Review: Avalon Dairy Certified Organic "Mocha Fudge" Ice Cream

Those readers who are in BC know that things are tense right now between BC public school teachers and the provincial government. Without getting political, we at Two Girls, One Scoop would just like to say that we love teachers. And so we would like to dedicate this review to the teachers in our lives (and there are a LOT).

But which flavour to choose to reflect the educators we know? Sure, we could go traditional and do something apple-related, but when was the last time any kid put an apple on a teacher's desk? Finally, we realized that most teachers would not be able to get through all their lessons, prep, marking, and extra-curriculars without coffee. And so we present to you, teachers and non-teachers alike, this review of Avalon Dairy's Certified Organic Mocha Fudge ice cream!

For British Columbians, especially those in the south, Avalon Dairy has been a mainstay for over 100 years. They take a very traditional approach and still package and deliver their milk in glass bottles. While they take dairy products seriously, milk is their big seller and their ice cream is distinctly hard to find. I was lucky enough to find a very small selection of their ice creams at the local Fairway Market, and snagged the last Mocha Fudge.

After reading through the ingredients, I can confirm that everything in this ice cream is indeed certified organic, so for those of you that take organics seriously, this may be an option to pursue (particularly since a lot of the organic frozen desserts around here tend to be non-dairy). This product also calls itself "premium ice cream" and carries a price tag to match: a whopping $9.99!! Will it live up to the quality implied by both the label and price?

The flavour of the ice cream itself is a well-balanced coffee flavour that is neither too strong nor too sweet, and tastes natural. I was expecting the ice cream to have both coffee and chocolate flavours, as mocha would normally have, but it seems they are kept separate in this case. The fudge swirl is also a good level of sweetness, but it has that sort of flat, syrupy taste that you often find in chocolate soy frozen desserts. It's not bad, but it's not that great either. Kind of meh. I feel like the coffee would have stood up well on its own.

While the flavour is fine, the texture of this particular pint was not pleasant. Again, like a non-dairy dessert or a low-fat ice cream, this has a very crystallized consistency. Now, there could be several reasons for this, and I tend to believe that, because of the price tag and lack of a big brand name, this container may have sat around in the grocery store freezer for a LONG time, probably near the door, which is continually getting opened, thus messing with the consistency of the temperature. This may have led to the crystallization of water within the ice cream. However, you would think that a "premium" ice cream such as this would have a high enough fat content that this could be avoided for a most part. Overall, the texture made this experience a bit of a disappointment.

Recommend to a friend? If the texture was improved, and if you are a die-hard organic food purchaser, this might be something to consider?

Repurchase? No - the price tag was too rich, and the product not rich enough.

Review: Island Farms "Original Moose Tracks" Ice Cream

After all this time we're super behind on reviews and the queue of products seems to be a mile long. However, I feel that it's about time 2G1S did a review of one of my favourites: Islands Farms Original Moose Tracks Ice Cream.

It's no secret that I love this stuff. As you may have gathered from the reviews of Lucerne's Nuttin' Better and Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter, I kind of like peanut butter and chocolate. A lot. A lot. And this product is the beginning of my love affair with that combo in ice cream form. Now, Moose Tracks is not an Island Farms creation by any means, but here in BC, it is marketed under this brand. And there are now a boatload of different Moose Tracks varieties and flavours to choose from. However, the original will always be my favourite: awesome in its purest form.

This product consists of "vanilla flavoured ice cream with peanut butter cups and famous Moose Tracks fudge".  In my most recent carton, some of the fudge was overblended with the ice cream in places, resulting in spots that looked like they contained chocolate ice cream as well (as you can see in the photo). The fudge ribbon (for lack of a better term) is richly chocolatey and sweet (but not overpowering), melts easily in your mouth, and it is balanced well by the vanilla. The peanut butter cups are small, but there is a generous distribution of them, so the peanut butter flavour is never lacking. Overall, this is a well-done, tried-and-true variation on the peanut butter and chocolate theme that never fails to please in this neck of the woods!


Recommend to a friend? Absolutely
Repurchase? Of course - this will always be a delicious standby

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: 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: So Delicious “Cookie Dough” Coconut Milk Frozen Dessert

For us lactose intolerant folk, sometimes the options in terms of dairy-free frozen treats feel a bit limited. I love sorbets and dairy-free gelatos, but they tend to be expensive and are often hard to find and limited in flavour variety. Soy or tofu based frozen desserts can be OK, but they can also be absolutely awful, and it's hard to get a texture that isn't rock hard when you're using soy. So I was excited to learn from a friend, who is also lactose intolerant, that there are now ice cream-like frozen desserts made from coconut milk. This is a great option for people, like me, who don't like soy because of how it can affect your body's estrogen production or because of an allergy (although coconut is also a common allergen). I am a big coconut fan to begin with, so I was excited to try these out!

When J and I made our last venture into Fairway Market and finally found the Island Farms Green Tea flavour, we also found two brands (!) of coconut milk ice cream for sale (OK, it's not really ice cream, but it's a lot easier to type). The first was Luna and Larry's, and the second was So Delicious, a company that is more well known for making soy beverages and soy ice creams. While I'm sure we will go back and review a Luna and Larry's flavour in the future, the So Delicious brand was less expensive at the time of purchase, so we opted for that. There were several flavours available, including a coconut one. While we thought it would probably be safe to go with the coconut flavour, considering what it's made of, we wanted to be able to compare this to a regular dairy-based ice cream, so we chose a common ice cream-like flavour, one that we have already reviewed from different brands: cookie dough. According to the company's website, this flavour is also gluten free.

Apparently this is the "old" packaging, but the product should be the same.

For this review we are joined once again by AG, who was a big help to us in our review of Island Farms Green Tea. This ice cream is coconut milk based with large pieces of cookie dough and chocolate chunks throughout. It was quite easy to scoop out, and we didn't have the frozen solid cookie dough problem that we had with Ben and Jerry's, despite the size of the pieces.

We were impressed by the cookie dough right off the bat. Not only were they in big chunks, but there were little mini chocolate chips in it. This seemed like the kind of stuff you could actually bake cookies out of, and while we debated trying it, by the time we had gotten around to making any kind of decision...we had already finished the ice cream. We also appreciated that the cookie dough wasn't too sweet, letting the chocolate chunks and the ice cream carry the sugar in this dessert. The chocolate was somewhat crispy, sweet but not too sweet, and So Delicious was very generous in the amount of mix-ins they gave us, unlike some of the brands of traditional cookie dough ice cream we tried.

And now the part you are probably wondering about: the ice cream base. Well if you expected that it would taste like coconut....you would be correct. And the coconut and ice cream combination takes some getting used to. At times we were almost getting like a marzipan flavour coming through. When you eat it together with the cookie dough, the coconut flavour becomes a bit less evident, but when you get it on its own you're reminded that, oh yea, you're eating a coconut milk ice cream. The ice cream is also quite sweet, but again this kind of balances with the less sweet cookie dough. AG commented that the ice cream base “tastes more like body lotion than ice cream,” and it does kind of give me flashbacks to The Body Shop's Coconut Body Butter. The coconut milk taste + cookie dough is not a bad combination, it's just kind of weird, and we're not sure that it totally works, at least not in the way we expected it to.

Recommend to a friend? If you're lactose intolerant, you should try this. While the combination is unconventional, it is still enjoyable and a nice alternative to soy-based frozen desserts. We give So Delicious serious props for the quality of the product and their generosity with the mix-ins.

Repurchase? We'd like to try some of the other coconut milk ice cream varieties rather than repurchase this particular one. It was OK, but not really our thing.

Review: Ben and Jerry's "If I Had 1,000,000 Flavours" Ice Cream

As proud Canadians, we were excited to get our hands on this creation by Ben and Jerry's: If I Had 1,000,000 Flavours. Note the "u" in "flavours"! This is one of several Ben and Jerry's ice creams based on songs or bands, and is inspired by the Barenaked Ladies song "If I Had A Million Dollars". True, BNL has had some scandal over the past couple of years, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the song that still frequents the muzak of grocery stores everywhere. Especially when it comes in ice cream form.

Disappointingly, this ice cream does not literally contain 1,000,00 flavours, but I supposed that would have been extremely hard to fit into one carton. It's a "collision of chocolate & vanilla ice creams mixed with chocolate-covered toffee, white chocolate chunks, peanut butter cups, and chocolate-covered almonds." It's 999,994 flavours short of a million, but it still sounds delicious and does give more variety than the average pint.

We divided the cartoon between us and dug in to see just how many flavours we could find. There was a fairly even distribution of chocolate and vanilla ice creams, and the chocolate was quite nice. The vanilla tasted OK but it had this weird gritty texture to it. I didn't notice it at first, but once J called my attention to it, it was pretty hard to ignore. It wasn't ice crystals or mix-ins. It was almost...dusty feeling and not at all pleasant. And it was only present in the vanilla for some reason.

In the battle of penny VS peanut butter cup, the peanut butter cup takes home the prize!

As for the mix-ins, Ben and Jerry's did not skimp, especially on the peanut butter cups. Those suckers were HUGE. The white chocolate chunks were also a decent size, and while we found very few chocolate-covered almonds, they were a nice size. J swears she found a chocolate covered peanut in hers, not something listed in the ingredients. However, neither of us were able to find any toffee in either of our bowls. Overall, we felt like the distribution was more like "If I Had 1,000,000 Peanut Butter Cups" than "1,000,000 Flavours".

Our overall feeling on this flavour is that is was good but it felt more like variations on the theme of chocolate, rather than the true mix that is suggested by the name. We love peanut butter cups, and chocolate, but would have loved even more the addition of something like cookie pieces, caramel, nuts, coconut... And the dusty, gritty texture of the vanilla was really hard to ignore. Perhaps having a more even distribution of mix-ins would've made this a more exciting experience (and actually having some toffee would have been nice!)

There is also a nice article written about the band's reaction to the release of this flavour.

Recommend to a friend? Yes, especially if you consider yourself to be a chocoholic. We think that the texture issue with the vanilla was a freak occurrence, but if it was not, then we would be much more hesitant to recommend this.
Repurchase? J: If the texture of the vanilla was improved, yes. B: Since this ice cream was so much about the peanut butter cups, at least in our pint, I would be inclined to get Island Farms "Moose Tracks" instead and get more ice cream for my money.

Review: Purdy's "Hedgehog" Ice Cream

If you like to browse entries by "labels" or "tags", or if you ever wondered where you can find these products for yourself, you will be pleased to know that we have added tags to all of our entries showing where we purchased the ice creams. Sometimes the point of purchase is due to a sale or discount, proximity, or lack of availability at other stores - we are not affiliated with any of the grocery stores where we buy ice cream. Some of the products are available at multiple grocery chains - we are simply letting you know where we found them so that you might be able to find them on your own.

As big fans of Purdy's chocolates, we were excited to try their line of ice creams available in BC grocery stores, produced by Island Farms. The flavours include milk chocolate, sweet georgia browns, mint meltie, peanut butter, and hedgehog, the flavour we decided to sample. Not only do we like chocolate hedgehogs, but J used to own a couple of hedgehogs as pets (and was quite excited about them).

This is a simple ice cream. It doesn't waste time with mix-ins or textural variations. This stuff is exactly what it proclaims to be: hedgehog ice cream. It tastes just like hedgehog chocolate filling in frozen form. It's an extremely rich mix of milk chocolate and hazelnut, with a very smooth, almost "thick" texture. There isn't much more to say: this taste isn't just a good tribute, it's exactly like the real thing. It just needs to be in small servings since, like we said, it's very, very rich.

Recommend to a friend? If you like hedgehogs, you will love this ice cream. It's like eating a hedgehog chocolate.
Repurchase? J + B: Absolutely, especially for times when we have a real chocolate craving.

Review: Haagen Dazs "Chocolate Peanut Butter"

Haagen Dazs ice creams... generally delicious and high quality, but damn are they expensive! So are we ever pleased that they are available in individually sized cups - at 3/$5, J and I can sample and review multiple flavours without totally breaking the bank (not to mention that it relieves the pressure of having to finish off a full carton for each flavour!)

The first in our line up of Haagen Dazs flavours for review is Chocolate Peanut Butter. Chocolate and peanut butter has got to be one of the most iconic combinations of all time. It's right up there with bacon and cheeseburger! OK, J is a vegetarian, so maybe they're not that comparable. But chocolate and peanut butter are definitely a winning pair. Unless you have peanut allergies...Well, darn.

Once we got the lid off (which was actually quite a challenge, though it did reveal the tiny spoon that was included in the container), we found a rich chocolate ice cream with peanut butter pockets throughout. It was extremely hard to see the peanut butter, even when digging through the ice cream, but you could definitely notice it once you were actually eating. The texture of the peanut butter in the ice cream is a bit waxy at first, but once it warms up, it's smooth like just peanut butter from a jar.

I must admit that when I think of chocolate and peanut butter, I think of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The peanut butter in the candy is a bit salty and somewhat gritty because it has some coarsely ground peanuts in it. So as a result, I was expecting something similar from the peanut butter in this ice cream. However, the peanut butter in Haagen Dazs is, as J put it, essentially what you would expect if you were getting Kraft peanut butter from a jar. It's smooth and tastes mostly like roasted peanut, rather than added sugar or salt. I think I would have liked it to be a little saltier, just for the contrast with the sweetness of the ice cream, but J appreciated that it didn't conform to my preconceived notion of what chocolate and peanut butter should be. And I do have to agree, this is an original and purist take on chocolate-peanut butter, not something trying to imitate the classic candy.

Recommend to a friend? Yes
Repurchase? J + B: Yes

Review: Chapman's "Hokey Pokey" Ice Cream

First off, we'd like to give a big shout out to Dubba from On Second Scoop - thanks to him linking our blog in one of his posts, we got a huge influx of traffic, and this blog has now been viewed by people in seven different countries! Wow, talk about the power of networking! If you are unfamiliar with his blog, go check it out, it's great!

On to today's review of Chapman's "Hokey Pokey", one of their premium label ice creams, and if you're wondering what the name could possibly mean, Chapman's describes it as "toffee ice cream with chocolatey covered sponge toffee pieces and a milk chocolate ribbon." But will the flavour have us wanting to do the dance of the same name? Well that remains to be seen...

You put your right foot in...

You take your right foot out...

OK, so upon opening this guy up, it looks pretty unimpressive. We can see a lot of toffee ice cream, approximately three little chocolatey covered (insert obligatory comment about how it's not real chocolate here) sponge toffee pieces, and the beginnings of that milk chocolate swirl. Doesn't look promising, but I think we have learned that the top layer can be deceiving.

...and you shake it all about!

Alright, that's what I'm talkin' about! Much better distribution further down! I appreciate that the milk chocolate swirl seems to be mostly in the middle, because if you don't like it all that much, you have the option of eating around it. Probably won't give you the best idea of what Hokey Pokey is all about (OK, I swear, I'm almost done on the awful hokey pokey references...), but it's nice to have that flexibility.

Once we dug in and started to eat this ice cream, it became clear what Hokey Pokey is all about: sponge toffee. It says "toffee" flavoured ice cream on the label, but that's a pretty broad flavour. I mean you could have butter toffee, English toffee, molasses toffee... But this flavour is unmistakeably the rich caramelized sugar taste of sponge toffee. I remember actually exclaiming "Dude, this tastes like sponge toffee!" in excitement before I remembered that that was the whole idea. The texture of the ice cream is creamy, and very soft, which seems to be a trend among Chapman's products.

The picture on the bucket is a bit misleading in terms of the chocolatey covered sponge toffee pieces. In the photo they appear to be mostly sponge toffee, whereas in the actual ice cream they are overwhelmingly chocolatey coating. OK, let's be fair, it was inconsistent. But typically if you were getting a larger piece, it was because there was more chocolatey coating, not because you'd be getting more sponge toffee. To give an idea of how big the average piece of toffee was, here is a (very blurry) penny comparison.

Picture-taking skills of FAIL

The milk chocolate swirl is very, very sweet. Both J and I sampled this ice cream numerous times before this review was written (because it's a 2L bucket, and we can only eat so fast!), and each time we had a slightly different opinion. And each time, that opinion correlated with how sweet we thought this product was. When you don't get a ton of swirl in your serving, you get the nice flavour of the ice cream with the occasional crunch of the chocolatey covered toffee bits, and the sugar is manageable. When you get a lot of swirl, this stuff is a diabetes in a cup. Neither of us have a huge sweet tooth, but we can still appreciate fairly sweet things. Depending on the ice cream-to-swirl ratio you receive, Hokey Pokey can be complete sugar overkill.

On our last sampling, J and I were ready to give this ice cream a total pass because of how sweet it was. But after finishing the last of it this morning (which had less of the swirl), I'm inclined to go easier on it. I don't know, maybe my taste buds are deader in the morning or something, but with mostly just the ice cream and sponge toffee bits, it wasn't half bad.

Recommend to a friend? If you like sponge toffee, definitely. If you're not sure, but you like to finish your sugary treats by entering into a diabetic coma, then also definitely. If you have a real sweet tooth, this ice cream will have you dancing the hokey pokey. Otherwise, it may not be your best bet.
Repurchase? J: No B: No, it was too much for us.

Flavour Showdown: Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Sometimes a classic flavour like vanilla, chocolate, or cookies n' creme is made by several different brands. If they're all similarly priced, how do you decide which to choose?

Thus the inspiration for tonight's Ultimate Flavour Showdown. Since I was already planning to attend a party tonight with a group of classmates, I decided to bring three variations on the flavour of chocolate chip cookie dough, made by Ben & Jerry's, Breyers, and Island Farms so my classmates could help me decide which brand truly captured the essence of cookie dough in ice cream form. As I went through the check-out at the grocery store, the man behind me, after I explained why I was buying so much ice cream, expressed his confidence that Ben & Jerry's would be the clear winner, with Breyers in second and Island Farms coming last. Was he correct?

Which ice cream will reign supreme?

Contestant Number One: Breyers 

First up is the Breyers entry, one of their "family classics." The fact that it is called "chocolatey" chip, rather than using the word "chocolate" already tells me that it's fake chocolate, or at least doesn't have enough cocoa in it to be legally deemed chocolate. To be fair, I actually really like the taste of some fake chocolate, but it can also err on the side of horrible. Once you open it up, it's easy to scoop out, but the chocolatey pieces and cookie dough nuggets are small and extremely sparse. We had a hard time finding enough cookie dough pieces to ensure that everyone's sample actually had cookie dough in it! Not a good sign!

Contestant Number Two: Ben & Jerry's

Next we have Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. They have some other awesome-looking cookie-related flavours that I really wanted to try, but this was the fairest one for the sake of comparison. This guy had fairly substantial cookie dough pieces in it, but the real downside was that is was extremely hard to scoop any out! In retrospect, I could have left it out on the counter a bit longer, but I was feeling impatient. Trying to chisel your way through frozen-solid cookie dough is not fun!

Contestant Number Three: Island Farms

Finally we have the Island Farms version from their "Vanilla Plus" line, which was kind of middle of the road in terms of cookie dough distribution; certainly much more than Breyers anyway. Like Breyers, it was easy to scoop and had separate little nuggets of chocolate and cookie dough, rather than the Ben & Jerry's that had the chocolate chips actually mixed into the dough.

So who came out on top? We put a spoonful of each brand into plastic shot glasses on colour-coded plates, and asked the rest of the party guests to sample one from each plate, choose which they liked best, and describe what the ice cream was like. Let the fight commence!

Ice cream shots shots shot shots shots shots shots shots...

After much sampling, considering, and discussion, we took a vote. Out of eleven people, not including myself, these were the results for which brand was liked best:

Breyers: 2 people
Ben & Jerry's: 5 people
Island Farms: 4 people


Though no one really hated any of the options, Breyers did not get a lot of fans, and the primary reason was the lack of mix-ins. For a cookie dough ice cream, there just wasn't enough cookie dough! Some people also felt it was "too creamy" in an unnatural sort of way.

Island Farms was close to Ben & Jerry's, and it may have been partly due to the smaller size of the cookie dough pieces, the fact that there were more of them, and the flavour and texture of the ice cream component. Personally, I found the cookie dough in this brand to be extremely gritty, and at some points I almost felt like I was chewing on sand.

I will have to agree with the majority and say that Ben & Jerry's, as the man at the check-out predicted, was the superior product in this comparison. Their cookie dough actually seemed like something you might feasibly be able to bake cookies out of, and even though it was a giant pain in the butt to try to scoop out, it had good flavour that didn't seem artificial, and the texture wasn't offensive.

At the check-out, all three worked out to be about $6.99 CAD, but since the Breyers and Island Farms flavours were on sale, the Ben & Jerry's did have a lower regular price. Yes, it's a much smaller container, but I think this taste test shows that it is worth the money.

-B

(if anyone who helped test has anything to add, please feel free!)

Review - DQ Blizzard of the Month: Ooey Gooey Caramel Brownie

With September well underway and us having yet to review the Dairy Queen Blizzard of the Month, when B took a left leaving the university this afternoon I knew what was on the radar.  I ordered first, and as I stumbled with my request; "I'd like an Ooey Gooey Caramel Brownie Blizzard please, the little regular size one, I mean, a small one, that's the one I consider regular," B gave my ordering technique a grade of FAIL.  Sure enough, our regular table was unoccupied, and soon we were looking into two cups of "gooey Caramel, real fudge brownie pieces and choco chunks blended with creamy vanilla soft serve."  Let me break it down for you.

Awful iPod picture quality ahoy!

Dairy Queen's "creamy soft serve" (which I believe is probably a combination of iced milk and edible oil product), served as a vector for what on first inspection seemed to be only chocolate shards and brownie chunks.  I consulted the class list for the Blizzard of the Month again, and noted that perhaps someone was skipping.  Visibly, the caramel was not in attendance.  As I crunched into my first spoonful however, I was pleased to enjoy the texture of the breaking chocolate shards as well as the caramel-infused vanilla soft serve.  No one was skipping after all - the caramel was simply hiding amongst his peers.

I would be lying if I didn't mention that this was actually our second offense with this particular Blizzard, having sampled it earlier in the month before deciding to create our ice cream blog.  The first time, we recall being rather disappointed with the lack of caramel.  Today we were happy to discover satisfactory caramel levels.  Optimum caramel levels might be achieved through less blending of the Blizzard, but we understand that this would result in the creation of other flaws.  The brownie pieces were flavourful, chewy, and fudge-like, sometimes surrounded by a pocket of caramel.  I have the feeling that this constitutes the Ooey Gooey referred to in the Blizzard's name.  The chocolate shards, although they were probably on the synthetic end of the chocolate spectrum, were very satisfying in texture and taste: they gave the Blizzard a delightful crunch to compliment the sugary rich brownie pieces.  Perhaps a little sweet for some palates, Dairy Queen's Ooey Gooey Caramel Brownie delivers just what it offers.  We drove home in a sugary haze.

Recomend to a Friend? Aaaw Yeeah

Repurchase: J + B - already did

Review: Island Farms "Country Cream: Black Forest Cake"

J was at Thrifty Foods the other day and managed to snag a container of Island Farms' Country Cream Black Forest Cake ice cream (one of the other "Country Cream" flavours is Peanut Brittle, which we have been trying to find without much success!). Since we both enjoy black forest cake in its non-ice cream form, this sounded like it might be worth a try.

Island Farms describes this creation as "Rich chocolate ice cream swirled with chewy brownie bits, black cherries, and cherry ribbon, all swirled with French vanilla ice cream." Sounds good enough: the chocolate cake and cherries should be well represented, with the vanilla ice cream standing in for the standard whipped cream. Let's take a look at what was inside.

Hmm. Definitely lots of chocolate ice cream, and you can see some evidence of cherry pieces (which were a nice, dark, natural colour, rather than the radioactive red colour of the maraschino cherries you'd normally find in a real black forest cake). The vanilla ice cream swirl is small (and it didn't get any more substantial further down), but we understand that chocolate is the main player here. Alrighty.

 Wait. Wait, wait wait. Wasn't there supposed to be a cherry ribbon? It's clearly there in the picture on the carton, lookin' all oozy and junk. But no matter how far down into the carton we got, no ribbon ever emerged. Just look for yourself!

So what does this sucker taste like? Well, the answer is mostly like chocolate ice cream with cherry "accents" and aftertaste. Rather than a conversation between chocolate and cherry, it's more like chocolate composed an epic poem and cherry wrote a text message. Maybe that missing cherry ribbon was too thoroughly mixed in and got completely drowned by the chocolate, and all we can taste are its feeble cries for help.

The brownie pieces, our reminder that this is black forest cake, and not just chocolate-cherry, are reasonably distributed throughout the ice cream, and they have a nice chewy texture and fudgey taste. We were impressed by the cherries. As stated before, they are black cherries, not maraschino cherries, and while they taste a bit like their bright red counterparts, they are definitely not the candied variety. They were nice and juicy and we felt like we were eating real fruit, something that cannot always be said about what you'd find in a black forest cake. The only problem is that there weren't enough of them. We found more brownie pieces than cherries, and since the cherry ribbon was already AWOL, it would have been nice to have a stronger cherry component to this ice cream.

What really confused us in this flavour was the vanilla ice cream swirl. Clearly it was there to represent the whipped cream you'd find on the real cake, but because it was small in proportion to the chocolate ice cream, it got completely lost. All we could taste was chocolate, with the vanilla not really adding anything of note. It probably would not have hurt to have done a 50/50 proportion of vanilla and chocolate: this way, the vanilla has more of a point, and we still are getting the chocolate cake element through the chocolate brownie pieces. Alternatively, some variance in texture might have made the vanilla component stand out more, like maybe substituting the vanilla ice cream with marshmallow creme or something similar. We're not sure if it would work, but as it stands, the vanilla swirl seems kind of pointless.

Overall, we thought this was a good ice cream, and a nice tribute to black forest cake. The texture is creamy - which is to be expected from Island Farms ice cream - and the flavour was nice.

Recommend to a friend? Yes, if they like chocolate-cherry or black forest cake
Repurchase? J: Yes - B: Maybe, if it was on sale