Stewart's Black Cherry Frozen Float Review

[New for 2012] Oh man, yet again I find myself at another grocery store that is carrying the new chocolate choco tacos but not the peanut butter choco tacos. Why must the stores taunt me like this?! Uggg, well I guess I could go somewhere else but... wait, there's a brightly colored container catching my eye.

Is that Stewart's Floats in a Pint??? hahaha, oh man! Those appeared out of the blue! Oh, and they're on sale too! It would be wrong to pass it up at just $2.99 per real pint.

I always see Stewart's Fountain Classics at the stores. They are hard to miss since those bright orange packs of root beer always catch my eye. I don't really buy much soda anymore but I'm pretty sure I've had their root beer at least a few times.

You may remember that i'm not a fan of root beer float flavored products, but that said, there is something about these that caught my eye. Well, I already said it caught my eye, but then it went ahead and got my full attention. I think it was the fact there are a few flavors to choose from. We have all seen root beer tried by several companies, but black cherry? or vanilla cream? Throw in the sale price with the word black cherry and I can't resist. I think we've got to try this right now! (Plus it saves me from looking for those silly tacos)

Ha, well that's not what I was expecting. I'm so use to float flavors coming in a swirl that I wasn't expecting a uniform product.... Ok, I'm scooping.... nice, it's a uniform taste too. That certainly simplifies things. I was wondering how fancy this would be, but they are going straight for consistent flavor, no decorative foolishness here.

I take some more bites and I'm not sure what to think. It definitely has some cherry taste to it. Not a tang or bite mind you, but more of a milder cherry that you might find in a cola product.

It's icy, but not as icy as an Italian ice. It's also somewhat creamy, but not so much as ice cream. It's more of a funky sherbet I guess, but even that doesn't seem like the right term to use. I should mention the fat is clocking in at just 2 grams, 1 of them saturated. Mix that with just a 100 calories a serving and what do we have to lose? Even if it's only half tasty, it's also only half the calories.

I don't usually like these types of products but... Iunno, these first few scoops have me interested. There definitely seems to be some kind of mild carbonated bump to this treat. It could just be my mind playing with me, but after the burp, I'm think there might be actual carbonation going on here.

You know, I have an idea. I don't usually take the time to do this, but what if I let it melt for 10 minutes? Would it become more like a real float? Maybe leave it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes? Hmmmmm.... no time for that, what if I melt some under hot water... ok, that worked well enough. I'm getting a soft serve mixed with ICEE vibe. It doesn't have quite the same spark as an ICEE float, but it's got just enough gumption to hold my attention.

I can't say I would rush out for this one or pay full price (potentially $4.69), but I wouldn't be afraid to try it either. It's different and you can always share it if you don't like it.

On Second Scoop: This isn't the kind of pint you are going to blow through... no, correct that, you could if you wanted to since it's very light, but I don't think you'll need to. This is a small bite treat where you slowly enjoy the flavor for a bit and then move on. I wouldn't want giant scoops of this stuff, it would be too weird (in my book), you definitely want to take your time here. But it's different, it's effectively healthy, and I'm ok with that.

Verdict?  Different and not bad
Buy this brand again?  I am tempted to sample the other flavors (if on sale)


Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1/2 cup (90g) Servings Per Container    8
Amount Per Serving
Calories  100	from Fat  15
	% Daily Value*
Total Fat  2g	3%
- Sat Fat  1g	5%
- Trans Fat  0g
Cholesterol  5mg	2%
Sodium  10mg	0%
Total Carbohydrate  20g	7%
- Dietary Fiber   0g	0%
- Sugars  17g
Protein  1g
Vitamin A   0%	Vitamin C   0%
Calcium   2%	Iron   0%

Wendy's Strawberry Shortcake Frosty Parfait Review

[New for 2012] Since I tend to be a bit of a space case this time of year due to weather changes, pollen overload, and everything else, I can get lost in the fog of everything going on. Humidity and congestion just go so well together.... Ofcourse, being foggy doesn't mean I'm not hungry. I know I wanted to pick something up on the way back from Home Depot, but I just wasn't sure what to get. Thankfully Nick reminded me that the new Wendy's Strawberry Frosty Parfait is out. I don't know what it is, but once I heard strawberry and frosty, off I went.

Well I had questioned if the 2011 Wildberry Parfait would be back. The answer appears to be a big NO now that the Strawberry Shortcake parfait is here. It's "creamy vanilla [frosty] with fresh hand-cut strawberry and shortbread cookies to make the perfect summer re-treat".

Hey, looking closer, that looks like half the parfait toppings compared to what I see on grubgrade. That other one easily has twice the strawberry and shortcake bits, but more importantly, it looks to have at least twice the sauce that mine did.

Oops, wait, I'm complaining before reviewing. Let's start over.

I stare at my 10oz cup for a moment and decide how to proceed. If I pop the top, I risk a mess of whip cream. If I leave the top on, I'll slow myself down trying to eat through a narrow opening - - - I'm feeling messy, so the lid stays on.

I take my first bite which has all the components on it... Tasty enough! Ofcourse, that leaves me with one other strawberry chunk. Doh! That's just cheezy, but to be honest, we all know it's the strawberry sauce that is going to make or break this treat. I decide it's time to dig down deep and grab some of it. Mmmm, even tastier. It's a nice traditional sweet strawberry sauce that goes very well with the fresh cold vanilla frosty.

I'm getting rogue crunchy shortcake cookie bits along the way. On one hand I appreciate their crunchiness, on the other hand I will kind of miss them when they are gone. My crunch loving side wishes I could smash them up a bit to spread out the crunch evenly throughout the entire treat.

The crunch bits are gone and so is the strawberry sauce. Uggg, it's a tasty treat but way too many bites are sans strawberry. You all know I love a good sweet berry flavor and I can't decide if this treat is making me happy or sad... nah, I'm still happy, but I could be real happy had there been more sauce.

Do I recommend you try this? Yes, because you'll either get a nice treat like grubgrade did, or you'll get a decent treat like I did. A little tweak and some store to store consistency would guarantee I pick up several more of these over the summer, but as it stands, I'll probably get one or two more here and there depending on how hungry I am.

Verdict?  Nice but imperfect
Buy Again?  here and there



Nutrition Facts

Serving Size  (210g)
Amount Per Serving
Calories  370	from Fat  110
	% Daily Value*
Total Fat  12g	22%
- Sat Fat  9g	45%
- Trans Fat  0g
Cholesterol  35mg	12%
Sodium  135mg	6%
Total Carbohydrate  58g	19%
- Dietary Fiber   1g	4%
- Sugars  46g
Protein  7g
Vitamin A   10%	Vitamin C   15%
Calcium   25%	Iron   0%

Dairy Queen Confetti Cake Blizzard May 2012 Blizzard of the Month Review

There's nothing cooler than hitting DQ on the first of the month to find out what the new blizzard is. Sure, there's the occasional disappointment if you DQ isnt ready for it yet, but if you have a well prepared store nearby, it's like Christmas... ok, too far, but there is definitely a fun factor when that blizzard isn't just new for the month, but totally new to Dairy Queen.

This is the new Confetti Cake Blizzard

It's moist white cake pieces and confetti frosting blended with creamy vanilla softserve.

Sure looks exciting, too bad it took us until today to try...

Actually, the really bad news is that I can't save those of you who have already tried it.

Here's mine and there aren't a ton of fun confetti pieces about.

Thankfully that's a good thing because on occasion you get a rock hard confetti piece.

Here's a much better look.

Hopefully you can see all the uncovered cake pieces. 

I think I got a minimum of two in every bite.

Now let me be clear that this blizzard is not all that bad. They use a nice vanilla frosting that really pops through, and the crazy amount of cake bits really ties it all together. My blizzard was actually quite tasty and for the most part I was enjoying it. I was really digging the icy cold frosting vibe. 

So what's the problem? Well for starters my wife got too much frosting in hers. She kept complaining and I was going "it's not that bad". Well I had a few bites of hers when she was done and she definitely got too much frosting. The frustrating part was that I had switched with her because the blizzard I took was a bit more photogenic. I know the two should have matched, but they didn't. She wound up eating about 65% of hers.

"Your daughter loved it right?" Well, surprisingly no. I'm not 100% sure what her problem was, but first she was asking why I didn't get her a kids size, and then she went staight to being sad I didn't get her usual Oreo blizzard. She tried to stay upbeat but I don't think she even made it half way through her small. She never specifically said she didn't like it, but it was pretty obvious she didn't -- I asked my daughter later and she said two things: 1) Too Sweet   2) Too much cake.

I can't believe I impatiently waited 26 days for this only for it not to be a huge hit. I was sure my daughter would love this one, and I was hoping it would win my wife over too. Even I had some trouble with it. I was enjoying it for the most part, I really thought I was, but despite the fact I was hungry as could be, I only ate about 3/4 of mine and gave up. It was like "I'm good, why bother eating any more".

I tossed my blizzard in with my wife's with the thought that it would stay colder and maybe I could finish it when I got home. Well, none of us went back for more, but it proved for an interesting experiment. For whatever reason, all the cake bits floated to the top. I've never notice this before, but I've never looked for it either.

I don't know what they did to these cake bits, they taste fine and have a good solid flavor and texture, but even after 45 minutes, they were still solid and dry inside (I was still exerting effort to cut them in two). The picture you see above is actually from 2 hours after we bought the blizzard. Look closely at the bottom of the picture and you will see one that I had freshly cut in half. It still looks like cake! I expected total mush and we've still got a solid chunk. That's too funny, too too funny.

Verdict? Taste is fine, but go with a mini
Buy Again?  Once and done my friends

Cedar Crest Blue Moon Ice Cream Sandwich Review

[By Nick] Blue Moon is definitely the “mystery” flavor of the ice cream world. Hell, there’s even a Wikipedia page for it. It seems as if everyone believes they know what it truly is, yet the discrepancy between flavors is astounding. I mean if one person thinks it tastes like Fruit Loops while another is definite it tastes like soda, there has to be something up with this flavor. Being that this had me very intrigued, I added a couple of Cedar Crest Blue Moon Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches to my Ice Cream Source order.

The description I got from the website is extremely vague. Simply put its blue moon ice cream in between two cookies. Now I have no idea what flavor the cookies are or if they’re more wafer like than cookie. The packaging it just a blank white wrapper, which is just disappointing for something that doesn’t come in its own box. Okay time to stop delaying, here goes nothing.

Well that’s a brighter blue than I expected. This is not a color you’ll be finding in nature any time soon.  These are the kind of ice cream sandwiches I’d imagine Gargamel eating (Smurfs reference ftw). So it looks as if it’s blue moon ice cream with vanilla wafers. Taking my first bite, I’m struck with a familiar flavor that I just can’t pinpoint. After a second it hit me, THESE TASTE LIKE FRUITY PEBBLES. Well more of a generic fruity pebbles with that “artificial this isn’t real fruit” taste. Now I’m not going to get into detail on how fruity pebbles taste seeing as I hope a majority of you already know what I’m talking about. If you don’t and were deprived as a child, go out and buy a box. It’ll broaden your horizons. The vanilla wafers on the other hand were practically a non-factor. There was a faint vanilla flavor in the after taste but other than that it seemed that their main purpose was to provide a support structure for the treat. That’s a shame because I feel if the vanilla was stronger, it would’ve complimented the ice cream and helped to mellowed out the predominate “fruit” flavor.

I felt like this was a nice change of pace when it comes to the basic vanilla/chocolate ice cream sandwich world. I can truly see why there is such devotion for this stuff in the Upper Midwest and the variation in people’s perception on what the true flavor is. If you’ve ever had Blue Moon, leave a comment and let me know what you think the flavor is. I’m interested on seeing what other people come up with.

Verdict?  A flavor truly deserving of the hype
Buy Again?  For a change of pace, sure

Wonka Chipperberry Swirl Ice Cream Review

[New for 2012] Oh Wonka, you make me feel like a kid again. I know it's all in my head, but I see these pints and I think back to school and reading Charlie and the Chocolate factory. I think what it would be like to be a kid again but I don't need to think too hard, I've got two of them running around all over the place. Well, one's reading, the other is pretending he's an airplane or Lightning McQueen. I know eating these free samples of Wonka won't make me a kid again, but let's pretend anyway.

wait, hold on

Wonka Chipperberry Swirl is black raspberry & vanilla ice cream with chocolaty chips

We've got a nice 50/50 mix of ice cream with a ton of chips... but look close

Notice anything? Look at the other picture again if you need to.

Got it? No? There's no chips in the blackberry raspberry part. The vanilla part is inundated with them, but there's no sign of them in the raspberry. If you remember your math, this ice cream isn't [(black raspberry + vanilla) * chocolate chips] like the label might suggest, it's [black raspberry + vanilla * chocolate chips] .... ok, I don't know why I felt the need to do that, but you get the idea. Granted the black raspberry probably doesn't really need the chips because there are plenty in the vanilla, but hold on.


You might think that's my main beef with this ice cream, but it gets worse. The black raspberry is strong, not sweet. I remember Ben & Jerry's magic brownie trying this same base combo but it came out too weak, here the combo comes across too strong. It doesn't help that the vanilla has no discernable flavor. I'm sure it's there, but between the raspberry and chocolate chips it's totally lost. Even if I just bite the vanilla (with chips, you can't avoid them), I just don't taste vanilla. Had the vanilla been cranked up to 11, instead of say, 3, this pint would have been more balanced.


Since this is currently a Northern California flavor that most of us cant find in the store, I will describe it in another way. It's like Talenti Black Raspberry Gelato, but without the novelty of it all. They both have a lot of chips, but there's that something unique about Talenti's take on it all. Talenti used a similar strong raspberry flavor, but the overall product was just more desirable. Here in Wonka's take it just seems, well, I wanted a fun flavor here and to me  that would have been a sweet black raspberry base. 

So this one is a no go for me. Oh, I still polished it off, but it took three attempts. Heck, had I not had the Talenti version before, I'd probably be more impressed. I'll admit it, I'm disappointed. I know it wants to wow me with the crazy chip factor, and it's a respectable effort in that regard, but it's just not a winner for me.


Verdict?  Close, but not quite
Buy Again?  Nah