PhillySwirl Original Italian Ice Swirls Part 1 of a 2 part mini series

Let me ask a question: Is it fair to review something I tried some ...hold on, counting... some 6 weeks ago? Well, half tried anyway. 3 of them are still in the freezer. Let me show you what I'm talking about.

Here is the product in question: a 6 pack of Phillswirl original Italian ice swirls.Seemed like a great review opportunity really. 1 snack a night, a mere 92 calories per serving, no fat to speak of ...what could possibly go wrong??

Ben & Jerry's Flipped Out (Again!)

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

Some two and a half months ago, I finally brought home those nifty looking little sundae cups from Ben & Jerry's. In particular, I brought home the Peanut Butter Chocolate Flipped Out!. It did not go well at all. I was fairly convinced that somehow the chocolate coating had gone bad and wound up tossing it in the trash. Did I overreact? maybe, but remember, sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good ...ok, that was just silly. Let's move on.

Ben & Jerry's did send a replacement coupon, and so here I am, finally trying it again. The bad news is that I'm trying this at work, so I'm going to have to eat this upside down since I don't have a plate to put it on. The good news is that this may be the trick to eating this since now I am greeted first by quality Ben & Jerry's ice cream rather than the chocolate coating.

Is the coating as bad as I remember? No. Call me prepared or call me crazy, but I don't have the urge to spit it out this time. HOWEVER, I still don't like it. I don't know what kind of sauce they are using, but I do not like it, plain and simple. It's unpleasant. It's not fowl and repulsive, but I don't like it. I wish I could be more descriptive. Is it missing an ingredient maybe? Are they trying to spice things up with a nice contrast? It bugs me when I can't quantify something like this, even after 20 months of blogging. It's the kind of thing were you taste it and go "do I just not have the palate to appreciate quality product?"

For me, flipped out brings nothing to the table. As a big B&J's fan, part of me feels obligated to try all three flavors, but why should I? I'd rather spend $3 on a pint I'll love rather than $3 on two little cups with some ill conceived sauce and extra brownie bits. Yes, I finished the treat this time, and no, my opinion doesn't cover everyone, but if you ask me, I'm going to tell you to save your money and go buy a regular pint.

New to Me! Blue Bunny gets Personal

My love of finding new ice cream treats finally has another destination to add to it's list of things deemed "local enough". That's right, I finally made it to a Market Basket which is a chain of over 60 groceries stores here in New England. They finally have one close enough for me to get their goods into my freezer before they melt. It's a chain with a storied history, but the real question is, what's it really like? I've heard horror stories about how busy they can be, but why is that? I finally got the chance to go in and find out.

The store is bright, very bright ....too bright actually. I spent most of my 45 minute trip squinting. What happened to new stores saving energy? It was also very busy, especially considering it was dinnertime on a Friday night, but I think a big part of the problem is that people were wandering just as much as they were shopping.

The aisles are fairly wide and quite tall. They are all jam-packed and constantly restocked by a large contingent of employees. The prices are definitely good but not unbeatable. The big thing that stands out to me is selection. While Wal-mart may carry one or two versions of a product (if you're lucky), and a regular grocery store might carry 3 or 4 versions, Market Basket will carry all 7 versions. Several times I caught myself standing there and thinking "Cool! I didn't even realize they made that flavor!".

In a unique twist, the ice cream section isn't in the freezer aisles. Oh no. Instead, you must traverse a fairly impressive produce section before reaching the frozen treat and cake section. At first glance I was faced with the Usual Suspects: Breyers, Edy's, store brand, and a surprisingly decent showing by our buddies at Turkey Hill. I continued my journey all the way 'til the end. There, in the individual serving section, I found these:

! Blue Bunny Personals ! A one cup (so two serving) dose of the most popular Blue Bunny flavors. I picked up one of each of the three flavors they had in stock. Now here is something weird: Walmart carries a decent selection of Blue Bunny containers and treats, but no Personals. Market Basket had the personals, but no regular containers. How odd. Now take that with the fact that I've never seen personals anywhere yet they have been around since at least 2005! I know this because I found several press releases about new Personals, I just couldn't find one talking about the initial release. In all, there are currently 7 regular flavors and 5 light flavors.

100 Calorie Klondike Bars - Vanilla

 Ok, it wasn't very nice of me to try and make people guess what this was:

Having read the blog title, you now know that hiding inside that nondescript white plastic pouch is the baby brother of the regular Klondike bar - the Klondike 100 Calorie per bar ( formerly slim-a-bear ). I thought they came in a few flavors, but checking the website, Vanilla appears to be your only choice unless you want the sugar free Krunch version.

Ok, Time to Guess the next post again

Ok, ok, that's not even remotely fair!

Oh, I finally made my first trip to a Market Basket, got some extra goodies to devour over the weekend. Let's see how many posts I can pull off!

Toppings: Chocolate Covered Cheerios!

I am a hardcore snacker, no doubt about it. I love having a variety of food in the house. The snack cabinet is a double wide, 3 shelf section of our cabinet devoted to snacking goodness, but it doesn't end there. I love my cereals. How many cereals do you have in your cabinet? 2, 3. We technically have 13 at the moment. That's right, 13 flavors of cereals. Don't believe me?

We have:

1. raisin bran (only kellogg's will do)
   
2. frosted mini wheats - bite size
   
3. chocolate mini wheats (for my daughter)
4. trix (for my daughter)
5. honey kix (good late night snack)
6. frosted rice krispies
   
7. jumbo rice crispies (tried 'em, not a big fan)
8. apple jacks
9. some granola cereal (tried to be healthy)
10. maple & brown sugar life (had to try them, not bad)
11. corn pops (for my daughter, unopened)
    
12. honey nut cheerios (the classic, but I prefer multigrain)
13. BRANDY NEW chocolate cheerios.

 granted some of these are older than others, and one or two might have gone stale, I have to check, but I love cereal. I wasn't really sure what to think when I first saw the impulsive buy announce them but when I saw them on sale at the grocery store last night, I couldn't resist ($2.50 instead of $3.99). I've never been a huge fan of chocolate cereals, it just seems wrong, but it's cheerios which means it still has all of the usual redeeming value of eating cheerios.

I tried them last night and surprisingly enough I liked them. They don't have any nasty artificial or overpowering smell and the taste was surprisingly pleasant. They made a nice snack, though I don't know if I will actually eat these for breakfast. However, to be fair to the blog, I will be eating these as an ice cream topping (at least for today).

I tried it on Breyers Snickers ice cream first. Not bad, not sure how I like it with the caramel though. Next up was cheerios on Stone Ridge Peanut Butter Cup ice cream. Not bad, but I'm forgetting about the cheerios and going after the ice cream. Ok, one more try. I put them with some Turkey Hill Strawberries and Cream. Not bad, the chocolate makes the strawberry flavor stand out a bit more.

You know what? When I think about how these taste, it kind of reminds me of the excellent Oreo Ice Cream Cones we had awhile back. Go ahead and try these, with or without ice cream.

Coupon: There is a 50 cents off coupon on the Cheerios website right now.

On Second Scoop: Ok, I tried one more - Chocolate Cheerios and Edy's Black Cherry Vanilla Swirl Frozen Yogurt. The yogurt is so powerful that I couldn't even tell that the cheerios were chocolate flavored. Doh!

Ben & Jerry's Imagine Whirled Peace

[retired end of 2013] Congrats to Sylvie for guessing the next flavor, I'm guessing she recognized the little circular peace signs found in Ben & Jerry's ( John Lennon ) Imagine Whirled Peace. I thought this flavor had been out for awhile, but the label still says "new!" so how could I resist? I can't, plain and simple, so here it is!

I don't know why I haven't tried this one sooner but it certainly has my attention now: Caramel & Sweet Cream Ice Creams Swirled with Fudge Peace Signs & Toffee Cookie Pieces. The only thing that I'm afraid of here is the fact we've gone over 10g of saturated fat per serving. I know it's Ben & Jerry's and this isn't unusual for them, I just hope the taste justifies the dietary cost.

What's up next?

Do you know what this is?

It said new on the container, so I bought it. There is a tale tell clue in this picture, but it's hard to make it out. I'll try to post the review tomorrow morning, it's a tasty one!

Weight Watchers Ice Cream Sandwiches

So the other day I was venting a bit about how way too often things posing as "snacks" even though they have high saturated fat content. Sure this is an ice cream blog and I'm probably being too picky, but I'm tired and I'm cranky, and only some awesome treats can bring me back from the brink of going just a little too crazy.

Weight Watchers Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwich

low fat vanilla flavored ice cream between cookie wafers

Creatures of Habit

Ok, i know I've been babbling alot between reviews recently, but I've been trying to remember that when I started this blog, I meant to do more than just review ice cream. I had hoped not to just celebrate ice cream and find new flavors, but to celebrate the impact a new treat can have on one's mood. I don't know, maybe I still do that a bit, but I don't know if I do it enough.

Case in point, I received a Friendly's gift card after I had helped someone out in a pinch. It's a very appropriate gift for someone like me, but I've actually been hesitant to use it. You see, up until today, I've never been to Friendly's by myself. I've never worried while heading to DQ or a small place like Uhlman's, and I know I'm probably just over thinking it, but when you've spent a few decades ALWAYS going to a place with other people, it's really weird going by yourself.

Well, I went today, and it just wasn't the same. After waiting a few minutes for someone to finally be able to help me, I tried cheating by ordering a Friend-z (faux blizzard) with the plan of eating it in the car just like I do at DQ. That plan was quickly thwarted by a soft serve machine that had just been refilled and needed time to chill. I had to get back to work, so I decided to order a peanut butter sundae, one of my favorite things on the Friendly's menu. I forked over my $5.66 (off the gift card) and headed out.

Eating a sundae out of a styrofoam cup in my car just wasn't the same as sitting inside and slowly enjoying the treat before me. Not to be sappy, but I missed my wife and daughter. My wife would probably be having a big Chocolate Fribble while my daughter would have a giant smile on her face as she dug into the new Camp Friendly's Sundae (those are Oreo Brownie "logs" you see in the picture). Maybe my sundae just wasn't made that well, it did seem kind of weak, but the ambiance and company were definitely missing.

What's my point? I'm too tired to remember. I guess it's that tradition is a hard thing to break, especially after 20+ years. That, and sometimes there is more to ice cream than just the ice cream. Share the love!

(maybe Ebert can explain it better)

Eskimo Pie "Snack Size" Flavored Bars

Ok, one of the the treats buried in my freezer (and my foggy memory) was a box of...

Eskimo Pie Nestle Butterfinger Crisp Flavored Bars

and Nestle Crunch Crisp Flavored Bars

Happy Sunday

greetings, I'm still here, still eating interesting food, I'm just crazy tired from a long week and some early spring cleaning (not that I can see my desk yet, but hey, it's been a busy year).

I really really REALLY need to get the backlog of treat reviews out of my brain. They'll probably be a little short and to the point, but better to get them out there then lose them forever. I think there are 4 (or is it 5) wedged in my brain.

In the meantime, check out the list of limited flavors over at the Turkey Hill blog. I was going to do a post about it, but now I don't have to. You have to try Box of Chocolates when it comes out! Also, I may not be big into mocha and coffee, but man am I tempted by "Double Dunker". I'll have to keep my eyes open for that one.

Hmmmm, I wounder why they didnt bring back Peanut Butter Brownie?

You know what really ticks me off?

...besides falling asleep before I can tell you what ticks me off. It's the abuse of the term "snack" or "snack size". I was very quickly perusing the freezer aisle when I saw the NEW! snack bars coming from the people over at Hood. I'm growing so tired of partially hydrogenated this, artificial that, and all those freaky chemicals they label with letters instead of words because no one can pronounce them. What happened to really trying to make a true "snack"? These little 100 calorie snack bars have 5 grams of saturated fat in them (that's 25%). Do they assume no one will read the nutrition label, instead taking the box at face (front) value?

It's Friday and I'm very ready for the weekend. I'm also ready to be chowing down on some fresh treats but I'm coming to the point where I refuse to buy junk like this. The sad thing is, (1) 100 calorie pop isn't a full serving, a serving is 2 pops.

I shouldn't put all the blame on Hood, Eskimo Pie and Weight Watchers aren't any better with their "snack size" offerings. I actually have the eskimo pies one in the review queue. At least Eskimo Pie doesn't claim to be healthy like Weight Watchers does. (some weight watchers product, many are healthy, but why aren't all of them healthy?)

Sorry, had to vent, I just wish companies cared more about us. My daughter shares my love of trying new foods and she knows I always fall for "daddy, we never had these before, can we try them?". She saw yogurt pretzels the other day. Wow, sounds healthy, possibly tasty. Nope, same problem as these "snack bars", full of saturated fat. Found another brand on the other side of the store ...same problem.

Maybe they're trying to kill all of us to make room for new customers.....

Hello? companies? anybody care anymore? Hello???

Skinny Cow Mini Fudge Pops

hey everybody, just wanted to let you know I've been chowing down on mini fudge pops during these last few crazy days. actually, i went through the whole box last week and had to buy more since technically they were suppose to be for my daughter. Hopefully I'll post some thoughts on them soon (or the other half dozen treats I have backed up in the freezer). These crazy integration meetings are slowing down my reviewing (but not my ability to reach in the drawer and eat way too many cookies ...doh! out of cookies).

Side note: Too funny. Someone just posted a comment that the older reviews aren't nearly as compelling as the newer ones and I couldn't agree more. It has definitely been a learning process and at some point I would like to revisit some of the older flavors (I also feel bad because I think if you land on one of the really old posts, you're first reaction can easily be "this site is awful" and just move on). It always amazes me that I didn't even think to take pictures of the ice cream when I started. It's a blog ...about how tasty things look ....with no pictures ...oh my ....I'm learning, slowly but surely, I'll get there.

Have a good day everybody

Edy's Slow Churned Yogurt Blend Black Cherry (flavored) Vanilla Swirl

[Discontinued] Since dieting and fitness are always a popular New Years Resolution, I was thinking I should start the new year off with a healthy review. This is a frozen dessert blog, so that does narrow our choices somewhat, but have no fear, it's frozen yogurt time!

Edy's Slow Churned Black Cherry flavored Vanilla Swirl Yogurt Blend