AICC-3: Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream Black Licorice for Black Friday

Hope everyone got a few good black friday deals today, because I have a "special" treat to finish off the day for you. The other day a stroke of brilliance hit me: Save the Black Licorice flavored Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream for Black Friday. Aren't I tricky? Hey, you take whatever excuse you can to eat ice cream and then run with it.

As you might suspect, I was a little afraid. I have never seen licorice flavored ice cream in these parts. I ate my fair share of twizzlers as a kid, and I still love a fresh box of Good & Plenty, but licorice ice cream? Those two things don't go together in my world. Even if I had seen licorice flavor, I doubt I would have bought it. I want to leave the ice cream stand happy, and licorice would have been too big of a gamble for me.

Well, the Ice Cream of the Month Club is standing by to broaden our horizons. Besides the first two tame selections this month, I found black licorice in my shipment. I didn't even know what color it would be. I've never seen black ice cream, but what other color could it be? Let's find out!

Well, it ain't black, but it is a disturbing gray color. I've never seen gray ice cream before and quite frankly, I hope I never do again. It makes me thing of something in particular actually.....

Ciao Bella Gelato Malted Milk Ball Review

[Discontinued for the 2014 rebranding/reformulating]
There's only one way to say this: Ciao Bella just put a smile on my face. Not to ruin the end of the story, but this is a very cool flavor and I can't say enough about it.  Nice job Ciao Bella, very nice.

Let's start from the beginning, not of the treat, not of the day, but from way back in the day when I was just a wee little whippersnapper. I remember malted milk balls very fondly. I want to say it was my dad who got me hooked, and I want to say he use to stash these in the cabinet, but it was so long ago I just don't remember when it all started. No matter, I loved those little treats. It was possible to have them too often though, and at some point we grew apart.

Flash forward to the new millennium and you'll find me strolling down the aisle and spotting those little yellow Shaws tags that let me know what's on sale. Ciao Bella is on sale, but I'm not really excited ...wait ...what's that light brown colored one? I haven't seen that one before. MALTED MILK BALL??? Are they serious?? Oh yeah! I gotta try that!!!

Wait, before we get too far, I need to finish my side story first. I've actually been in the mood for malted milk balls for a few weeks now. In fact, I was at the "other" grocery store a few days later and picked up a one dollar box of WHOPPERS, the "original malted milk ball". Like I mentioned, I have found memories of Whoppers but it's been years and years since I've had any. I took the box to work and was ready for the good times to roll again, but, sadly, they didn't. Something just doesn't taste right. They're too potent. I know that's not the best description, but I remember them being a bit more mellow. I was disappointed, and with 7 grams of saturated fat per serving, I didn't even bother finishing the box.

Ciao Bella Malted Milk Ball Gelato

Treat of the ....Season! Blue Bunny Perfectly Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwich

I was flipping through the radio channels and what do I hear but Christmas music playing on the local lite rock 105.1 FM. I know that next weekend is what kicks off the season for a lot of folks, but I heard the music, so now it's safe to dig into our first holiday treat.

Behold Blue Bunny's Seasonal Selection: Perfectly Peppermint Ice Cream Sandwiches. We have " Peppermint Light Ice Cream with Peppermint Ribbon Between Two Chocolate Flavored Wafers ".

Starbucks Hot Chocolate Ice Cream

[Discontinued in 2013] I have a confession to make before I start this review: I've never had Starbucks coffee, in fact, I've never had coffee in my life. I rely on chocolate as my sole source of caffeine, though I did once eat a coffee bean, does that count?

This dislike of coffee covers all aspects of my food personality, meaning I don't do coffee ice cream either. It just doesn't work for me. I saw the new line up of Starbucks Ice Cream and felt like I should try it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it ....until ...I saw this:

Starbucks Hot Chocolate Ice Cream

Swirled chocolate and vanilla ice creams with ribbons of chocolate fudge

Finally, a flavored named after my personality....

By now, you've probably realized you didn't win Ben & Jerry's "Do the World a Flavor" competition. In fact, you probably wondering who did. Well, here are the happy winners!

The grand prize winner is Toni Gunnison of Wisconsin (pictured on the far left).

It was announced on November 10 that she was the winner with a creation she called "Almond Delight", a caramel ice cream with fair trade praline almonds and a caramel swirl. Well, the marketing wheels have turned and I've gotten word from Ben & Jerry's U.K. marketing firm that the flavor will actually be called "Fairly Nuts" and should become available in March 2010. You can read the press release here.

Be sure to come back everyday until the review is posted ...just kidding, but I will do my best to get this flavor reviewed as soon as it becomes available.

Cold Stone Creamery's Limited Oreo Brownie Crunch Cupcakes

Here's what I think you should do today:

1. Put down what you are doing
2. Grab your car keys
3. Head to the nearest Cold Stone Creamery
4. Grab one, if not two, packages of these limited edition cupcakes
   

That's right, they are that good and you'll be sorry if you don't try them! The flavors come together and are simply fantastic. I'm having a really tough time not grabbing a second one (I tried shoving in lunch to distract myself but it's not working).

Six Treats = $12.99

AICC-2: Cedar Crest French Vanilla Ice Cream

Nothing like a rainy day to make you crave the simple things in life ...like Vanilla. It feels like forever since I've had plain vanilla. no mixins, no nothing. Just vanilla. Wait, is "French" vanilla still considered plain?yeah sure, why not?

And here's what I tried today: Cedar Crest French Vanilla Ice Cream " fresh from Wisconsin ". It's pretty good. It's quite smooth and vaguely reminds me of a nice vanilla pudding. I don't need to bite into it like I did with the Schoep's the other day.

Ok, I'll write more later.....

On Second Scoop: It's vanilla, I don't know what else to say. It's fairly well made, it's a respectable vanilla flavor, but, well, it's vanilla. I don't know how many different ways to describe it.

Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Chocolate Minis

After Wednesday's testing of Schoep's Chocolate, I couldn't resist the chance to compare two chocolates side by side, so last night and went ahead and devoured my little Haagen-Dazs chocolate mini container.

Here it is, freshly unwrapped

AICC-1: Schoep's Chocolate Ice Cream

I was very happy to receive my ice cream of the month club shipment the other day. It came on Saturday so I was able to save it from the outdoors, check the contents and then throw it in the deep freezer as soon as it arrived. As always, there are four choices every month (usually pint sized choices). From my brief experience, they tend to be from Midwestern companies which is cool since it's all stuff I would never get to try normally.

Schoep's Chocolate Ice Cream

Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Dulce de Leche Caramel Minis

I said I bought four of the minis when I went to the store. Thursday night was the strawberry, but friday night I made my second choice be the dulce de leche caramel. Caramel is one of those flavors that can be truly great when you are in the mood, and thankfully, I was.

So here is the single serving that I happily pulled from the freezer. As I mentioned with the strawberry mini, there is a definite level of satisfaction of grabbing a spoon, grabbing whatever flavor floats your boat, and then heading for the PC or TV to relax with half of your saturated fat for the day ...ok, maybe that last part is a little weak.

State of the Freezer Address ...delayed a few days

Greetings! For those of you that are new to the blog, I like to look back at the last 3 months and see what's happened (almost 4 dozen new reviews), where I am, and where I'd like to head. It's also a chance to review the polls and set up some new ones.

So, what have we learned these last 3 months? I learned that I'm not as young as I once was. You may have noticed I'm not posting as much and it's because it's been hard to keep my eyes open with the new baby in the house. It's kind of a catch 22. If I go to bed earlier, then I don't post a review. If I post a review, then I stay up too late, and I'm too tired to post a review the next day. It is what it is, and I will do my best to slowly ramp production back up. Heck, I've got a half dozen reviews stuck in my head as it is (ok, just 4 really). I still love blogging and spreading the word about new treats, it's just going to be a while til I'm back at 4-5 reviews a week.

Speaking of motivation, I want to thank everyone for contributing comments the last week or so. The blog had fallen into a comment lull for a few months and then all of a sudden I find myself publishing a few comments every time I check on the blog. (I do go through the comments before they are released just to make sure we don't get spam or other junk floating around, everything else gets the green light). Ok, let's recap the polls now.

First poll: How often do you eat low fat ice cream?
now and then - 28% - 35 votes
all the time - 23% - 28 votes
never! - 22% - 27 votes
a lot of the time - 21% - 26 votes

half the time - 4% - 5 votes

If you look closely, the votes even themselves out quite a bit. For the 28 votes of "all the time", we have 27 of "never"!! For 26 votes for "a lot of the time", we have 35 for "now and then" (these two we're pretty close til just the last few weeks of voting). I guess my point is we have a fairly balanced crowd/view of low fat ice cream, so do what I do, keep both regular and low fat in the freezer.

Second poll: How can I make the blog better?
more national reviews - 35% - 16 votes
add more images - 24% - 11 votes
opinion poll on every flavor - 15% - 7 votes
add ingredient list - 6% - 3 votes
leave out the rambling - 6% - 3 votes
more specialty reviews - 4% - 2 votes
more background info - 4% - 2 votes
describe things better - 2% - 1 vote

First, I'd like to thank 94% of you for saying that my rambling is not your primary complaint with the blog, hehehehehe. I know the blog is about ice cream, but I like to throw in a little color here and there. I like the reviews to be as robust as possible and sometimes that includes a little background of why we're eating or trying a particular flavor.

The obvious answer for the poll was more reviews because really, how can you argue with that? Well, my wallet can, but maybe some more free ice cream will roll in. Hopefully you've noticed that I've been trying to add more images to my more recent posts, but it's hard to do on older reviews. At some point I may re-review some things, but for now, I'll try to keep things fresh and new. I would also love to add an opinion poll to every flavor, I just have to figure out the best way to do it with blogger (it would be easier if I was running something like wordpress). There are free poll services, but you usually wind up with too many advertisements.

Maybe I should mention my actual freezer before I go. The kitchen freezer is doing fine, it's been enjoying its new found freedom now that we have a deep freezer in the basement. The basement freezer is also doing well, though I probably could have gone with the smaller one, but at least I don't have to worry about freezer burn from the auto-defroster anymore. There's nothing worse than getting excited about a new flavor and then being unable to give it a respectable review because it's been freezer burned into oblivion.

As always, any and all comments are welcome here at the blog. You can leave them on a specific post or email me at onsecondscoop at gmail dot com. Even if I don't post, I usually check in to see if anybody needs anything. I'll see if I can't sneak in a few holiday themed reviews during this upcoming holiday season - feel free to let me know if there is a particular product I should showcase on the blog.

One more thing--look for new reviews from the ice cream of the month club! Our friends over at amazing clubs are huge cream fans and I'm more than happy to talk about the free samples they send me.

Oh geez, one more thing, I'm so scatter brained right now -- Hey, guess what? The blog has a proofreader now! I've known for a long time that my mastery of the English language leaves much to be desired and when she offered to double check my work I was more than happy to accept. Now, I wouldn't trust this mighty blog to just anyone, but considering she's a huge ice cream fan who's married to a buddy I've known for over 20 years, well, if I can't trust her then I don't know who to trust. So a big thanks goes out to her for all her current and future work!

Blogging Backfire

Update: These have been quietly retired. I guess my criticism wasn't too harsh after all.

We just went to try Ben & Jerry's flipped out! peanut butter chocolate treats. Something is seriously off with the fudge on these, so I need to go write to B&J and see what's up. There's no way the taste of that fudge is normal....

Update: Ok, someone just commented how that taste is normal (and disgusting). That can't be right ...can it? I just searched the internet but unfortunately most people are commenting on how good it looks, not how good it tastes. I'll let you know what Ben & Jerry's says.

2nd Update: Tuesday afternoon and still no email from B&Js, hmmmm, they must be sending a letter like many others companies have done in the past. You know, my daughter was unamused at me taking her ice cream from her that day, but I made it up to her with some Ben & Jerry's Peanut Butter Cup ice cream with whip cream, Reese's pieces, and a little nesquik on top.

Final Update: 2 weeks later and I have received my "replacement" coupon for another pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I know, I didn't buy a pint, but those are the coupons they have, so that's what I got. I guess I expected a little more info on the fudge sauce, so I feel a little jipped at the moment.

Häagen-Dazs Ice Cream Strawberry Minis

I went to bed a happy camper last night because I had me a tiny, yet satisfying, serving of Häagen-Dazs.Yyou know, the ones in the little half-cup servings. I've been feeling guilty about not having H-D on the blog recently, so I picked up four of their five flavor offerings while I was at the store (sorry coffee, I'm just not interested). Note: I had forgotten I tried a vanilla snack size before.

Mini Haagen-Dazs Strawberry Ice Cream

Blizzard of the Month

For those of you who are lucky enough to have your DQs still open during the "cold" months (mine are closed), the November Blizzard of the Month is another turn for the July Blizzard of the Month: the Tagalongs Peanut Butter Patties Blizzard. While I didn't love it, I believe it had more to do with the maker of my blizzard rather than the blizzard itself. Go ahead and check it out for yourself, then come back and let us know what you think.

Breyer's Ice Cream Banana Cream Pie Review

2012 Update: This could have happened last year, but Banana Cream Pie is off the menu at Breyers.

To be honest, I can't believe I picked up this flavor. It's not that I don't like bananas, it's just that they always seem to get in the way. I mean, seriously, do you really enjoy strawberry banana kiwi juice? I like bananas, and I love fresh banana bread, but in other things ...no thanks. In fact, I don't even eat banana splits. I just don't enjoy the silky banana texture in anything but, well, a banana (or maybe the occasional bowl of Frosted Rice Krispies)

With that being said, if there was anyone who could get me to try a banana flavored ice cream, it's Breyers. No, they aren't perfect, no one is, but I think they nail mellow better than anyone else. They understand ice cream is smooth and creamy, and that includes the flavorings and not just the ice cream itself. I don't want a flavor to beat me down or taste artificial, I just want to savor it.

So, here it is. It doesn't say new but I'm pretty sure it is since I'm almost positive I've never seen it before. The exact description of Breyers Banana Cream Pie is Banana Ice Cream with Vanilla and Graham Cracker Swirls. I'm glad it doesn't mention banana chunks because even though I'm tempted by new products, the thought of banana chunks in ice cream would have permanently crossed this one off my list.