Review: Island Farms "Green Tea" Ice Cream

Today's review comes with the help of one of our classmates who helped us out with a couple of tastings, and since she is half Filipino (let's call her Asian Girl...AG for short), perhaps it's appropriate that we review one of Island Farms' Asian-inspired classic flavours, Green Tea ice cream. ;)

It occurred to me after I recycled the container that this photo doesn't actually show the flavour. Fail.

Now, we recently reviewed Haagen Dazs's take on green tea and we were somewhat disappointed by the subtlety of its green tea flavour. That is to say, we could barely taste the tea underneath the vanilla. So naturally we're curious to see how this one compares. The most obvious difference, when we removed the lid, is the colour. Unlike the washed out colour of Haagen Dazs, this thing is like...electric green. Not quite glow in the dark, and this picture doesn't do it justice, but it is green. Definitely looks like matcha powder, so if this stuff doesn't pack some serious green tea punch, something is wrong. (It's worth noting that on subsequent openings of the container, the ice cream had browned a bit in colour...which I think is actually good because it suggests that the colour is due to organic elements, not food dye)

Well, it's definitely matcha. AG commented that it tastes more like a Booster Juice matcha shot than actual ice cream, and added that her desire to try a "weird" flavour with us had been fulfilled by this product because it was totally weird. It does have a very strong tea flavour, so if you were hoping to be gently eased into the realm of green tea you'll be in for a bit of a shock; it's the complete other end of the spectrum from the Haagen Dazs we tried. While AG thought it was disgusting, finding it too earthy and that it "tastes like a face mask," J loved it, proclaiming that it is the only ice cream she has had that can truly call itself "green tea" because it actually has real green tea flavour. To her, if you don't like this ice cream, you probably don't like real green tea much.

As for me, I'm kind of neutral on it. The flavour is good, but I only really enjoy it for the first few bites before I get turned off. I think the issue is actually less about the taste and more about the mouth feel of this stuff. To me, it's too high fat, too creamy, for a tea ice cream. Creamy richness goes well with coffee flavours, but I feel like it's way too much for tea. I like green tea a lot, but I'm not sure it fits with a full fat ice cream like this. It's weird because I didn't feel this way about the Haagen Dazs one, but maybe that's because the dominant flavour there wasn't actually green tea.

However...

 When I was trying to finish off the rest of the container, I mixed this ice cream with some 1% milk in the blender to make a green tea milkshake. By diluting the flavour somewhat, as well as the fat content, this product was much more enjoyable. So if you're looking to make like a green tea smoothie/milkshake, this ice cream plus a low fat milk makes a pretty tasty concoction.

 Recommend to a friend? If you really like green tea, you may be a fan of this Island Farms endeavour. But you really have to like it.
Repurchase? J: Yes B: No, wouldn't be worth it for me.

Review: Haagen Dazs "Green Tea & Honey Vanilla" Ice Cream

As mentioned before, when my sister came over for Thanksgiving, we had initially intended to find a carton of Island Farms green tea flavour ice cream to review, but were unable to locate any (as we discovered a week and a half later, we had neglected to visit the one grocery store in town that carried it...review upcoming!). Even after my sister had gone home, J and I still had a desire to try something frozen and green tea, so we picked up a container of Haagen Dazs Green Tea & Honey Vanilla, which proclaimed itself to be "new".

We were a bit skeptical at first: both of us like green tea, especially J who is much more of a tea connoisseur and who has had a lot of green tea during her time in Japan. We weren't entirely sure how the vanilla and honey flavours were going to compliment the flavour of green tea. I like tea lattes and tea mistos as much as the next commercial coffee shop addict, but green tea was one I tended to stay away from because it can easily be botched (at least in my experience). Upon opening, we found a very pale green ice cream that was easily divided between the pair of us.

Like almost all Haagen Dazs ice creams, this one is simple and gets right to the point. In this case, however, it kind of gets to the point in reverse order.  By that we mean that the flavours dominate in the reverse order of how they are listed on the package. While vanilla is listed last, we found this to be the most dominant flavour, with the honey coming in to sweeten it nicely (although to be fair, this ice cream contains both sugar and honey and while J said she could taste the honey, all I could taste was "sweet" and nothing discernibly honey-like). In fact, if you hadn't told us what this ice cream was called, and if we ignored the colour, I think both of us would have called it a funny-tasting vanilla ice cream. The green tea is there. Kinda. If you're really looking for it, you can taste it, but otherwise it is mostly present as an aftertaste, or as a very subtle tea-like note at the end. Basically, this ice cream is vanilla infused with green tea, rather than being a straight-up green tea ice cream. So I guess, in a way, it's more complex than we originally thought?

Recommend to a friend? If you are expecting in-your-face green tea flavour, you will be disappointed. However, if you want to experience a light and non-threatening variation on green tea, you will probably enjoy this.
Repurchase? J: Maybe. It's a good ice cream, but it doesn't deliver the green tea taste I was hoping for. B: It wouldn't be first on my list, but I enjoyed this. Would repurchase if I was in the mood.