Ice Cream – Page 25 – The Impulsive Buy

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.

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

REVIEW: Blue Bell Cookies ‘n Cream Cone Ice Cream

Denis / March 11, 2021 / Reviews / 7 Comments

What is Blue Bell Cookies ‘n Cream Cone?

It’s the newest flavor from Blue Bell and is described as, to quote the packaging, “vanilla flavored ice cream with chocolate crème filled cookie crumbles, dark chocolate-coated chocolate cone pieces and a chocolate fudge swirl.”

If you’re counting, the word “chocolate” is mentioned four times in the description but not once in the product’s name. And if you are a stickler for punctuation, you might wonder why chocolate-coated is hyphenated, but not vanilla flavored or crème filled. I have no answer for that, and it will probably keep me up tonight.

How is it?

My first thought upon popping the top was that the quartet of chocolates in the description was not enough because all I saw was a small island of vanilla-ish color in the middle surrounded by a sea of chocolate.

However, after some excavating, it turned out that there just happened to be a thin layer of the fudge swirl on the top. A full scoop has more of a traditional cookies’ n cream look.

As for the taste, it was quite good and not overly chocolatey. The cookies’ n cream part was basically your standard cookies’ n cream flavor, but the fudge swirls added a nice chocolate boost and tasted a lot like Hershey’s syrup.

The cone pieces provided some extra taste and texture, although they were hard to distinguish from the cookie pieces. The label was not kidding when it said “crumbles” either, as I didn’t find many cookie pieces of significant size. The cone pieces were larger but still fairly small. Overall, the flavors and textures all worked together splendidly. It would have been nice to have some more sizable chunks of both cookies and cone, however.

Anything else you need to know?

In my dedication to providing you with the most comprehensive information available about this product, I actually read — OK, I skimmed — a press release about it. According to it, this new flavor is an homage to Blue Bell’s Cookie Cone product that launched in 1997, was sold mostly in school cafeterias, and discontinued in 2015. That product had a complete cone with a scoop of chocolate-coated ice cream, along with the same overly happy fake Oreo guy on the package.

Conclusion:

This is not the fanciest or most daring ice cream flavor out there, perhaps because Blue Bell sees itself as a more traditional ice cream maker. The packaging on this product is flashy by its standards, as most of its other flavors have just a solid color with the kid leading the cow logo. So if you want ice cream with Pop Rocks, Sour Patch Kids, or something like that in it, you have plenty of other options, but if you just want some good cookies’ n cream ice cream with a little something extra, this one is for you.

Purchased Price: $6.34
Size: Half-gallon
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 280 calories, 15 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 120 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 27 grams of sugar, and 5 grams of protein.

Blue Bell Ice Cream

REVIEW: Dreyer’s Edy’s Rocky Road Collection Ice Cream

Dustin / February 17, 2021 / Reviews / 7 Comments

According to Dreyer’s/Edy’s, they invented Rocky Road ice cream and came up with the iconic name in 1929 as something relatable for everyone, given the trying times (it seems worth noting that this claim has been contested by Fentons Ice Creamery in Oakland).

Nearly a century later, they have released The Rocky Road Collection to pay tribute to the original. This collection consists of three popular renditions and three entirely new flavors. As a devotee of bountiful mix-ins, I was excited to get my hands on these new varieties.

Side note: I had never heard of Edy’s before this, so I did some brief research. In the 1920s, ice cream maker William Dreyer and candy maker Joseph Edy joined forces and started making ice cream together. Today, Dreyer’s is sold in the western part of the U.S. and Edy’s in the eastern portion. It’s the ice cream equivalent of Hellmann’s/Best Foods!

All three flavors from this review are available in both the Dreyer’s and Edy’s lines.

On to the ice cream!

Salted Caramel Pretzel Path

Caramel ice cream is the base here. It is mild and sweet, which allows the mix-ins to shine. I don’t pick up any salty notes in the ice cream itself. The chunks of pretzel are covered in chocolate and provide a satisfying crunch, with just a hint of saltiness. They offer a nice textural contrast, but are outshined by the chocolate-covered toffee pieces.

The toffee is rich, buttery, and well-executed. Sometimes it can be a little hard on the teeth when it’s in ice cream, but that’s not the case here. It’s crunchy without being troublesome. Fudge is ribboned throughout the ice cream, remaining a constant sweet presence.

Salted Caramel Pretzel Path works well, but feels slightly boring in comparison to the other flavors. The toffee chunks are the reason to try this one. I appreciate that the ice cream isn’t overly salty, but salted caramel fans may be left wanting more.

Size: 1.5 quart carton
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 210 calories, 10 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 120 mg of sodium, 27 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 21 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

Cookie Cobblestone

The chocolate ice cream base is sweet, without being cloying. It has the typical airy Dreyer’s texture, just like all three flavors. Again, this base exists primarily as a delivery vessel for the mix-ins.

The cookie dough chunks are standard fare and bring a chewy, pleasant texture to the fold. There are also chocolate cookie pieces, but these aren’t quite as prevalent. They mostly exist as a fine grain, present in every bite, rather than actual chunks. These provide a nice balancing grit to the rest of the ice cream. Marshmallow swirls act as the glue in this version, lending a typical rocky road familiarity.

Cookie Cobblestone is cohesive and ranks slightly higher than Salted Caramel Pretzel Path. The chocolate ice cream is more well-rounded than the caramel. The mix-ins ratio was good, but more chunks of chocolate cookie pieces would have been even better.

Size: 1.5 quart container
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 220 calories, 9 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 20 milligrams of cholesterol, 95 milligrams of sodium, 32 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 22 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

Brownie Brick Road

I love brownies, so I excitedly dug into this one without examining the components first. I was caught off guard by an inviting crunchy chunk in my first spoonful that exploded with the flavor of brownies. According to the carton, it is crispy brownie edges. These things are the main attraction.

The base of this flavor is a sweet cream ice cream, which is a smart choice. It allows the brownie flavor to be prominently displayed without being overshadowed by more chocolate. The actual brownie chunks are dense, chewy, and satisfying. Brownie batter swirl is incorporated throughout, but I take issue with this aspect. To me, it tastes more like standard chocolate sauce than brownie batter.

Brownie Brick Road is my favorite of the lot, but it could have been improved a little. If the brownie batter swirl had the taste and consistency of actual brownie batter, this would have been a home run. Regardless, this one is worth trying for the crispy brownie edges alone.

Size: 1.5 quart carton
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 230 calories, 11 gram of fat, 6 grams of saturated fat, 25 milligrams of cholesterol, 105 milligrams of sodium, 30 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 24 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.

DISCLOSURE: I received free product samples from Dreyer’s/Edy’s. Doing so did not influence my review.

Dreyer's/Edy's Ice Cream