Tag: Ice Cream

REVIEW: McDonald’s Kit Kat Banana Split McFlurry

Marvo 7 Comments

It’s a bit surprising that McDonald’s Kit Kat Banana Split McFlurry, with its inclusion of bananas, doesn’t have a Minions tie-in. The McFlurry cups could’ve totally been dressed up as Minions. But I guess it would’ve been weird to have two tie-in promotions simultaneously.

The latest treat from The Golden Arches has every flavor you’d expect from a banana split — chocolate from the Kit Kat, vanilla from the soft serve, strawberry from the crispy cereal, and banana from the freeze-dried fruit pieces. However, every chocolate piece in the cup isn’t part of a Kit Kat. There are also semisweet and dark chocolate chips in the mix.

When McDonald’s started using flavored cereal pieces, beginning with its Strawberry Shortcake McFlurry, I thought it was a cheap way to get flavor into the soft serve. Why not use a sauce, I thought at the time. But doing it this way has grown on me. I mean, it’s not ideal, but they ensure there’s some texture with the treat, and most of the time, they’ve turned out decent-tasting.

The Kit Kat pieces are roughly as small as the chocolate chips, so they aren’t very substantial. They also don’t have the crispiness I expect from the classic candy bar. However, the other mix-ins make you think there are larger chunks. The strawberry-flavored cereal (which, because of their color, don’t seem to be the same ones from the Strawberry Shortcake McFlurry) has a crispiness that could be mistaken for Kit Kat’s wafers, and the snap and flavor of the chocolate chips could be thought of as the coating around the wafers.

The banana flavor depends on whether you get one of those freeze-dried fruit pieces. If you get one on your spoon, you’ll get a noticeable natural flavor that completes the image of a banana split. In fact, getting all the flavors associated with the colorful dessert with this McFlurry is much easier than trying to do it with an actual banana split. Speaking of the dessert, I’m surprised this didn’t come with the treat’s obligatory whipped cream topping and cherry.

Overall, I immensely enjoyed the Kit Kat Banana Split McFlurry, but I might be biased as I love the yellow fruit in many forms, even freeze-dried. It captures all the flavors of a banana split, but I wonder if adding Kit Kat was even necessary. I guess “Kit Kat Banana Split” looks and sounds better than “Banana Split.” But if this returns next year as the Banana Split McFlurry with the same chocolate chips and without Kit Kat, I believe I’d still like it.

Purchased Price: $4.99
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 540 calories, 17 grams of fat, 11 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 230 milligrams of sodium, 85 grams of carbohydrates, 70 grams of sugar, 1 gram of fiber, and 12 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Sonic Orange Cloudsicle Slush Float

Jenna 2 Comments

I reviewed Sonic’s Sour Patch Kids Slush Float in the summer of 2022, so I had an idea of what the latest limited-edition Slush Float, Orange Cloudsicle, would bring to the table. This time, it features a flavor that I hope you’re not sick of yet from its other recent appearances in a Wendy’s Frosty, Arby’s milkshake, etc…

Slush Floats are made up of a majestic swirl of vanilla ice cream on top and slush on bottom, and garnished with a topping that matches the flavor of the slush. In this case, to suit the orange-flavored slush are what Sonic refers to as “orange vanilla flavor bubbles,” though you’re probably more likely to know them as “popping boba” if you’re a bubble tea fan (or “popping pearls,” if Starbucks is more your jam). There’s also “Orange Cloudsicle Syrup,” which is apparently cooler than plain orange because it features hints of vanilla as well (and is different than “Orange Creamsicle” because, well, that was already trademarked).

I used a straw for my last Slush Float and a spoon for this one, and this may sound overly persnickety, but I think the utensil you use really determines your experience. Drinking the Slush Float felt like getting a fun little treat (ice cream) on top of a fun little treat (slushie). Spooning it had the opposite effect: eating ice cream with a weirdly liquid-y, gritty ice mixture at the bottom was honestly kind of a bummer. In hindsight, that’s my bad since Sonic’s soft serve is so dense that I estimate it would take about a year to melt, while the slush had already become watery in the ten or so minutes it took to dig down to that layer. So, honestly, I trashed my layer of slush pretty quickly after I’d finished the ice cream, but I can chalk that disappointment partly up to user error.

Anyway, structural issues aside, how did this thing taste? Not to sound too much like a marketing agency, but: like the epitome of summer, plus a pinch of nostalgia. I don’t feel I need to say much about Sonic’s ice cream since it’s always excellent. The orange flavor of the slush and syrup reminded me more of the actual fruit than the candies inspired by it—think orange juice, not gummy Orange Slices.

But what made me want to eat this in the first place were the flavor bubbles (which, aside from a few stragglers at the bottom of my cup, were pretty much localized entirely on top of the ice cream). They added a sense of fun and uniqueness that was very welcome, plus they were surprisingly strong; I tend to enjoy bursting them against the roof of my mouth, but they were so stretchy that this didn’t always succeed in splitting them, leading to some anticlimactic moments where the juice instead just sort of ended up dribbling out sadly instead of exploding in a grand fashion. Regardless, they were tasty and entertaining, although I didn’t pick up on any of the vanilla that Sonic mentions they contain. Maybe my palette was just too dazed by the obvious vanilla-ness of the ice cream to notice something subtler in comparison?

Ultimately, this is a fun, yummy treat, but one that you should tackle with a strategic order of operations—I suggest learning from my mistake and alternating between spoon and straw for the full effect.

Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: Medium
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 420 calories, 6 grams of fat, 4 grams of saturated fat, 250 milligrams of sodium, 92 grams of carbohydrates, 87 grams of sugar, and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Haagen-Dazs New York Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Marvo 1 Comment

I just spent the past five minutes looking up the differences between New York Cheesecake and regular cheesecake. If you’re also as clueless as me, according to my quick research, the NY version is basically more dense and is so dense that it will make your stomach regret eating anything more than a small slice. Yes, there’s more to it than that, but we don’t have time to go down that rabbit hole because we’re here to discuss Häagen-Dazs’ new New York Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream, which is not as dense as a New York cheesecake.

Peel off the lid, and you’ll find cheesecake-flavored ice cream, strawberry sauce swirls, and spiced graham cracker crust pieces. Scrape off a layer or two, and what you’ll see looks like a strawberry syrup hurricane forming on top of the islands of Chewandswallow, Chompandgulp, and Devourandgorge.

The strawberry syrup isn’t goopy, which is surprising. Instead, it’s blended in with the base a little, which is the best way I can describe it. The base and swirls are combined in a way that ensures you’ll get both with every spoonful, no matter what angle your spoon attacks the container. When I scoop up both, it mostly tastes like strawberry ice cream, but there are rare times when it’s definitely cheesecake. I guess the tang from the cheesecake ice cream is at the same level as it would be for strawberry ice cream. That’s not a bad thing, but maybe cheesecake pieces should’ve been added to enhance the ice cream base’s flavor and, perhaps, add some denseness to the dessert.

As for the spiced graham cracker crust pieces, they go perfectly well with the fruity and tangy flavors. Their gritty texture and flavor probably do more to convince me this is a cheesecake-flavored ice cream instead of a strawberry one than the actual cheesecake-flavored ice cream. Plus, they are plentiful throughout the pint, um, I mean, 14 fluid ounce container, and some of the pieces were surprisingly crunchy.

Overall, Häagen-Dazs’ New York Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream is tasty but doesn’t blow my mind. Also, I question whether the “New York” in its name is necessary because it lacks something that brings to mind the denseness of the regional cheesecake, which separates it from others.

Purchased Price: $4.69
Size: 14 fl oz
Purchased at: Target
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 300 calories, 20 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 90 milligrams of cholesterol, 105 milligrams of sodium, 44 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 24 grams of sugar (including 19 grams of added sugar), and 4 grams of protein.

REVIEW: McDonald’s Grandma McFlurry

Jenna 7 Comments

The cruelest words you can hear in a McDonald’s are, “The ice cream machine is broken,”… but a kindly guardian grandmother must have been watching over me on my most recent visit because no technical difficulties came between me and the new Grandma McFlurry.

Yes, I can hear you scratching your head from here. The new what now? So, I’m just going to come out and say it—the ambiguous name has to be a reference to the Werther’s Original hard candies that just seem to universally, perpetually, magically accumulate in the homes of people of a certain age, right?

Or maybe not, because, unlike those classic caramel treats, the new geriatric-named McFlurry (whose true flavor was sneakily never actually mentioned in the initial press release, drumming up quite the mystique) has turned out to be butterscotch-based.

Atop the creamy pillow of vanilla ice cream, there are both butterscotch crumbles and a butterscotch swirl. In my McFlurry, the crumbles rested pretty much entirely on top, and while there was some syrup there too, I found that most of it quickly sunk to the bottom. That meant that mine didn’t look much like the promotional image—a bountiful, evenly-swirled beauty with alternating layers of copious syrupy gold—but the ratio of toppings to ice cream was great, and the taste was even better, so I had nothing to complain about.

Though some grandmas have a reputation for being crotchety, this treat made me feel more crochet-y—as in so joyful that, like a tender-hearted elder, I felt the urge to craft a sweater for my (not-yet-existent) grandchild. My McFlurry was sweeter than Grandma’s cookies. Yet with such a well-rounded creaminess, plus a tinge of saltiness from the butterscotch, that the sugariness never overwhelmed.

The ice cream had a silky texture and a full flavor, but of course, the butterscotch bits were the stars of the septuagenarian-inspired show. For me, the crumbles, in particular, knocked it out of the park/nursing home. As I mentioned, I went in with hard candy on the brain, so it was a pleasant surprise to find that these, while solid, were also unexpectedly tender: crumbly and satisfyingly yielding when I bit down but practically melt-in-your-mouth when I didn’t. They reminded me of the inside of a Butterfinger bar, and while they don’t contain any peanut butter, the orange-y color, crackly texture, and sweetness certainly felt familiar (and delicious). (And speaking of comparisons, I also found the whole thing to smell, comfortingly and nostalgically, just like Waffle Crisp cereal.)

As for the syrup, it was thinner than I would have thought but still retained an impressively rich taste. In fact, the blending together of the runny syrup with the ice cream that started to melt and pool at the bottom of the cup resulted in a malty, cereal-milk-esque experience that I really enjoyed.

No matter what exactly the Grandma McFlurry reminds you of, I think it pulls off its job of evoking warm, cozy, happy memories perfectly. No matter your age, gender, or preference in seemingly-endlessly-refilled household candies, I suggest you slide on your slippers, grab your walker, and embrace your inner senior citizen at McDonald’s today.

Purchased Price: $6.19
Size: Regular
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 600 calories, 12 grams of fat, 340 milligrams of sodium, 102 grams of carbohydrates, 86 grams of sugar, and 11 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Blue Bell A&W Root Beer Float Ice Cream

Denis 2 Comments

There’s a saying that if at first you succeed, then do something very similar so you can succeed again. OK, I might not have that exactly right, but the folks at Blue Bell know what I’m talking about. Last year, they introduced the Dr Pepper Float flavor, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and apparently, many others did as well because it’s now a permanent member of the Blue Bell lineup. For this summer, they have introduced the A&W Root Beer Float Ice Cream, which, despite its name, is only partly ice cream, namely vanilla, and the rest is root beer-flavored sherbet. Just like its Dr Pepper sibling, the A&W version is an instant classic in my book.

Through some kind of magic, which is vaguely explained in the ingredient list as “natural and artificial flavors,” the sherbet perfectly duplicates the taste of root beer. Plus, the consistency of the sherbet, which has a slightly more granular texture compared to the creamier ice cream, delivers a taste experience that almost made me think it was carbonated.

And here’s a tip: if you let this sit out for a few minutes instead of digging in right out of the freezer, the ice cream starts to melt a little faster than the sherbet, and it adds a bit more of the rich and creamy vanilla flavor to the mixture. Whatever Blue Bell did to make the Dr Pepper Float flavor so good, it did it again with this one.

Of course, I did have to try making a float with this ice cream and some actual A&W Root Beer, and the results were quite good, though perhaps not as mind-blowing as I was expecting, especially considering my choice of drinking vessel.

It turned out to just be a root beer float with a little extra root beer punch. So, if you have a busy schedule and don’t have the time for the two minutes of preparation that goes into making an actual root beer float, the Blue Bell version serves as a fine—perhaps even superior—substitute. You don’t have to worry about getting the right ice cream-to-root beer ratio; there’s no danger of the foam spilling over the top of the glass, and you’ll have tons more free time on your hands if you don’t have to do the mixing yourself. I just hope this version joins the Dr Pepper Float as a year-round product.

Purchased Price: $3.99
Size: One Pint
Purchased at: H-E-B
Rating: 9 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 170 calories, 5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 15 milligrams of cholesterol, 50 milligrams of sodium, 29 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of dietary fiber, 21 grams of sugar, and 3 grams of protein.