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

Review: Chapman's "Raspberry Sorbet"

 Our third pink ice cream selection in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month: 

Oh my. Where to start. From the time we purchased this product to the time I sat down to make this review, I feel like our experience with Chapman's Raspberry Sorbet has turned into a saga of epic proportions. The highs were high. The lows were low. Words cannot possibly describe the fiasco that is Chapman's Raspberry Sorbet. Well, actually, I suppose they can. Let me tell you the story...

It all started prior to the Thanksgiving weekend. Because the family dinner was going to be held on the Island, B's sister (whose name also starts with B - because our parents are creative - and who will be referred to using the colour green: B) was going to be visiting, and she was excited to help us review an ice cream and thereby make a guest appearance on the blog. When the day finally came to choose an ice cream, we searched high and low for Island Farms green tea flavor, but could not find it anywhere. So instead, B selected what we all thought would be a safe and most likely delicious flavour: Chapman's raspberry sorbet. We were all very excited to take this product home and enjoy it.

The packaging is appealing enough. We certainly appreciated that this sorbet was clearly marked as being fat free, cholesterol free, peanut free, lactose free, and gluten free. If you have allergies, or will be serving something to a large group of people whose allergies may be unknown, like a children's birthday party, this would be a safe bet.

 The first thing I noticed when I took the lid off the container was that I could smell the sorbet. Which is kind of odd, because normally frozen foods tend not to have much of an aroma. But the sorbet in question had a distinctive smell of something akin to koolaid or fruit punch or bubblegum. Something artificial. Hmm. I guess that's OK. And it looks relatively normal. I mean, sure, it is a rather shocking shade of magenta, but rapsberries are quite a colourful fruit. When we scooped it out, it had a relatively soft and "fluffy" consistency, similar to the texture of the other Chapman's flavour we had previously tried, Hokey Pokey. It kind of feels like it has gelatin in it, and after consulting the ingredients, though it did not contain gelatin, it did contain five different types of gums.

So the only thing to do at this point is to taste it. We divided a few scoops among the three of us and took a bite.

For starters this thing...tastes exactly like it smells. Which is not like raspberry. Which is not a good thing. For something that is based on a tangy fruit, this sorbet displays no tartness whatsoever. In fact, it's incredibly sweet. It has a kind of artificial raspberry taste to it, which is odd because the ingredients say that it contains actual raspberry puree. We found no evidence to support this, though we did find plenty of evidence of "natural flavour" that was added. We don't really understand why, if you are using a fruit that is as flavourful as raspberries, you would be inclined to add chemical flavouring, even if it's "natural." The taste reminded us a lot of bubblegum, or of blue raspberry flavoured candy, like a Ring Pop. Which is fine for candy, where the expectation of realistic flavours is minimal, but when you purchase a sorbet that proclaims to use the actual fruit it's pretty awful.

When we began testing this sorbet, we tried to be open-minded about the product. When we tried to consider the ideal consumer for this sorbet, we kept going back to the idea of kids, as the flavour is very sweet and candy-like. B said that the "flavour is OK - I wouldn't stop eating it, but I wouldn't buy it again." Not long after, however, she had changed her mind: "I retract my previous statement! I want to stop eating this right now!" She followed this comment up by saying "I feel like I'm eating... packs of gum! Bubble tape!" which, considering how many gums are in the thing, isn't a totally unreasonable assessment. We offered a spoonful to my mother to taste, and she was as excited as we initially were to try a raspberry sorbet. Mere seconds later, however, she had spit it in the sink in disgust, proclaiming it to be "slimy" and bad-tasting. 

So far, this flavour was leaving an extremely bad taste, not to mention alarming colour, in our mouths. But the story doesn't end there...

We noticed that on the side of the container there was a "satisfaction guarantee" followed by a hotline number to call. Well, we were extremely dissatisfied with this product, and since we were going to post about our dissatisfaction on the internet, we figured it would be a good idea to give this number a call. This is a brief summary of what transpired:  A very kindly female representative repeatedly assured us that the Raspberry Sorbet is indeed made entirely from natural raspberry puree and that it is one of their top selling items.  She implied something might have been wrong with the container of Sorbet we had purchased as she could not imagine we would have found it as sweet and artificial as we did.  We expressed our extreme dissatisfaction with the product and relayed the spitting of a sample into the sink and were asked to provide our contact information to receive some sort of compensation in the mail.  This compensation has yet to arrive of course, and so we will have to update later regarding the details.

After trying this flavour one more time before writing this review, we found that time had not altered our opinion of it, and so the rest of it was washed down the kitchen sink. Thus concludes the saga of the Chapman's Raspberry Sorbet. Until, of course, we receive some mail from Chapman's.

Recommend to a friend? Like we stated earlier, the only possible market we feel might enjoy this would be children, because of the candy-like taste and the lack of allergens. For anyone who actually enjoys raspberries, however, avoid like the plague.
Repurchase? J + B: you could not pay us enough to eat this again! So awful!

Review: Dorgel "Tangerine Raspberry Mango" Gelato

 Edited to add: Forgot to mention that today marks the one month birthday of Two Girls, One Scoop! Exciting!! In our introductory month of blogging about all things ice cream, we have received over 1,100 page views from web surfers in over 10 different countries! Thank you to everyone who has been reading so far - we hope to keep blogging well into the future! :)


 Our second pink ice cream selection in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month:

 Though not pink in its entirety, Dorgel Tangerine Raspberry Mango Gelato does have a raspberry element, which is a nice colour of pink. Besides, after perusing the frozen foods section of Save-on-Foods, so many of the pink selections were strawberry, and we have already discussed our distaste for this particular flavour. So after much deliberation, we decided to give this one a try. Bonus: it's fat free!

Upon opening the container, we discovered that it looks....extremely unappealing. In terms of aesthetics, the real deal looks nothing like the fun-coloured scoops on the front of the container. It almost looks like a rainbow threw up in there. Once we scooped past the very top layer, it did improve slightly in appearance, but not significantly. The texture is what you might expect from a commercial gelato or sorbet: not crumbly, not creamy, not flaky....just not very cohesive. After all, it's essentially frozen juice with some added gums for stabilization, so it doesn't have the smoothness of a normal ice cream. As J said, it's basically like a "soft popsicle" in a carton.

This flavour is supposed to encompass three different fruits: mango, raspberry, and tangerine. Though we were able to isolate each of the flavours, the mango is definitely dominant. You can easily find the raspberry if you are so inclined, but the tangerine is extremely hard to get on its own. If you're eating the whole thing together, it mostly tastes like a sweet mango. The overall flavour is sweet and fruity, while the texture is very light and refreshing. After a whole slew of dairy-heavy ice creams, this light, fat-free option was a nice change, even if it looks like tie-dye gone wrong.

Recommend to a friend? If you are looking for something light and fruity, and the colouring doesn't put you off, this is a nice, sweet dessert. Especially if you like mango.
Repurchase? J: Perhaps, though I didn't think it was exceptional. It was fine, but not amazing. B: I really enjoyed this gelato, and would purchase again.

Nanaimo: Yorway Frozen Yogurt Bar

It's taken a while to get this review live (we're already 6 stamps into our frequent customer cards!), but since these guys were nice enough to let us take photos all over their establishment, we owe it to them to bump them up our queue a bit!

Yorway Frozen Yogurt Bar is located in Nanaimo North Town Centre (formerly known as Rutherford Mall) right across from the London Drugs, which is actually kind of a shame because NNTC has a bit of a reputation as being a pretty "dead" mall. Hopefully this place, with the addition of some key anchor stores, can breathe some life back into the place.

Yorway is a frozen yogurt bar that has preset flavours of frozen yogurt in soft-serve machines and a selection of toppings to be added, unlike somewhere like Yogen Fruz where fruit is chosen by the consumer and mixed directly into the yogurt as it is being dispensed. B has previously visited Pinkberry (at its first and only Canadian location in West Vancouver), which also employs the flavoured yogurt +toppings method, and it was pretty bomb. However, Yorway gets the upper hand for one reason and one reason alone:


Self serve.

Three different machines that dispense six flavours at a time, with the middle handle in each dispensing a twist of the two flavours in that particular machine.

Fresh fruit toppings and sauces

Dry toppings like nuts, coconut, candy, and cereal.

Unlike Pinkberry, where they have certain sizes that are priced in increments, and the employee will add toppings for you at cost, at Yorway, you pay by weight. I'm sure the Pinkberry employees were consistent in their distribution of yogurt by size, but something about being able to decide EXACTLY how much or how little yogurt and toppings we want just tickles us the right way. These guys are smart though: the cups they provide for putting your creation in are massive and B always ends up putting in more than intended...not that it goes to waste!

Since only six flavours can be available at one time, they are rotated. So far we have seen country vanilla, chocolate, new york cheesecake, original lemon tart (our favourite!), cookies n' cream, raspberry-pomegranate, peach-mango, and no-sugar-added strawberry-banana. We also saw green tea in their pre-packaged mini freezer, but not in the machines yet (maybe soon, please?). You dispense this into a cup or a cone (with the cone they provide a stand for weighing and subtract the weight of the stand from your total), and then add however many toppings you desire. As you are paying by weight, you are getting your money's worth, not wondering if maybe someone skimped on a standardized amount while you pay full price.

At our most recent trip, J decided to try out cookies n' cream (which had a weird grey colour, but an interesting chocolatey taste) with blueberries and oreo cookie pieces, while B had original lemon tart with a variety of fresh fruit (would have added shredded coconut to this too, but it was not available at the time). Both were pretty awesome.

For frequent buyers, there is a stamp card where, if you collect 10 stamps by buying creations worth $5+, you will get an eleventh yogurt free (up to $5 in value). We would keep coming here even without the card, but it's definitely a nice gesture!

When we asked the employee who was working there at the time we visited what they would want potential consumers to know about Yorway Frozen Yogurt Bar, they said that one of the most important things people should know is how healthy the yogurt is. All the flavours are reportedly nonfat, and they well exceed the minimum requirements for active probiotic cultures. And we don't think this is BS either, because B (who is lactose intolerant) experiences a significantly reduced reaction to the dairy in this yogurt than she does with ice cream, which can most likely be attributed to the bacterial cultures that aid in digestion. More information on these cultures is located on the company's website.

In conclusion, we feel that Yorway Frozen Yogurt Bar is a refreshing addition to Nanaimo North Town Centre, and if you can find a way to get yourself out there, you should try it at least once. Ha, as if you could resist going back for more...

Review: Breyers "Smooth & Dreamy Vanilla Baked Apple"

Today's review is for Breyers "Smooth & Dreamy Vanilla Baked Apple," just one of the flavours in their line of light ice creams that claim to be "1/2 the fat of regular ice cream" due to the use of some fancy-pants cream press system (whatever that means). Not sure if I buy the pseudo-scientific mumbo-jumbo, but the nutrition information shows that this ice cream is indeed lower in fat than regular ice cream: in fact, while our previously reviewed Island Farm Black Forest Cake ice cream has 15% of your daily recommended fat intake per 1/2 cup serving, Vanilla Baked Apple has only 5%, so 1/3 the fat of this particular regular ice cream. Not bad!

Also of note is that it is actually labelled as "ice cream", which means it has the ingredients to qualify for such a label. This is important because more than once I have been careless in my reading of the package and have ended up buying "frozen dessert" products which, compared to ice cream, can be just plain nasty and full of plant oils.

I know when I dream, I dream of Breyers

My last experience with Breyers was rather unpleasant (it was one of those "frozen dessert" scenarios that we ended up washing down the sink) so I would normally be hesitant to try another one of their products. However, since the label clearly says "ice cream" and because vanilla baked apple sounds kind of awesome, we decided to give it a go. Let's open 'er up and take a look at what we're working with.

Holy freezer catastrophe, batman! Yes, this is what it looked like when we opened it! Ack! Either the consistency of the swirl in the ice cream wasn't substantial enough to hold up to being frozen, or somewhere along the line this thing got thawed and refrozen. Or something else that would compromise it. I remember working for a grocery store that will remain unnamed where pallets of ice cream were left outside the freezer for up to an hour at a time, and you have to think that this sort of thing might affect the product.

But not to be put out, we decided to try it anyway, even though it looked ugly as heck. There are some nice vanilla bean specks in the ice cream portion, and the baked apple swirl looks well proportioned so as not to be either overpowering or underwhelming, so despite the freezer damage, once scooped it looked promising.

By now, J and I have both sampled this ice cream more than once in our quest to finish off the carton and make room in the freezer for future purchases, and I think I can safely say that we still don't really know what to think of this flavour. I guess we can start with the positives.

Even though this is a "light" ice cream, it doesn't appear to have any artificial or synthetic sugars, like Splenda or aspartame. While these can be great for diabetics, I find they leave a really nasty aftertaste that I just can't ignore. It also has a really nice texture for not being full fat. Sometimes low fat ice creams will be extremely hard or almost granulated, and this was definitely neither of these things.

But the taste... There is something weird about it, and we just can't figure out whether it's coming from the vanilla ice cream or the baked apple swirl. You know how I mentioned artificial sugars and the weird aftertaste? Well even though this thing doesn't have those notorious offenders, it kind of tastes like it does. There is something chemically-tasting in there that just doesn't sit well. It's not like it tastes bad but it's not great either.

The vanilla ice cream part is pretty standard (is the chemically taste coming from here?) and as stated before, the texture doesn't scream diet product, which is a good thing. The baked apple swirl (or is this the offending party?) is a bit caramel-y but you can also taste some tartness, presumably from the dried apple flakes cited in the ingredients. Seriously, if it wasn't explicitly in the ingredients, I would've assumed there were no actual apples in this product, as they are more like bits of apple dust than fruit. We shared some with my parents this afternoon, and while my father said he thought the flavour was overpowered by cinnamon, the rest of us couldn't actually taste any cinnamon at all. Weird. Both my parents thought the flavour was pretty awful, and we both decided that the more we ate, the less we liked the taste.

What really hurts this ice cream, in our opinion, was the lack of texture. While the texture of the actual ice cream part was nice and creamy, the fact that the swirl was, if anything, slightly gritty in texture was pretty disappointing. It would have been a huge improvement if there had been any discernible apple pieces or chunks in there, like an apple strudel filling or something similar. But no, instead we get drippy caramel-like substance and apple dust. Fabulous.

So what's the final verdict?

Recommend to a friend? What we would actually recommend is to get a nice apple pie and top it with a low fat (or if you're not concerned about calories, full fat) vanilla ice cream scoop. As far as imitations go, this one just doesn't cut it.
Repurchase? J: Maybe one more time if it was in better condition to re-evaluate it. B: No thanks, I'll pass.