Review: Ben and Jerry's "Half Baked"

You know what sucks? Getting swamped in school work and planning and having to put blog reviews on the back burner for a week. You know what's awesome? One of the local grocery stores having Ben and Jerry's ice cream on sale for half price. With the financial burden of purchasing this brand lightened somewhat, I can finally get down to trying some new flavours – rejoice!

The first one I decided to sample was Ben and Jerry's Half Baked, a combination of vanilla and chocolate ice creams with cookie dough and brownie pieces mixed in. I was pretty optimistic about this one heading in, so I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed overall. The price of having high standards, I guess?

First things first, I really loved about 80% of this product. Both the chocolate and vanilla ice creams were of Ben and Jerry's usual excellent quality (the conclusion I've come to is that the vanilla we experienced in If I Had 1,000,000 Flavours was, indeed, a fluke), and I particularly enjoyed the flavour of the vanilla. The brownie pieces were very fudgey and had the nice texture of the slightly underdone brownie that is soft and gooey and oozes chocolate.

However, the other 20% of the ice cream was the cookie dough, and I found it to be a bit of a let down. Now, we tried their cookie dough flavour ice cream before and the cookie dough in that product, though it did freeze more solidly than we would have liked, was quite good. The cookie dough in this carton of Half Baked was not just hard, it was dry and crumbly, and overall just not very nice. I found myself trying to avoid the cookie dough and, when it did end up on my spoon, chew through it as fast as possible just to get it over with. Which doesn't make a lot of sense to me, since they should be using the same stuff for both flavours, no? If this is another “fluke” inconsistency, then Ben and Jerry's seriously need to look at some quality control!

Recommend to a friend? The non-cookie dough parts of this were great, and if the texture of the dough was improved I would recommend this. As it is, I'm not sure I could justify telling someone to pay full price for this.

Repurchase? As per the comments above, if the dough was better, yes. Otherwise, no.

Review: Lucerne "Nuttin' Better" Ice Cream

It's really disappointing to me that there are no Safeways within a reasonable driving distance, because their house brand, Lucerne, makes some really unique ice cream flavours. In fact, their seasonal Christmas flavours are so unique I may have to take a road trip to get my hands on some of them for testing. However, one of my friends, K, lives much closer to a Safeway and was nice enough to purchase a box of Lucerne ice cream for us to try. Since K is a master of puns, it was only appropriate that she select Nuttin' Better, vanilla ice cream with a peanut butter ribbon and chocolate flakes.

The top layer of Nuttin' Better - where's the peanut butter?

Holy mother of legumes, batman! Peanut butter in droves!

While I would normally sample ice cream in small custard cup sized bowls to avoid overdoing it, at K's house they don't mess around when it comes to size: it's go big or go home! Having to eat such a big bowl of ice cream might have been a problem if it had been mediocre, but this was certainly not the case here. Not only was the vanilla ice cream pleasing in both taste and texture, and the chocolate very tasty as well, the peanut butter swirl was pretty bomb. Lucerne was very generous with the swirl, and it was not hard to find large deposits of peanut butter in every serving. Basically the peanut butter seemed like something you might actually be inclined to spread on your toast, and it had a very nice balance between sweet and salty which worked well with the vanilla. K, her boyfriend, and I all enjoyed this selection and despite the bowl size I think we all went back for seconds...

Recommend to a friend? Yes: if you are a peanut butter fan, you will be pleased by the generous amount of peanut butter in this selection – it definitely doesn't take a back seat!

Repurchase? Yes, if I am ever in the vicinity of a Safeway!

Review: Blizzard of the Month - Caramel Nut Roll

Yes, it's November, and that means a new Dairy Queen Blizzard of the month! October took care of Pumpkin Pie, so I was wondering what kind of potential holiday-themed concoction they would come up with to honor American thanksgiving? Well the answer is clearly....peanuts, caramel, and marshmallows? Not like pecan or...something? DQ claims this "took all my favorite desserts and combined them in a treat so delicious it makes the turkeys jealous." Which desserts exactly? And more importantly, who the hell is this anonymous Blizzard describer that seems to be speaking in first person to us? Seriously, does this even qualify as anything thanksgiving-y south of the border?

OK, OK, I guess it doesn't really need to relate to thanksgiving - and if it somehow does, it's way over my head. And don't get me wrong, I like all three primary ingredients in this mixture of "gooey caramel and marshmallow blended with peanuts." In fact, I generally enjoyed this blizzard. There were a LOT of peanuts in it, which is good because I am a big fan of peanuts + vanilla ice cream, but I could see it getting a bit overwhelming for some. In fact the peanut overload did make it a bit difficult to isolate the other flavours that were supposed to be present. I could taste the marshmallow, though as the flavour is somewhat similar to vanilla soft serve in the first place, it took a bit. As for the caramel...

You are looking at the only evidence of caramel I could find in this Blizzard. It just...wasn't really there. Which is a shame, because it would have added an extra dimension to a treat that was essentially just peanuts + vanilla. Note to DQ employees: equally proportioned mix-ins!

Recommend to a friend? Yes, if you like peanuts. This was a fairly satisfactory treat
Repurchase? Potentially. I would probably put Crispy Crunch ahead of this one though. :-/

Review: Purely Decadent "Chocolate Obsession" Lactose Free Frozen Dessert

Man, I gotta say... even with Lactaid, dairy is just not my best friend. Which is really unfortunate, since it's in so many things I love. Seriously, how could I go without cheese, or yogurt, or (duh) ice cream?! Thanks goodness this isn't a full-blown allergy, or I would be pulling my hair out! In any case, in order to scale back on my dairy intake a bit I decided to give Purely Decadent's Chocolate Obsession Lactose Free Frozen Dessert a try.

First things first: this name is somewhat misleading. I have had my eyes on Chapman's Lactose-Free line for a while now (only holding off because of the artificial sweeteners), and those products are actual ice cream with lactase enzyme added so that the dairy is digestible. So this is kind of what I was expecting from this Purely Decadent product. But nope. It's soy. It says soy NOWHERE on the front, and while it's true that it is lactose free, to me the labeling implies something different from what it delivers. Then again, my bad for not actually checking the ingredients list before I bought this.

Since we're talking ingredients, it is worth noting that a lot of the ingredients in this product are certified organic, so if that kind of thing is important to you, this might be worth checking out. The company describes this frozen dessert as "chocolate non-dairy frozen dessert with a thick ribbon of chocolate sauce, riddled with crispy chocolate flakes" - again with the avoiding of the word "soy"! Why, guys?! Just say it! Be proud! In any case, I'd have to say that this description is fairly accurate. Though the chocolate sauce kind of showed up in pockets rather than in a true ribbon, it did provide an extra burst of sweetness that set itself apart from the actual frozen dessert base. The chocolate flakes were definitely crispy. And I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of them. Because they were so brittle, as opposed to kind of melt-in-your-mouth, they broke up quite easily and made it feel almost like I was eating dirt at times. Again, this was the texture, not the taste, but it wasn't really the most pleasant experience. I suppose the colour didn't help with this association.

So what is my overall opinion on this product? It's OK. If I were a real chocoholic, I think I would scoff at Purely Decadent's name choice for this, as it doesn't scream "obsession" to me on any level. The "ice cream" base tastes like your typical chocolate soy product, which isn't bad, but it's not fabulous either. The sauce was a nice touch, but it too falls a bit flat. The flakes I could probably do without. This dessert was alright, but it didn't do anything new or progressive and I certainly wouldn't call it "decadent".

Recommend to a friend? This product is OK, but I feel like you could probably do better, especially for the price.
Repurchase? Nah

Review: Mario's Lemon Sorbetto

Being a big fan of citrus flavours, I was excited to try out this lemon sorbet by Mario's, a company that is known for making sorbets and gelatos in the “Italian tradition”. We had already seen some lemon in President's Choice Pink Lemonade ice cream, but this is a chance to try a dairy-free option that is much more juice-based.

The colour of this product is essentially pure white, which suggests an absence of artificial colours. The texture is somewhat similar to the Dorgel gelato we sampled a while back, in that it isn't smooth and creamy but instead more like compacted snow or, more accurately, like a popsicle. Nonetheless, I had little trouble scooping it out for the taste test.

What you will really notice about this flavour is that it is REALLY all about the lemon. It is sweet enough to be enjoyable, but there is a definite tartness and acidity that is ALMOST too much. The flavour is really authentic (as it should be, given the ingredients) and if you like lemon you will appreciate this, but if you don't handle sour things well or you have a sensitive stomach, the acid may be a bit overwhelming. I really enjoyed this flavour, as it was really clean, fresh, and natural, and it had an overall sort of lightness that would make it a great pairing for fruit desserts or to enjoy on its own when you aren't looking for something rich.

Recommend to a friend? If you're a lemon lover, this one will be right up your alley.

Repurchase? Yes