Friendly's Caramel Waffle Cone Ice Cream Bars

[For 2024-2025] To be honest, based on Friendly's current lineup, I'm not expecting much from these bars. Last year's ice cream bars were ok, but not so good that they would force me to try these... but I do need me a mowing snack, so let's crack open a box of....

Friendly's Caramel Waffle Cone Ice Cream Bars

caramel ice cream, caramel flavored swirl, and chocolatey waffle cone pieces

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

Talenti Double Cookie Crunch Dairy-Free Gelato

[2023 to 2025] Talenti has always had dairy-free options via their sorbetto options, though it wasn't until 2018 that they started calling them "dairy free sorbetto". Things are changing again in 2023. With Unilever as their parent company, they are joining their frozen treat siblings (like Ben & Jerry's and Breyers) by offering dairy alternatives. Two of them use cashew butter, and the other two are using oat milk. I won't be bringing the cashew butter ones home, so let's try....

Talenti Double Cookie Crunch Dairy-Free Gelato

dairy-free cookies & cream gelato with

swirls of sugar cookie crumbs and chocolate cookie pieces

Chipwich Ice Cream Pints

[New for March 2022 but didn't last long] Sorry for no post last weekend. My son brought germs home from school and unfortunately it took me out for several days. I think I'm almost better, so let's try the new Chipwich pints that I finally found at Market Basket.

Chipwich Vanilla Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Chipwich Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Talenti Salted Chocolate Churro Gelato Pairings

[2022 - 2024] Is 2022 trying to cheer us up with 3 mainstream churro flavors? 

Talenti Salted Chocolate Churro Gelato Pairings #82

pairing of Belgian chocolate gelato and cinnamon gelato

with salted caramel and churros

Talenti Caramel Pretzel Blondie

[2022 - 2024] After the epic disappointment that was the strawberry margarita pairing, let's try again with a flavor that has one of my favorite words in the name. That's right, Talenti has put out another pretzel flavor and I am pretty stoked to try....

Talenti Caramel Pretzel Blondie Gelato Pairing #83

sea salt caramel gelato paired with

salted pretzel gelato with blondie 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

Talenti Strawberry Margarita Sorbetto Pairings

[2022 - 2023] There are four new Talenti pairings this year.... and I managed to pick the one that I hated from the very first (tiny) bite.

Talenti Strawberry Margarita Sorbetto Pairings #80

strawberry sorbetto and lime sorbetto with agave

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

Ben & Jerry's Topped Strawberry Topped Tart

[New for 2021 - Discontinued] So this is the first topped flavor I bought but the second one I ate (due to some scheduling changes). Of the 7 topped flavors, this is the one that seems most up my alley.

Ben & Jerry's Topped Strawberry Topped Tart Ice Cream

sweet cream ice cream with strawberry swirls & pie crust pieces

topped with white chocolatey ganache & candy sprinkles

Talenti Vanilla Peanut Butter Swirl Gelato

[New for 2021] Heading back to the office for the day means I can pick up another peanut butter snack on my way in. Ok, technically I wasn't bent on a nutty flavor, but I was certainly open to it.

Talenti Vanilla Peanut Butter Swirl Gelato (was #62)

vanilla gelato with roasted peanut butter swirl and mini peanut butter cups

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