Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Trader Joe's Jingle Jangle Ice Cream


[New for Late 2016] I can't remember the last time I got a heads up on the internet and then found that new item the same day. Despite almost getting killed three times on the way to Trader Joe's, I made it there and found their newest ice cream. They've taken their delightful sounding holiday Jingle Jangle and thrown it into ice cream.

Trader Joe's Jingle Jangle Ice Cream
ice cream with jingle jangle candy mix

*Regular Jingle Jangle candy mix is mini pretzels covered with milk chocolate; dark chocolate covered caramel popcorn; dark chocolate covered broken Joe-Joe's; milk chocolate gems with a red candy coating; and milk & dark chocolate mini peanut butter cups.

That's not exactly awe inspiring. There's not much to the base. I assumed it was vanilla ice cream at first but I can't detect it at all. I think I taste a smidge of pretzel to it if anything.

All the mixins are just crumbs to start so it seems like it was over mixed or at least under loaded. I dig down further and try a bit of soggy pretzel with little chocolate coating. I got a bit of candy coated chocolate on a another spoonful and the candy was rock hard.

I'm now a serving in with no discernible flavor yet. How does this happen? Ok, there is a mini dark chocolate cup, let's see if it helps. Ewww, that was gross. What was in that cup? It did not come across well at all. Ewww.

I'm trying one more time for flavor with a big hunk of soggy pretzel. Nope, not really helping. Either my tastebuds are broken or this ice cream is really boring. Like tragically boring. How can you have seventeen different mix-ins yet not bring any flavor? Man this is frustrating.

On Second Scoop: I'm starting my good looking second serving with a big hunk of chocolate covered Joe-Joe (I thought it was a hunk of dark chocolate at first). I then move of to a few candy coated chocolate drops and continue in to no avail. The base ice cream is a flavor suck. Ewww, there goes another milk chocolate pb cup. After I posted my initial thoughts, I wondered if maybe a chocolate base with jingle jangle mixed in would work, it certainly wouldnt be any worse. Actually, you know what would work I bet? A peanut butter base! That would have been both unique and hopefully tasty. For now, skip this one.

Verdict?  epically disappointing
Buy Again?  no chance


12 comments:

  1. I saw this at my TJ's the other day - I took a pass. There are very few 'loaded' ice creams that I like - hence, I'm
    not a big Ben & Jerry's fan. I like a smooth experience - say what you may, but my all-time go-to is Haagen Daaz (sp) vanilla.
    Boring, you say? Maybe... but I guess it's the purist in me. If you take a beautifully pure flavor (like HD vanilla) and put forth a high-quality product - it works for me. It's a pure, smooth, delightful experience. I'm willing to experiment - I'll continue to read the reviews here, and if something catches my eye, perhaps I'll give it a shot. But Dubba, I believe you've said that you're a fan of ice creams with everything but the kitchen sink in them, and this world-view fascinates me. I believe we can actually separate the species; products with a ton of stuff in them, and the 'smooth' varieties - nothing in them but flavor, cream, and sugar.

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  2. I agree that it is rather disappointing - I did get a couple pretzel chunks in the few bites I had, which was nice, but there were also some boring bites. I am tempted to buy a container of jingle jangle to mix in with the rest. Maybe I will drizzle some caramel on top, as well.

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  3. I don't mean this meanly, but I'm guessing you are fairly new to the blog. I'm actually a proponent of good clean classic flavors. There is nothing wrong with something like a top shelf vanilla (graeters non-chip vanilla is my favorite vanilla for example).

    That said, I feel that if a flavor promises mix-ins, there better be plenty of mix-ins. Don't say you have truffles and then give me one truffle for every 4 or 5 bites, i want one or two truffles in every bite.

    Oh, one more thing. I don't appreciate flavors that try to do too much and wind up just cancelling everything out (take "the tonight dough" for example). that just seems like a waste to me.

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  4. That's good to hear, Dubba. Hey - can you in a few words describe the diff between ice cream and gelato? I just realized I don't really know.

    And yeah, I've been listening to TNS for months, but am new to the blog. I like it!

    Carry on...

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  5. But one upside from this is that TJ's return policy is awesome!!!! U could just return the lid and they will happily refund for you. No questions asked and use the cash for something else. People has been saying the same thing with the lax mix-ins

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  6. @Anon#2: i had thought of buying a tin of jingle jangle when I was there! I should have looked harder for it.

    @Anon#1: thanks for listening! short answer is less air, less fat (milk > cream) but a long answer can be found here http://morellisgelato.com/the-difference-between-gelato-and-ice-cream

    @Alek: I'll probably just eat it though it is tempting to return. I could mix in some Halloween candy or maybe a pack of swiss miss to spice things up if it gets too rough.

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  7. Junk Banter had a very similar experience with this so it's not just you. I'm glad I read both of your reviews as I'm going to TJ's tomorrow and would have been tempted by this!

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  8. correct, I've only seen one non-negative comment about this ice cream and even that person said it was light on the mix-ins

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  9. Bleh, I bought a container of this a couple of days ago but haven't opened it yet. Not looking forward to it, though my ice cream-loving kid probably won't care. TJ's mini PB cups are SKUNKY on their own, IMO, so I'm not surprised that they're bad in this, too. I think their filling is their downfall - very smooth and quite off in flavor.

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  10. ha! skunky! glad I am not the only one who doesn't appreciate them.

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  11. I just bought a tin and got plenty of mix ins. Maybe they fixed it?

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  12. mine had more mix-ins as I went down (though not chock full), the bigger problem is just an epic failure on the flavoring of the base. well that and the cups are terrible. I'm guessing you enjoyed it then?

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