Turkey Hill Honey Vanilla Granola Frozen Yogurt Review

I headed to the freezer Sunday night for a nice tasty, no fat italian ice when I realized my daughter had eaten them all on me. I just wasn't in the mood for something heavy, and then I remembered something I have had for a few weeks in the deep freezer.

Behold Turkey Hill's Honey Vanilla Granola which is Honey Vanilla frozen yogurt with cinnamon granola and graham swirl (made with real Dutch Gold Honey). I still have fond memories of Pierre's Vanilla Honey Granola Yovation, but since I can't buy Pierre's around here, I'm hoping this might take it's place.

Wow, nice healthy distribution of granola bits everywhere. You can't beat a good first impression... I take a few bites and am instantly overwhelmed by the taste of honey.

Ok, here's the second impression about a half inch down the container. Notice the graham cracker swirls all over the place. They look kinda thin and scattered, but what's this chunk in the middle there? I go to scoop it up and out comes a giant chunk of graham cracker swirl. I take a bite and I am now in chilled graham cracker heaven!

Here's how I feel about graham crackers:

GOOD: good old graham crackers have come and gone as a staple in my diet. For a very long time I was bent on the excellent Keebler Graham Bug Bites. I'd buy a box for me and a box for my daughter. Instead of sprinkled sugar, they have a nice glaze, plus they aren't really dry like some graham crackers, so they are quite enjoyable. I've been on hiatus from them for a couple of years now, but we do have some Keeble Scooby Doo graham sticks in the cabinet (and ofcourse now I'm hungry for some bug bites)

BETTER: I wasn't exactly a talented chef as a child, but I loved to make Jell-O pudding. Oh yeah, four bowls of snacking simplicity. If available, I would stick some "boring" graham crackers in a bag, smash them into oblivion, and then line the bottom of my bowls with bits. I would pour in the instant jell-o and wha-la! I always had trouble waiting for that first snack to sit and get solid. I guess I just loved the cold, smooth jello-o on the "crunchy" sweet crust... You know, I hate to use the word crunchy because that makes me think of pretzels or something else really hard, but I think you all know what I mean.

BEST: I adore this graham cracker swirl! To me, it has a nice sugary vibe, but it's not overly sweet. It also has a nice solid feel to it. It's not just some crumbly mess. It must have a little liquid in it to keep it in one piece. I absolutely love this swirl. I could barely stop myself from just eating the swirl... well, does it count as stopping if I've only gone back for swirl just once? What can I say? It's just this perfect, ice cold, kinda sweet concontion. It's not too hard, not to crumbly, it's just perfect in my mind and I am so very impressed at how they've managed to get a respectable and thick graham swirl into this froyo.

Now if only the rest of this frozen treat could keep up. I fear Turkey Hill's honey vanilla granola really should just be called honey granola. The honey is drowning out everything. As a kid I remember thinking that it seemed like certain honeys taste way better than others... well, this one tastes like the kind I don't like. I felt the exact same way about some Häagen-Dazs Vanilla Honey & Granola Frozen Yogurt. There's just too much honey flavor for me to sit and truly enjoy this treat.

Consistency and texture are decent. I get a little bit of a potential chewy vibe, but as is the case with certain flavors, the honey is so bold it really does mask the other attributes of this treat. I mean, I cant even really tell if there is a yogurt vibe or aftertaste because of the honey .. clarification: if you scoop just the swirl and only get a minimal amount of frozen yogurt, the honey really isn't an issue because you'll just be tasting graham cracker.

A long time ago I was saying how I wish I could get my hands on Turkey Hill's Phillies Graham Slam because I was dieing to know how that swirl tasted, and now I know...  I know they need to use this swirl way more often! I'm thinking this and a nice milk chocolate ice cream, oh yeah! Put some all natural whip cream on top and we have ourselves a frozen pie.

On Second Scoop: As I expected, the honey flavor is never as bad on the second scoop, but I'm still not a huge fan, but as a disclaimer, I've never been a huge honey fan (unless it was on my 6 pack of McNuggets). I still unfairly love this swirl. I say unfairly because I dug straight into the heart of this container and dug up the huge spot where the swirl comes together in the middle (I took a picture, I'll post it later). I most strongly, completely, crazily, emphatically suggest to Turkey Hill that they use this mighty swirl to create the best S'mores ice cream flavor ever. Til that moment happens though, I think I need to track down their Peanut Butter Pie Froyo.