Entenmann's Glazed Cookie Donut Ice Cream Sandwich

[New for 2023, lingering stock in early months of 2024 at Walmart (and Shaws!)] 

Well, that didn't take long for these Entenmann treats to disappear! It seemed like a fun enough idea, but I guess they just didn't click with enough people. I could say that them using almond flour in all six treats scared some people off, but I've got no hard data to prove that. Anyway, let's snag a box for the archives. I pick....

Entenmann's Glazed Cookie Donut Ice Cream Sandwich

glazed cookie donut filled with (vanilla?) ice cream

Haagen-Dazs Strawberry Butter Cookie Cone

[2023-2024] It's very weird to walk past the Haagen-Dazs section every week and not see new pints. It just seems wrong... but thankfully I've started walking by these at least.

Haagen-Dazs Strawberry Butter Cookie Cones

strawberry ice cream topped with white chocolate curls,

raspberry sauce and cookie pieces

Haagen-Dazs Summer Berry Cake Pop

[2022-2024] In general, Haagen-Dazs usually throws us some kind of new lineup every year. 2021 only gave us pint redesigns (which I am a fan of), but 2022 is giving us the "City Sweets" lineup. There are 5 pints and 3 bars with some flavor overlap between those pints and bars. Now I've already had those amazing churro bars, so I'm pretty excited to try....

Haagen-Dazs Summer Berry Cake Pop Ice Cream

strawberry and sweet cream ice creams with cake pieces and raspberry sauce

Ben & Jerry's Chillin' the Roast Truffles Ice Cream

[2018-2020] So, y'all remember that I used to pawn off coffee reviews on Nick because I hate coffee right? Well, this aging pint crossed paths with me so now I have to try...

Ben & Jerry's Chillin' the Roast Truffles Ice Cream

cold brew coffee ice cream

with chocolate cookie-covered coffee liqueur truffles & fudge swirls

Blue Bunny S'more S'mores Load'd Sundae

[New for 2020, Discontinued] 

It's always a little sad when something says "NEW" and "CLEARANCE" at the same time. Such was the case with this Load'd Sundae that I found while running in to Big Y for a quick snack. Don't worry, it wasn't completely alone. 2019's Churro version was also on clearance* (I haven't tried that one either).

Blue Bunny S'more S'mores Load'd Sundae

graham frozen dairy dessert, marshmallow & graham swirls,

chocolaty chunks, chocolaty marshmallow bunnies.

Turkey Hill Mint Chocolate Cookie Swirl Ice Cream

[New for 2020, discontinued] It's been a pretty quite year for turkey hill, but they do have two new all natural flavors (and that limited bourbon vanilla flavor that caught some people's eye).

Turkey Hill Mint Chocolate Cookie Swirl Ice Cream

mint flavored milk chocolate ice cream with a chocolate cookie swirl

Talenti Dark Chocolate Dairy-Free Sorbetto Talenti Strawberry Hibiscus Dairy-Free Sorbetto

[New for 2020 - SH retired] Ok, I know it's now June August, but in my defense, I took this first picture in mid April. It was yet another of our weird late season snowfalls and it seemed like a fun time to break in to the shipment of free samples that Unilever sent over.

Talenti Dark Chocolate Dairy-Free Sorbetto #59
Talenti Strawberry Hibiscus Dairy-Free Sorbetto #60

Maxine's Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

Sad news today... Three Twins is shutting down (as announced by CEO Neal Gottlieb on social media today). I know they tried to expand with Slim Twin and Maxine's, but it will be their good old fashion pints that I will miss the most. I'm sorry I didn't buy more of them. They weren't crazy, they were just classic done right. The only disclaimer I will throw down here is that I've tried to pick up their Madagascar vanilla bean flavor from two different stores recently and both times it was just a disaster of a pint (completely mishandled in shipping & stocking). Was that part of the downfall? Who knows, but I'm sad that I may never have another pint of theirs again.

- - - - - - - - -

[2017-2020] Way back in the summer of 2017, Three Twins debuted their more budget friendly lineup called Maxine's. Named after two of the founder's mom, it came out in six flavors. Clocking in at $7.99 for 1.5 quarts, I just never got around to trying it. One because it's really only been at Whole Foods until last year when it hit Market32, and two, it carries a cross contamination warning... but then I saw it for 75% off and I thought "ok, I'll give it a shot". I checked all the containers for their production dates and discovered the freshest option was...

Maxine's Cookies & Cream Ice Cream

Organic Madagascar Vanilla ice cream
with Chocolate sandwich creme cookies

Talenti Banana Caramel Crunch Gelato Layers

[New for 2020 - Retired] Despite my love of walking down the freezer aisle several times a week, I have been staying at home as directed and only venturing out on a rare occasion to restock our fridge and cabinets. Thankfully, I got an email from Unilever's PR firm with an offer to try free new stuff from several of the companies they own. I had trouble choosing what to post first, but this one got the most attention on the gram, so let's dig in to...

Talenti Banana Caramel Crunch Gelato Layers

banana pudding gelato - pie crust pieces - dulce de leche
banana pudding gelato - pie crust pieces

Haagen-Dazs Heaven Light Ice Cream

[2020-2022] I usually like to split these things up, but because I sampled them at the same time, and because that then affects how I feel about the product line in general, I'm going to keep them together if that's cool with everyone. So, we hit up Stop & Shop on the way home the other day and picked up the new "light ice cream" lineup from Haagen-Dazs. They call it Heaven, I call it a scam to lower our expectations of what should be in a pint of H-D...

Haagen-Dazs HEAVEN Light Ice Cream

strawberry waffle cone and chocolate sea salt caramel

Talenti Lemon Berry Pie Gelato Layers

[New for 2020 - Retired] According to @candyhunting's research, there are four new Talenti flavors coming at us. I've been searching across several stores and so far I have only found the same one she saw on shelves. I present to you...

Talenti Lemon Berry Pie Gelato Layers

lemon gelato - graham cookies - blueberry sauce
lemon gelato - pie crust pieces

Haagen-Dazs Soft Dipped Vanilla Ice Cream Bars

[2020-2022] Wow, did I just write 2020? It's kind of weird, no, very weird. It just kind of hit me as I started my first review for the 2020 season (my 13th season of reviewing ice cream). Anyway, new stuff is starting to hit my local Stop & Shop which means lunchtime is review time.

Haagen-Dazs Soft Dipped Vanilla Ice Cream Bars

vanilla ice cream with soft chocolate truffle coating

Talenti Organic Brown Butter Caramel Gelato

[New for 2019 - Retired] You know what? I keep forgetting that Talenti put out those four organic flavors this year. I just rarely ever see them. Do you see them? I want to say Stop & Shop has/had them briefly, and maybe Hannaford was the other place? Well today I splurge $5.99 for...

Talenti Organic Brown Butter Caramel Gelato #57

organic caramel gelato swirled with buttery dulce de leche

Serendipity Cafe Espresso Chip Ice Cream Serendipity Outrageous Banana Split Ice Cream

Since I got a double order of free Serendipity samples, I brought about half of them to work. Sometimes I would bring just one pint of a certain flavor, but sometimes I would bring both pints. I did it for Humble Pie and then also for....

Serendipity Cafe Espresso Chip Ice Cream
Serendipity Outrageous Banana Split Ice Cream

Cafe Espresso Chip is coffee ice cream with chocolate chunks and it disappeared quickly... like so quickly that I didn't get to try a scoop of it or grab a photo of it. I don't have an opinion for you, but three of my co-workers took the time to tell me that they really enjoyed it so if this one tempts you, I'm pretty sure that it's safe to purchase.

banana flavored ice cream with fudge swirls, walnuts and strawberries

Outrageous Banana Split did not receive the same kind of love. It was in fact the last pint to leave the freezer (at least I think someone finally finished it). I know a lot of people love a good banana flavor, and after my small sampling I would call this a good banana flavor, but there are a ton of people out there who don't care for banana ice cream. Sorry, it's just reality. It has a nice ripe banana bread flavoring, so if that interests you, I say give it a try.

Verdict?  Coffee won the popularity contest, but Banana was still tasty.

Serendipity Humble Pie Ice Cream

[New for early 2019, faded away in 2024] Time to dig in to another free sample pint of Serendipity. This time I will dig in to the one I had the highest hopes for...

Serendipity  Humble Pie Ice Cream

Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Swirls,
Chocolate Chunks and Graham Pieces

Serendipity Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

[New for Fall 2019, faded away] So my big plan here was to reveal all three new Serendipity flavors in a row. (When you get free samples like this, it just seems like the right thing to do).

Serendipity Dulce de Leche Ice Cream

caramel flavored ice cream with salty caramel swirl

Serendipity Very Cherry Chunk Ice Cream

[New for Fall 2019, faded away] Time to dig in to the second of the new Serendipity flavors (provided courtesy of their PR firm). I don't scoop cherry ice cream that often, but I do enjoy it when it's executed well. Let's see if this one can stand out from the crowd.

Serendipity Very Cherry Chunk Ice Cream

vanilla ice cream with cherries and chocolatey chunks

Serendipity Salty Caramel Pretzel Ice Cream

[New for Fall 2019, faded away in 2024] There are three new flavors from Serendipity that should be hitting your store shelves soon. I was fortunate enough to receive free samples so let's jump in to the one that got my attention (because it has "pretzel" in the name!).

Serendipity Salty Caramel Pretzel Ice Cream

vanilla ice cream with chocolatey covered pretzel bits
and salty caramel swirl

Serendipity Ice Cream

2025: Serendipity is relaunching in 2025 with 5 bars and 9 flavors! New flavors include apple pie churro and sundae scaries.

2024 Update: I can still find a half dozen flavors at my local Shaw's, and I can find some flavors online, but I have the feeling that it's the end of the road for these pints. 

Note: they did redo some packaging around 2021 when they released some pop culture flavors.

You know what I got delivered last week? Two giant containers of ice cream. I was expecting free samples of the newest Serendipity flavors but what I got was their entire line up of 11 flavors plus samples of their two new ice cream cakes. I'm lucky to have gotten the samples I have over the years, but never have I gotten this much ice cream. I didn't know where to start and it's going to take a bit of time to get everything posted, so here's a tease of what's in the freezer.

The three newest flavors are Salty Caramel Pretzel, Dulce de Leche, and Very Cherry Chunk. I do love pretzel flavors so I'll probably crack that one open first.

Yes, I was hoping Serendipity would a couple extra pints along with the three promised ones, but never did I expect ice cream cake. In retrospect, it explains why the shipping containers were so huge. Am I excited for these? Ofcourse I am! I love that one is actually birthday cake flavored. Only one other time have I seen cake flavored ice cream cake (seen here in my Jon Donaire review). The Frozen Hot Chocolate one should be good too. I am very excited to review these and see what's inside. Hopefully the review for both will be up on Sunday.

Who doesn't love irony right? While I was waiting for my delivery of free samples, I finally found Serendipity at my local Hannaford (Food Lion). The only pint missing from this shot is the Vanilla Vogue Flavor. I did a quick instagram post with this shot and Birthday Cake got the most love, followed by Humble Pie. I didn't know what was headed my way, but it's a good thing I held off for my shipment before picking any of these up.

....so did anyone catch the fact that I said two large containers? See there was a little shipping snafu and I got a double delivery. Super lucky right? Well, I still felt kind of guilty about it so I brought a bunch of extra pints in to my office. So far I've gotten nothing but positive reviews and at least three of my coworkers have gone back to try a second flavor.

Stay tuned for a lot of Serendipity reviews coming up (and some other stuff too!)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Chipwich

[New for 2019, discontinued] So what do you do when an ice cream company wants to send you samples of their latest product? You accept ofcourse! I enjoyed the return of Chipwich last year so it's cool to see them already spicing things up.

Chipwich Chocolate Peanut Butter Chip Ice Cream Sandwich