Visiting Gelato Fiasco

We did it, we finally made it to Gelato Fiasco after all these years! It's been six years since my last GF review, and to make up for that, we visited GF Tuesday night on our way up through Maine, and then Wednesday night on our way back home. Let's see if this stuff is even better in person (but come on, you know it will be).

Gelato Fiasco

(Flagship Store in Brunswick)

Ice Cream for Breakfast

You know what? I miss touting ice cream for breakfast, and since it's National Ice Cream Day, why not show you my breakfast from The Broadway Restaurant in Worcester, MA. 

We've been trying to get to a place that had some kind of ice cream offering for breakfast, and on a day full of errands and appointments, we finally managed to stop at a place that served waffles with their homemade ice cream. It wasn't amazing, but it was good (my biggest complaint is that it was a little icy). You know what I was thinking though right? Yeah, this needs some crushed cereal on top to add both crunch and a #funfactor.

If you're doing something today to celebrate this food holiday that's an actual official documented national holiday, leave your story in the comments!

Flannel Cow Creamery

The other day, my coworker sent me a picture of himself holding the PB Blaster Sundae from Flannel Cow Creamery in Mansfield, MA. Any place that has homemade ice cream and serves something called a PB Blaster requires a visit.

Flannel Cow Creamery Ice Cream

(the animal crackers are a nice touch)

We-Li-Kit Ice Cream

Wait, is it pronounced we-lick-it or we-like-it? Anyway, We headed down in to Pomfret, Connecticut yesterday to check out a place with homemade ice cream, because homemade ice cream. Now this is leading to a question, so stay with me for a moment here.

We-Li-Kit Purple Cow Ice Cream

black raspberry ice cream with white chocolate chips

Chocolate Cookie Monster Ice Cream

Continuing our trend of trying to get more local cream in to our diets as we wander about, we were out west when we decided to give Cha's Ice Cream and Grill a try. I was still very much in a black raspberry mood, but since they didn't have any, I decided to try:

Chocolate Cookie Monster Ice Cream

chocolate ice cream with cookie dough and a "cookie swirl"

It's a decent looking cone even though the scoops are on the smaller side.

Now, does that look like a cookie swirl or just a regular fudge sauce swirl? It's not what I expected, but it's thin nature does do a good job of adding a lot of chocolaty flavor. 

The cookie dough is fine, but I can't really taste it over all the chocolate.

And the unfortunate worst part (besides it being in a non-sugar cone), is that this ice cream was quite icy. I'm not sure what the exact issue is, but the ice cream wasn't super dense and I hit way too many ice crystals along my snackable journey.

Maybe this was just a fluke with this flavor? I wish I could say yes, but my wife tried their pumpkin and blueberry flavors and those two were icy. Maybe we picked their 3 least popular flavors, but I think this might be a production issue more than anything.

We definitely won't be back to Cha's anytime soon.

DQ Cake Batter Cookie Dough Blizzard

[New for July 2023] This latest blizzard is.... fine. Not amazing. Not bad. Just fine.

Dairy Queen Cake Batter Cookie Dough Blizzard

soft serve mixed with cake batter flavor, confetti cookie dough pieces and sprinkles

I don't feel like I have a ton to say about this one. It's got a respectable cake batter flavor without being too strong or too sweet. The sprinkles are cute but inconsequential. The cookie dough is nice and soft, but my wife's blizzard had twice the cookie dough that I did. I was partially counting my cookie dough bits and I'm not sure I made it to double digits. 

Overall a decent blizzard. My wife had the thought of mixing in strawberry so maybe we'll go back and do that before the month is over. 

Verdict?  fine

Buy Again?  probably

Ice Cream Machine Co

We were hanging around northeast Rhode Island when we decided to grab ice cream for lunch (because ice cream). We've been trying to explore more local places, so we decided to give the Ice Cream Machine Company in Cumberland, RI a try. Wanting something fancy and filling to try, we decided to give their Blondie Brownie sundaes a try (cost was $7.95 a piece).

DQ Oreo Brookie Blizzard

[New for Spring 2023] After a bit of afternoon shopping, it was food time. The lines were too long at Uhlman's, so we headed over to the nearest DQ to check out....

Dairy Queen Oreo Brookie Blizzard

vanilla softserve with Oreo cookie pieces and brookie pieces

Dairy Queen Triple Truffle Blizzard

[New for Feb 2023] Doh! I went to DQ on Monday and totally forgot to post about it. Sorry about that. This one is the February Blizzard of the Month and it definitely carries some Valentine's Day vibes in the branding. I haven't had anything nutty in awhile, so fingers crossed that it's good.

Dairy Queen Triple Truffle Blizzard

peanut butter, fudge and caramel truffles in vanilla softserve

DQ Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard Treat

[New for Sept 2022] We had a few hours to burn on Saturday, so we decided to stop at DQ and check out the new fall blizzard menu. I decided to go with the September blizzard of the month.

DQ Cinnamon Roll Centers Blizzard

soft cinnamon roll center pieces and brown butter cinnamon topping

blended in to vanilla soft serve

Gifford's Cone-y Pretzel Whirl Ice Cream

[New for 2022] For the first time in a very long time, the Mrs. and I went out for sundaes yesterday. Now technically we stopped at Sonic first, but after reading their extremely boring menu, we started searching around for something a bit more worthy of our time. Well, we came upon Moose Trackers in Scituate, RI. It's a fun little place that popped up in 2020 and they happen to have Gifford's two news flavors: Blue Monstah Cookie and....

Gifford's Cone-y Pretzel Whirl Ice Cream

vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered waffle cone pieces and pretzel swirl

Baskin-Robbins Gingerbread House Ice Cream

[New for Dec 2021] It seems like just yesterday I was trying the November flavor of the month (I still have some left), and here we are in December already. I 've been digging the level of creativity in the packaging and flavors this year so let's dive in to...

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Baskin-Robbins Gingerbread House Ice Cream

gingerbread flavored ice cream swirled with

gingerbread cookie bites, classic peppermint pieces and confetti icing

Baskin-Robbins Snickerdoodle Chai Ice Cream

[New for Nov 2021] Recently I've been asking people if their 2021 has been any better than 2020, and in general, everyone seems to agree that 2021 isn't any better. Yes somethings are better, but then there seems to be match of things that are worse. That said, one of the bright spots has been these cool Baskin-Robbins packages that have been arriving at the beginning of the month. I dig what the marketing team is doing here and I can't wait to try....

Baskin-Robbins Snickerdoodle Chai Ice Cream

vanilla chai flavored ice cream contains chewy snickerdoodle dough pieces

and a cinnamon streusel swirl

Baskin-Robbins Hidden Treasure Ice Cream

[New for August 2021] More Baskin-Robbins? Oh yeah. Nothing like receiving back to back shipments of free ice cream. Good times!

Baskin-Robbins Hidden Treasure Ice Cream

caramel flavored golden coins buried in Belgian chocolate ice cream

with a chocolate cookie swirl

Baskin-Robbins Beach Day Ice Cream

[New for July 2021, returned July 2024] A few weeks ago, the PR firm for Baskin-Robbins asked me if I would be interested in joining their Flavor Insiders program. The program sends you a free pint of the upcoming flavor of the month. My answer was an immediate "YES!". I've had a lot of fun going to Baskin-Robbins over the years but it's not always the easiest place for me to get to.

Baskin-Robbins Beach Day Ice Cream

blue sea salt vanilla ice cream with graham cracker sand,

caramel filled chocolate turtles and frosting flecks

DQ Heath Caramel Brownie Blizzard

[New for early Fall 2019] I wasn't really interested in my frozen meal at lunchtime today, and it's definitely feeling like summer out there, so I headed to DQ for....

Dairy Queen Heath Caramel Brownie Blizzard

Heath pieces, brownie pieces,
and caramel blended in vanilla softserve

Dairy Queen Harvest Berry Pie Blizzard

[New for 2019] While Pumpkin Pie is the official blizzard of September 2019 (and probably October 2019 and November 2019), a new friend snuck on to the blizzard board as well. Sure, it feels like it should have been the July or August blizzard, and at first it feels like a riff on the now departed summer berry cake cupfection, but I love me a new blizzard so...

Dairy Queen Harvest Berry Pie Blizzard

raspberry, blackberries, blueberries and pie pieces
 blended in vanilla softserve (photo courtesy of DQ)

DQ Snickers Peanut Butter Pie Blizzard

[New for August 2019] I feel like I haven't been to DQ very much recently, and I was ok with that, but then Marvo tweeted the August blizzard of the month last night and I instantly knew where I was going at lunch today.

Dairy Queen Snickers Peanut Butter Pie Blizzard

Snickers pieces, peanut butter, and graham blended in vanilla soft serve

Ben & Jerry's Caramel Crisp Ice Cream

[New in Scoop Shops for May 2019] Hey, can I rant for a sec? No, it's not about how it costs $6 for a 2 scoop small and $7 for a 3 scoop large. I want to complain about wooden spoons. Ben & Jerry's may think they are saving the planet, but they are ruining my six dollar experience. Holy spotted cow are these things awful. They are rough on your mouth and are terrible at actually digging in to the ice cream. I just barely missed splashing myself with melted ice cream because I couldn't get an actual chunk of ice cream on my spoon. These things are awful! ...anyway....

Ben & Jerry's Caramel Crisp Ice Cream

milk chocolate & caramel ice creams with crispy bits & caramel cups

DQ Cotton Candy Oreo Blizzard

Have I ever told you that I'm psychic? Ok, ok, I don't actually believe that I am psychic, but I do have a knack for guessing the outcomes of things. Do I have proof? Well, on Sunday I decided to order a Cotton Candy Blizzard with Oreo. I posted it to instagram early Monday morning because I was so stoked about my creation...

DQ Cotton Candy Oreo Blizzard

(how to order: cotton candy blizzard with added Oreo)

It was absolutely delicious. I'm still thinking about it 33 hours later. I'm a big fan of the regular cotton candy blizzard and this took it up a notch. The original is fun but very sweet. The Oreo helps bring both balance and more cookie crunch. Seriously, what's not too love here? Ok, the aftertaste is still pretty potent (in terms of sweetness), but I adored every bite of my creation.

Image courtesy of Dairy Queen

Back to my story: So what comes out Monday afternoon? The Zero Gravity Blizzard. It's Oreos plus cotton candy topping just like my version, but then they add "space inspired iridescent blue and black swirls and galaxy sprinkles". If you've ever wanted a blizzard to give you strangely colored bowel movements like the Halloween Whopper, then this is the blizzard for you!

Say you aren't scared off by the mass amounts of food coloring, then you have another question. Do the added swirls mean that this thing is even sweeter than a regular cotton candy blizzard? or do they back off the cotton candy flavor a bit to balance it out with the two new swirls?

Whatever the answers, I think I am sticking to my version. It was delicious and I'm still proud of my creativity, even if it was probably obvious to some. I tend to go to DQ once a month for the blizzard of the month, but I got inspired and I'm glad it worked out for me (and my insides). If you try my version or theirs, let me know how it goes.

Verdict?  delicious sugar rush
Buy Again?  yes!

Allergy note: peanut oil in the cotton candy topping