suffice. To be clear, these are not a Ben & Jerry’s ice cream substitute, but an alternative if you have a small craving to satisfy. They also have five grams of protein per bar. The flavor profiles are not strong or indulgent, but present (with the mango and coffee having a slightly lighter presence for me). But the milky creaminess help deliver a general contentment.

DISCLOSURE: I received free product samples. Doing so did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 14.7 oz (1 box of 6 bars)
Purchased at: Received from Nestlé
Rating: 6 out of 10 (Mango), 7 out of 10 (Strawberry), 7 out of 10 (Chocolate), 6 out of 10 (Coffee)
Nutrition Facts: (1 bar) Mango – 100 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 25 milligrams of sodium, 14 grams of total carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 13 grams of sugar, 10 grams of added sugars, and 5 grams of protein. Strawberry – 100 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 25 milligrams of sodium, 14 grams of total carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 13 grams of sugar, 10 grams of added sugars, and 5 grams of protein. Chocolate – 90 calories, 3 grams of fat, 2 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 30 milligrams of sodium, 12 grams of total carbohydrates, less than 1 gram of dietary fiber, 11 grams of sugar, 8 grams of added sugars, and 5 grams of protein. Coffee – 80 calories, 2.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 10 milligrams of cholesterol, 30 milligrams of sodium, 10 grams of total carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 10 grams of sugar, 7 grams of added sugars, and 5 grams of protein.

Ice Cream Outshine