[New for early 2021] I found these in early April at Walmart but unfortunately I am behind in posting, which is a shame, because I really need to encourage you to try them.
Van Leeuwen Ice Cream Bars
Toffee bar (white wrapper removed)
I tried toffee brown sugar first and it's good! To be specific, the shell makes an excellent first impression and then eventually you start thinking about the ice cream inside. My only complaint? The first time I tried these, a lost a big chunk of shell on the floor.
I can't resist, I was still hungry and I tried the raspberry cheesecake too. Wow the shell is very dark. So, so dark, but it's still fun like the toffee bar. I think the swirl in the ice cream inside is adding a bit of tartness, and that just makes the shell stand out more.
Last and certainly least, the vanilla caramel swirl bar.
Well.... I should not have tried the simplest bar last because the bar is set high and this one aims low. To put it simply, it tastes like a Hershey's kiss and I haven't enjoyed a Hershey's kiss in a very long time. I'm not sure why this one doesn't have the same delicious milk chocolate shell from the toffee bar. Yeah, I will finish the other two boxes long before I polish these ones off.
On Second Scoop: I like having these in the basement freezer. The toffee one continues to be my favorite because of it's sweetness and fun texture. The dark one pulls a close second because of the quality of the dark chocolate shell. The boring one? Even less enjoyable on the second scoop. I just can't get over that Hershey's vibe again. Definitely check these out when you get a chance, I know I'll be buying two of them again.
On Third Scoop: be ready to catch falling chocolate (not that this will stop my enjoyment).
Lineup note: according to the press release, there are also 3 oat milk based bars as well. They are vanilla wildberry swirl, triple chocolate swirl, and brown sugar honeycomb.
Final note: on the last bar, I finally realized that the toffee uses the same chocolate as the plain bar. It was subtle, but I noticed it. Funny how things work sometimes!
Verdict? Toffee wins, Raspberry a very close second
Buy Again? Yes to two of them!
Buy Again? Yes to two of them!
I have not tried the bars, but I will say that as a company, they are coming out with newer and more exciting flavors than all the other major brands. I’m not counting the Mac and cheese and pizza or mustard ones (although I’m definitely trying the mustard one, heard it was good.) So far I’ve had about 6 flavors and I’ve liked all of them. The blueberry shortcake has been a repeat purchase but I’ve not had any that were disappointing. For a brand that seemingly came out of nowhere a few months ago, at least in south Florida, overall I’m very impressed. Ben & Jerry’s has not done anything to impress me in a while. Haagen Dazs keeps trying and at least that’s something. I don’t recall you being a huge Jeni’s fan, but as someone who always wants new and different and exciting flavors, I’ve been buying jeni’s and this one.
ReplyDeleteWe've had Van Leeuwan hanging out for several years actually, but it was always a fairly limited selection and not at a ton of stores (Roche Bros was were I saw them mainly), but with their selection explosion at Walmart, they might be a household name soon (I just posted the latest five flavors on my instagram)
ReplyDeleteI used to refuse to pay $10 a pint for Jeni's, but now that it's lower in cost and now that I've had a few stellar flavors from them, I'm ok with their fandom :)
Jennis is lower near you?? It is still like $9 pretax in my state. Maybe closer to OH is better idk.
DeleteWegman's has it for $7.99 (originally I would see it for 9.99 or more), they also have McConnel's for the same price. Ten years ago that still would have seemed like alot, but things have changed, so $8 compared to say $5 or $6 is alot better from when I was comparing $10 to $3 or $4.
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