Breyer's 1/2 the fat Chocolate Chocolate Chip Formerly Smooth & Dreamy Light Ice Cream

[Circa 2009] After my first run in with Smooth & Dreamy, I had high hopes when I picked up this flavor, and you know what? I'm so glad I did! I like it, I really like it. I guess it just hits that special chocolate and chippy part of my brain and tells me to eat the whole container (not that I did, I was good)

Breyers Smooth & Dreamy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Light Ice Cream

Now the problem is that I can't really describe the base chocolate ice cream itself. It seems to be a good flavor and texture, but the chocolate chips are so plentiful that they run the whole show here. It's not a bad thing, just be prepared for it. If you just want ice cream (and I will try the plain chocolate at some point), go with the straight chocolate. If you want to crunch chips 'til your heart's content, then go with the Chocolate Chocolate Chip.

I would like to make one comment, just a minor point to keep in mind if you are watching calories. The point of smooth and dreamy is all about 1/2 the fat and less calories, and while most of the S&D varieties clock in at 2 grams of saturated fat, this one has four because of the chips. Nothing major, but just keep it in mind.

Ok, and now for some TV...something to distract me from having another bowl of this stuff right now. Have I mentioned I really like this ice cream? MMMMMMM....really need to think about something else now.

2009 Nutrition: 140 / 50-4 / 1 / 3

2012 Update: This flavor does still exist, but the "Smooth & Dreamy" moniker is dead. It's no longer all natural but should be "even creamier & smoother". This results in slightly different nutrition stats.

2012 Nutrition: 130 / 40-3.5 / 1 / 3

2013 Update: Retired!

Edy's Outshine Strawberry Fruit Bar Review

packaging circa 2009

Not much to talk about here. I decided to try the Strawberry fruit bars and I like them almost as much as I like the Grape ones. Plain, simple, and tasty. My only super tiny superficial complaint would be that these seems to a be a smidge harder on the outside than the grape, but I'm thinking that it's just from the shipping process or while it was waiting to be put on the shelf. It's by no means a show stopper.

Now, which flavor should I try next....

On Second Scoop: I mentioned that these seemed a little tougher than the other flavors, so I just picked up another box and it's the same way. Nothing to lose sleep over, it must just be a strawberry thing since these actually have a bit of fiber in them.
2009 Nutrition: 80 / 0 / 1.0 / 0
2013 Nutrition: 70 / 0 / 0.5 / 0

So Hungry!!!

Did you know you can be too hungry when reviewing ice cream? I tried another flavor of Breyers Smooth & Dreamy but I was so hungry it disappeared within moments. I'm pretty sure it was both tasty and chocolaty, but I won't know for sure until I go back again tomorrow!

Klondike Reese's Bars

I just had ice cream for lunch...what did you have?? Ok, technically I'll eat my lunch later, but still, it's always fun to flip things around. You don't really expect me to drive the whole 3/4 of a mile back from the grocery store without eating one of these do you? Nah, didn't think so.

So, when's the last time you had a Klondike bar? yesterday? yesteryear maybe? I honestly can't remember it's been that long. A decade maybe? Did I even have my driver's license last time I had one of these? Does life go by that fast nowadays?

A simple scoop: Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia FroYo

I'm going to call this a simple scoop because I only took three bites. I knew what to expect and I just wanted to verify my expectations: the cherries are very strong, stronger than regular Cherry Garcia, but also strong enough to make you forget you are eating frozen yogurt. I think that's the key to getting people to eat frozen yogurt = distract them!

We have a quality product here and my wife is adoring every bite of it. A pint of frozen yogurt might actually become a staple in our fridge now.

Nutrition: 160 / 25-2 / 1 / 4

Edy's Slow Churned Cookie Dough Light Ice Cream

I'm not even sure the last time we bought this particular flavor...and you probably know what I'm going to say about it: It's decent, but not fantastic. The cookie dough bits are alright, and the overall flavor is mild, but you still know it's vanilla. Nothing fancy, just some low cal ice cream to tide you over til tomorrow.

My problem is this pit that Edy's seems to have fallen into. I really -REALLY- shouldn't have to chew my ice cream. I just want to bite the frozen goodness, but often I feel a bit like I'm chewing gum. Soft gum, but gum none the less. I guess I'm just really turned off from Edy's right now. If it wasn't for Caramel Cone Crunch, I'd be tempted to give up on them all together. It's the only one I've tried recently that I have really enjoyed. Edy's (Dreyer's) is just adding way too many chemicals and straying too far from what ice cream really should be.

and yes, I'm still bitter they turned the awesome Grand Ice Cream sandwich into a fun flavor.

Nutrition: 130 / 40-3 / 0 / 3

New! Häagen-Dazs Five Milk Chocolate

Check out the rescoop of this flavor. My bad experience with Brown Sugar made me a bit too harsh of this one, though the second time around wasn't a complete winner either.

After the painful experience with Five - Brown Sugar, I was looking forward to the Milk chocolate flavored ice cream to right the ship. Problem is, apparently the molasses wasn't the only problem with this ice cream. Not sure how or why, but the milk chocolate suffers a similar (though not as potent) dry/chalky texture that I discovered in the Brown sugar.

I can tell you right now I will not be buying any more Five flavors (unless someone gives me a fantastic recommendation on one of the other flavors). If you've ever messed around with cocoa, you know it can be very dry and chalky, well, that's what this ice cream reminds me of. I really thought Haagen-Dazs was going to break new ground with just five ingredients but instead we're presented with yet another unappealing product. I just can't think of an excuse to eat it ...though I do suddenly have the urge to try and make a milkshake with it, the added milk might wash away the dry texture.

I guess I'm surprised that at a high end company like Haagen-Dazs, the samplers didn't stand up and go "hey, ummmm, this doesn't work for me". Oh well.

Update: After writing this I couldn't resist and decided to make milkshakes for my wife and daughter. The milk does help (though it mellows the flavor). I'll probably burn up the rest of the Five ice cream this way.

Check out the rescoop of this flavor. My bad experience with Brown Sugar made me a bit too harsh of this one, though the second time around wasn't a complete winner either.

Nutrition: 102g: 220 / 110-7 / (1) / 6 (75mg cholesterol)

Breyers Smooth & Dreamy Strawberry Cheesecake

2012 Update: This may have happened last year, but Strawberry Cheesecake has been dropped from the Smooth & Dreamy line. Apparently Breyers doesn't do cake or pie flavors anymore.

!New Product Line Alert!

Breyers Smooth & Dreamy Strawberry Cheesecake Light Ice Cream

cheesecake flavored light ice cream with a strawberry flavored swirl

I'm guessing you may have seen the new blue Breyer's containers by now, but if not, it's time to take a look. The big problem we've been having with the light ice creams is that we always seem to lose the ability to keep it all natural. Well, no longer! Breyers comes to the rescue! Now the website says there are 11 smooth & dreamy flavors, but to be honest, up til now I've only scene the vanilla and maybe one other flavor (oh man, they make a rocky road flavor too!!).

I don't mean to be sappy, or biased, or anything like that, but I'm really proud that a mainstream company like Breyers has taken the game up another notch. I'm growing tired of Edy's (Dreyer's) getting lazier. We've had to accept a shrinking package size, but I refuse to accept shrinking quality standards.

Ok, let's get to the ice cream already! Now, the ice cream is very soft and wasted no time before starting to melt. Granted, there's no fun chemicals to hold it together, so this trade is totally acceptable, especially since I have no urge for those chemicals messing with the taste of my ice cream. It also looks really tastey, and the aroma is mild but pleasing (ok, technically I got a "little" too close when sniffing the ice cream...).

So, how does it taste? Well, it varies. I'm no cheesecake lover, so I appreciate the bites that are mildly cheesy and pleasantly strawberry-ish. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, some bites are really cheesy. I don't know what it is, but every time I hit one of those bites I was dieing for a bit of crust to mellow it out. Note: there are no crust bits. This is cheesecake flavored ice cream with a strawberry swirl.

call it truth in advertising, but it really is smooth and"dreamy". It's very soft and goes down real easy. I guess this would be opposed to smooth and creamy, as you might describe B&J or H-D. Granted, you'll probably eat it quicker, but you also don't feel weighed down when you're done. Plus it doesn't have the plastic/rubbery texture you might find in other light ice creams.

Conclusion? I'm just not enough of a cheesecake lover to go back to this, but the quality of this product has me dieing to try some of the more appealing flavors. If Breyers keeps it up, this will become the defacto ice cream in the fridge for the nights I want something a bit lighter.

Product Update: For all you cheesecake lovers, I'm sorry to announce that the Sara Lee Strawberry Cheesecake light ice cream from Breyers has been discontinued. At least we have S&D, but S&D doesn't have a graham cracker swirl.

Nutrition: 71g: 120 / 30-2 / 0 / 3

Wendy's Vanilla Cookie Dough Twisted Frosty Review

Have you tried a twisted frosty yet? They've been out for over a year and a half now. For me, I don't think I've had one since last June.

So I spent a good two hours recycling all the computer junk in my new office. If you've ever wondered what to do with old computer hardware, take it to Staples. Usually it costs $10 a item (computer, monitor, printer), but they are running a special right now so printers are free to recycle. It's not easy fitting 13 pieces of junk in a sedan, but I made it happen.

Anyway, I figured my hard work was worthy of a chilly treat, so I decided to finally try the Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough Twisted Frosty and I wasn't disappointed (except maybe a little by the blending job). I just wasn't in the mood for a chocolate base, guess I felt like being traditional today. As you might expect, you get some cookie dough bits (which stay as bits since the faux blender can't really hurt them), but then you get a very generous supply of very thin chocolate slices. It's these slices that really make the frosty enjoyable, otherwise, it would be terribly boring.

So, Wendy's may not have the variety of a DQ, but the few choices they do have usually hit the spot when you are in the mood (or can't make it to DQ). Give them a chance if you haven't.

Happy St. Patrick's day by the way!

Nutrition: 257g : 480 / 140-10 / 1 / 10 (35% of your Calcium)

Twisted Frosties were killed off when the Frosty Parfait debuted

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Froyo Review

Well, with my introduction to frozen yogurt having gone fairly well, I knew it would only be fair to give Ben & Jerry's a shot too. Being a chocolate and brownie addict, I decided to pick something appropriate.

Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie Froyo

Chocolate low fat frozen yogurt with fudge brownies

My favorite part? the brownie pieces ofcourse. The yogurt itself is also decent. It's not ice cream, but it's not some cheezy yogurt junk either. It not like any of us would expect low quality from B&J anyway.

I think the Haagen-Dazs texture struck me as a bit more ice cream like, but I think that it's something that I'll sort out as I try a few more flavors and brands. I just wasn't really thinking about yogurt with H-D, but maybe the honey was distracting me. With B&J, there's no mistaking that you are eating yogurt. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm just saying it's not ice cream.

On Second Scoop: Well, it's been a few months and I have tried many more frozen yogurts. With this in mind, I would now describe a fresh pint of this guy as ooey gooey brownies smushed into a fudgsicle. The brownies are excellent, but the froyo, while not having a yogurty taste to it, does have the consistency of frozen milk. Not sure how that works, but there's a good amount of brownies trying to distract you from that fact.

Update: This flavor was RE-reviewed here.

Nutrition: 170 / 25-0.5 / 1 / 5

New! Haagen-Dazs Five Brown Sugar Ice Cream

This flavor has been discontinued
Haagen-Dazs had major trouble producing a consistant flavor
the review below is for one of the "bad" pints

Update: This review may be revised in the near future, stay tuned.

So, I finally review the new line of Haagen-Dazs ice cream. I couldn't wait to try it as soon as I saw it on the website, and then I bought it as soon as I had a chance.

And now....

...finally...

...I have tried it...

...and it's awful!!!

I love brown sugar ...so what happened?? I don't really know, all I know is that one word comes to mind: DRY That's right, dry. The molasses is so potent that it totally ruins the ice cream for me. I didn't think you could make ice cream taste like this way but they made it happen. I'm totally, completely, absolutely, disappointed. My hopes and dreams dashed by my very first bite.

Am I being too harsh? honestly? I don't think so. Short of drinking straight from a bottle of molasses (which may work for some of you), I ...I ...I can't even finish my sentence ...apparently I'm speechless! ok, not really. Have I mentioned how dry it tastes? I got opinions from my wife and daughter and they too were "unamused".

The initial taste is unpleasant
Chewing it is unpleasant
The aftertaste is unpleasant

I'm still debating what I can mix this with to save it. I added some whip cream, which did help, but this is Haagen-Dazs, it's not suppose to need help. I'm sorry to be so harsh but I don't know what else to say.

On Second Scoop: Well, the story doesn't really end here. Check out the stunning conclusion to my introduction to this new line of ice cream. As far as the brown sugar goes, well, I despise it, I tried it one more time and I refuse to eat any more of it. Spoons permanently down on this one.
Nutrition: 102g - 230 / 110-7 / 0 / 5 (plus 85mg of cholesterol)

Pizza! Pizza!

Ok, I'm slackin' here apparently. I still haven't gotten to the Haagen-Dazs, though I did enjoy a nice bowl of Caramel Cone Crunch a couple hours ago. I really meant to try the HD yesterday, but we tried Papa Johns for the first time ...sure, they've been around for 25 years but what can I say, there's never been one that's been convenient for me. Well now there's one a few minutes from work and to make it all the geekier, I can order online before packing up my stuff to go home. I kept it simple, just a large plain pizza and bread sticks. If anything, the pizza reminds me of Dominoes, though I'd say the crust is a little more rubbery. So it's decent...respectable, but nothing fantastic....but then there are the breadsticks. MMMMMMM, fantastic, well, to me anyway. I much prefer these big bready sticks to those thin greasy things I get from other places. Ok, so this has nothing to do with ice cream except that I was too full to try my new ice creams. No worries though, there is always tomorrow.

On Second Slice: We went back the next week and tried the Tuscan six cheese on whole wheat, and I can honestly say that you should attempt to refrain from making the same mistake...whole wheat does not belong in my pizza. On a positive note, we got one of those little cinnamon snack pizzas and it was quite tasty.

On Third Slice: I tried one more time. We tried the thin crust (which is VERY thin), but really, I just wanted an excuse to try the apple snack pizza. It was good, I would definitely recommend trying it.

I say "Hmmmmmmm"

is it better to have my ice cream now before my meeting in the hopes of waking myself back up (it is the end of the week after all and I've been up since 4AM unfortunately), or do I keep myself awake with thoughts of ice cream during the meeting? ...like my brain needs yet another distraction.

Actually, what I really want to do is hold off on ice cream now because at home I have two very tasty looking flavors of the new Häagen-Dazs Five waiting in the freezer. I just can't wait to crack them open. Decisions Decisions Decisions.

Speaking of decisions, I think I've learned a painful lesson this week. I thought it was easier for managers to make decisions because they had more clout, but instead, I find myself having to defend my opinions and experience more now than I ever had before.

I also learned that coming up with a blog post in my head during my morning shower does me absolutely no good if it takes several hours before I can sit down and post. Ok, technically I knew that one already, but it's still annoying.

Ok, and now the decision has been made, not enough time for ice cream. Oh boy meeting! (I kid, I kid, it's not a bad meeting at all, there's just no food involved)

M&M Ice Cream Cones

It only took one bite to realize this wasn't a drumstick ...but that was my fault really. I psyched myself up a bit too much as I walked to the check out line. Overall, I'd say they aren't bad. They grow on you as you go, but drumsticks are definitely better.

M&M's Ice Cream Cones

Ciao Bella Vanilla Gelato

Disclaimer: This was my very first gelato post, so please forgive my ignorance. I have learned the error of my ways since then.

You know what I learned today? I learned that I don't like gelato, at least, not yet. It's funny because it looks just like ice cream, and the taste is...well, it's hard to say at first, but it ain't quite right. What it reminds me of? Well, it doesn't hit me until after I'm done with my sample. It actually reminds me of watered down ice cream. It's weird, but I don't know how else to describe it. I'll try again later, but for now it's spoons down on this one.

location, location, location!

a few weeks ago we had to move the fridge from it's old perplexing location to one that made a bit more sense ...but there's always a catch. I'm dieing to polish off drumstick #3 of 4 but I can't get to it because we moved the fridge to the back of a conference room. So as much as I may enjoy Stacy's Cinnamon Sugar Pita Chips from time to time, they are no substitute for that Drumstick I've been thinking about for the last hour.

Guess I'll just have to play with my shiny new work laptop til the conference room frees up. Oh yeah, it will be nice to second scoop from the couch once again (it's been a long ten weeks since I turned my other laptop in at my former job)

Edy's Caramel Cone Crunch A Frozen Dairy Dessert review

Unfortunately the Loaded line was discontinued, 
though it's spirit lives on in the pint sized MAXX flavors

Edy's LoadeD Caramel Cone Crunch ice cream

Nestle Vanilla Caramel Drumstick Review

I think I've mentioned before that I've always been a fan of Nestle Drumsticks. What got me hooked was my very cool 2nd full time job. We had an HR director who really understood the basics of what makes people happy. Boring meeting? add muffins! Painful presentation? add pizza! And when it's a hot day? add ICE CREAM!! She did lots of other good things, but you know me, I'm not going to forget the ice cream. (instead of going out to eat on my last day there, we actually had a drumstick party instead!)

Ok, getting sidetracked. So, I like drumsticks, though I rarely ever buy them because of the fat content. Whoa, that's weird, nutrition info on their website doesn't match the box. I wonder if they are coming out with a "healthier" drumstick and I just happened to get an old box. Either way, it's still high and I almost picked a different treat (it only took me 20 minutes to decide....it was a big aisle). I was tempted to try the good humor eclairs (for comparison to the hood ones), and then i almost went with one of the eskimo pie treats because they were on sale, as were the klondike bars, but then i realized something. Sure, I get half of my saturated fat for the day in a drumstick, but I'm also getting a big honking serving of ice cream that's going to tide me over for awhile.

Nestle Drumstick : Classic Vanilla Caramel

Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Honey & Granola Frozen Yogurt

Discontinued as of 2012 (may have happened sooner)

I don't know if I say it enough, but this blog has always been about expanding mine (and hopefully your) appreciation for all kinds of frozen dairy desserts. Sure the focus is quality ice cream, but remember, if it's in the ice cream aisle, it's fair game.

Today's review is no exception, though I did have help to get here in the form of a bright yellow 50% off sticker. I can't say I would have made this Häagen-Dazs leap of faith on my own, but now that I'm here, I'm glad I forgot about the past and tried something new. See, if you are like me, frozen yogurt makes you think of one thing: soft serve TCBY. I remember long ago when TCBY came to our mall and I remember trying it...it wasn't horrible, but I'll never forgot that awful aftertaste. Granted, I was young and my tastes were limited, but the experience was powerful enough to keep me from ever wanting to try frozen yogurt again.