Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Archer Farms Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bites


[2016 only] Imagine my amusement when I saw boxes of the new Archer Farms ice cream bites on my weekend trip to Target. That's right, on top of snack bites, cake bites, cookie bites, and cheesecake bites, Target is now offering up at least three varieties of ice cream bites. Packaged six to a $3.99 box, I first noticed the Raspberry and Turtle flavors on Sunday but wasn't able to bring them home. Well I hit a different Target today and saw the Turtle variety and...

Archer Farms Peanut Butter Ice Cream Bites @ Target
peanut butter ice cream with a peanut butter swirl
wrapped in a chocolate flavored coating with peanuts

I take pictures before digging in and I see that this is billed as two ice cream bites per serving (so three servings per box). To be "good", I will eat one now and one in about an hour or so.

Yeah, that's four bites at best. Two bites is tempting. One bite is risky.
note 1: next to a snack size Take 5 for comparison
note 2: how tempting is it to eat the whole bag of snack size Take 5s?


Initial impressions: The shell exploded on impact. I didn't drop anything but it was close. As you apply a little more pressure to keep it in one piece, the shell starts to melt to your fingers (so you might want to leave it in the wrapper when you start to eat it).

It's hard to see, but there are several very thin layers of peanut butter in there.

The flavor is pretty good but there seems to be a little something missing. It's just a little less flavor than you might expect. I'm not sure if it needs a little more peanut butter or a little more salt, but it's decent. Overall it is reminiscent of a Snickers ice cream bar but the aftertaste is a little odd. There are peanut chunks in the mix but it's not like you get a blast of fresh peanut at any point, there's just too many other things going on.


Secondary impressions (a few hours later): Despite cracking, the thick shell is fun and reminds me of a time when klondike bars were still awesome. I would like the peanut butter ice cream to have a bit more of a pb punch, but it's still enjoyable because of the fun that is peanut butter and chocolate. The ice cream has enough density to make you feel like it's a fairly hefty treat plus it's not really gummy (something we see way too often nowadays).

I'm definitely glad I picked these up and I think I started with the right flavor. I'll have no problem finishing the box. The biggest question is just a matter of how much I space out their devouring.

On Second Scoop: The more I eat these, the more I like them. The biggest win for me is the overall crunch factor. I'm getting the hang of working my way through the thick shell without making a mess and I'm always up for lots of added texture. I still think the flavor is a little off. It's more noticeable in the aftertaste than during the actual devouring of the treat, but it's there. But wait, sip of water and it's gone... wait, is that cheating? Anyway, the moral of the story is that these are definitely worth a try. 

Verdict?  neat treat
Buy Again?  sure

Notice the box has a handy perforated edge for easier snacking

6 comments:

  1. $3.99 seems like a lot of money for only six mini bites but that's just my opinion.

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  2. While I do think $2.99 would be a great price point since they are technically a store brand product, I wouldn't call them "mini". If you've ever had 100 calorie klondike bars, it's a somewhat similar size to those (a little bit smaller looking from above but a bit thicker overall). Or think of the fact that at 10.5 fl oz for $3.99, that's more than you get for a $3.99 box of Magnum ice cream bars (whether the old 10.14 fl oz boxes or the new 9.12 fl oz boxes)

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  3. This reminds me of Dibs. Are those even still a thing? (quick Google check) They are and depressingly there is only one flavor. Looks like they basically got discontinued. My childhood and dreams are crushed.

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  4. These are way bigger than dibs, and I'm not sure if this helps, but besides the Dibbs Crunch flavor hanging around, Butterfinger Bites are joining the battle, just spied them Wednesday night https://www.instagram.com/p/BHSetiahcQm/

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  5. I've tried the raspberry and the turtle. I thought they were okay, but they didn't wow me. I think the issue for me was the quality of the chocolate coating. It tasted like cheap chocolate to me.

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  6. @Alexis: I miss Dibs!

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