Non-Dairy Strawberry Showdown

I wasn't sure how excited you would all be about the new oat milk based options from Walmart, but then I realized we could have a little fun with it. I recently picked up a pint of Talenti's retooled recipe #80 (summer strawberry sorbetto), so why not compare that strawberry non-dairy option to Walmart's non-dairy strawberry option? Could be fun... maybe. Let's find out!

bettergoods Strawberry Oatmilk non-dairy frozen dessert

sun-ripened strawberries belnded in creamy oatmilk

Talenti Summer Strawberry dairy-free sorbetto

real strawberries blended with a hint of lemon

West Coast (Tillamook) vs East Coast (Hood)

I know that neither one of these flavors might seem super interesting these days, so let's make it (potentially) interesting by putting them head to head to see which is better. 

Tillamook Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Hood South Shore Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

Blue Sundae Cup Showdown

The regulars here know that I'm a sucker for catchy packaging. Granted, what catches my eye may not be what catches your eye, but I do like to give props when something stands out on the shelf. In particular, I'm talking about the cool blue packaging of this Friendly's sundae cup, and to make things interesting, why don't we go ahead and pit it against the Turkey Hill version?

Friendly's Celebration Ice Cream Cake Sundae Cup

vs

Turkey Hill's Party Cake Layered Sundae

Cherry Cheesecake Sunday Showdown

Ok, the freezer aisle is "pretty" (aka very) boring right now, so let's do something that we haven't done in over two years. Let's have a showdown!

Philadelphia Cherry Cheesecake Crumble

Oui Cherry Cheesecake Layered Dessert

Super Saturday Showdown Ice Cream Cookie Sandwiches

Yes, it's time to have a showdown, but not just any showdown, a super Saturday showdown with one of my very favorite frozen things: cookie ice cream sandwiches... or is it ice cream cookie sandwiches? I don't care what you call them, they are delicious. Even a budget version can hit the spot. Now we've versions come and go over the years, but let's see what we can dig up for this competition. We've got a high end Coolhaus option. In the middle, we have a local brand, Bryne Dairy. Representing the more budget friendly options, we have the new Tollhouse option. Which will be my favorite? Let's find out.

Coolhaus vs Tollhouse vs Bryne Dairy

Friendly's Strawberry Krunch Cake Single

"New" for 2019 - What's up everybody? Time for a Friday Night Fight! We've got last year's Strawberry Cake Krunch Sundae vs this year's Strawberry Krunch Cake Single. Yes, those are different things. Will the 8.5 oz noob crush the old 6.5 oz cup? Who knows! Well, I mean I know because I've already eaten half of both of these, but let's pretend like there is suspense here!

Friendly's Strawberry Krunch Cake Single

layers of vanilla and strawberry ice creams separated by
a center layer of pink vanilla flavored crunchies, topped with strawberry sauce,
whipped icing with more pink vanilla flavored crunchies

Crescent Ridge vs Trombetta's Farm

When you have the same flavor from two different local places, you can't help but compare the two right? Case in point is Crescent Ridge Dairy Bar vs Trombetta's Farm. You can drive to both places for a cup or cone of ice cream, but you can also take a freshly scooped quart home from Trombetta's and I can sometimes find Crescent Ridge in my local freezer aisle.

Crescent Ridge Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

"small batch - locally made"

Strawberry Showdown 2017

[Both New for 2017] Everyone remembers I love strawberry ice cream right? It's not a daily driver for me, but when the mood hits, a nice strawberry flavor can really be great. Now in general, I would do an actual side by side comparison for one of these fights. However, I only ever see the Yuengling's Strawberry ice cream by my work and my free Gelato Fiasco Strawberry Gelato sample is at my home so we are going to improvise a little.

Yuengling Strawberry Ice Cream
Gelato Fiasco Strawberry Gelato

German Chocolate Cake Ice Cream Fight Perry's vs Target's Archer Farms

[By Nick, 2015-2016] Welcome to another installment of Friday Night Fights, a fight I'm not too excited about actually but since I had a free sample of this new Perry's flavor, I wanted something to compare it to. Now, not only do both of these German Chocolate Cake flavors have shredded coconut, neither of them have any real chunks of cake. Instead, one contains pecans while the other contains chocolate chunks. This shall be an interesting fight for sure. The rounds will be appearance of the ice cream, mix-in quality and then overall flavor to finish this fight.

(Target) Archer Farms version is chocolate cake flavored ice cream with coconut caramel swirl & chocolate flavored pieces. Perry's Escapes version is chocolate cake ice cream, coconut shreds, pecan pieces, and rich caramel sauce.

Gelato Fiasco Sriracha Peanut Gelato and Steve's Thai Peanut Butter Pretzel Ice Cream

[By Nick, Both New for 2015] One of my predictions for the year was that we'd see some spicier flavors on the market from the smaller companies. While I was expecting the trendy chocolate and chili combo, I didn't expect to see sriracha and peanuts being the next trend. And not within a week of each other did I receive both Steve's and The Gelato Fiasco's sriracha infused flavors. I'm going to call this the....

The Feisty Friday Night Fight!

Gelato Fiasco Sriracha Peanut Gelato (2015-2016)

Steve's Thai Peanut Butter Pretzel Ice Cream

Saturday Night Quart Fight Turkey Hill Gelato vs Edy's Frozen Custard

[Both 2015-2016] Alrighty folks, it's time for a Friday Saturday night fight. And we're going to do it a little different this time. Not that there are any rules, but this particular fight is going to be based on size, quarts in particular. That's right, with main stream companies dumping premium quart sized products on us, it seemed like a good time to (hopefully) help us know the difference between....

Turkey Hill Vanilla Gelato vs Edy's Vanilla Frozen Custard

Haagen-Dazs Pistachio Gelato vs. Talenti Sicilian Pistachio Gelato #15

[By Nick] Welcome to another Saturday Night Showdown! Well, or what should have been a showdown but now after trying Haagen-Dazs Pistachio Gelato I've decided to turn this in to a Public Service Announcement.

Haagen-Dazs Pistachio Gelato (discontinued)

Talenti Sicilian Pistachio Gelato (#15)

Banana Split Friday Night Fight

[By Nick] After my disappointing experience with Edy's Limited Edition Banana Split, I was on the hunt to find a proper banana split in a prepackaged form. Actually, that's a lie and this throw down has been about two years in the making. The problem was I could never find either of the two flavors. Thankfully my dad found me a pint of Banana Split (still in its old packaging) and with Haagen-Dazs chaning their Banana Split to a limited edition flavor, it suddenly became a lot easier to track down. so let's get on with this Split errrrr showdown!

Haagen-Dazs Banana Split vs Ben & Jerry's Banana Split

Ben & Jerry's Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch vs. the old Coffee Heath Bar Crunch

[By Nick] This has been a Friday Night Fight in the making for a long time. You see, when we first got word that Ben & Jerry's was going to be replacing my beloved heath bars with a GMO-free toffee, I decided to store a pint of the original in my freezer until the new version was released. When it was finally time to pit the two against each other, I had discovered that someone decided to eat my pint of the Heath version. Coffee Toffee Bar Crunch was well distributed by this time and finding a pint of the original was beyond impossible. I was about to give up and just review the new version when I found a pint among a sea of newer pints. So, finally, it's time to see which toffee bar will come out on top.

Ben & Jerry's Coffee Heath Toffee Bar Crunch Ice Cream

Coffee Ice Cream with Chunks of Heath Bars Fudge-covered Toffee Pieces

Edy's / Dreyer's Summer in the City Cheesecake Grand and Slow Churned Ice Creams

[New for May-Aug 2014, back for summer 2015 & 2016] After six years of reviewing ice cream, sometimes I start to question if I've kind of become numb to the whole process, or more specifically, has my sense of this and that improved as much as I like to think it has..... so I decided to put myself to the test and buy both the grand version and slow churned version of this limited edition flavor. That's right, two flavors in one review. It's time for a Friday Night Fight!

Edy's / Dreyer's Summer in the City Cheesecake Ice Cream

Vanilla (light) ice cream with a graham cracker swirl and cheesecake pieces

The Shamrock Shake Showdown, the Nosh Show Episode 25, and our 1000th review!

Well, it's been almost 6 years in the making, but the time has final come to deliver our 1000th review! Can you believe that, 1000 reviews? Not a 1000 posts or even a 1000 reviews, but 1000 products have been reviewed since the start of this blog! Wow, just wow! You want to talk about being crazy for ice cream, then you've come to the right place!

To celebrate, I made my way to the local DQ, but not before I stopped at McDonald's. That's right my friends. The "beloved" bright green McDonald's Shamrock Shake is gonna face off against the new Mint Oreo Royal Shake from Dairy Queen. May the best shake get finished!

Fruttare or Chunks o' Fruti : Round 2 : Strawberry

It's only been three weeks since I posted my first attempt at a fight between Fruttare and Chunks o' Fruti. I meant well, but I kind of epically failed in my opinion. I knew at some point I would have a rematch, I just didn't expect market basket to replensih it's stock so soon, but they did. So, tonight, we're going with my favorite fruit treat flavor: strawberry. It's usually the hardest fruit flavor to mess up, it's tends to be nice and sweet, and now that I have both brands in the same flavor, it's a much fairer fight.

Fruttare Strawberry Ice Bars - Box of (6) 2 fl oz bars

Chunks O' Fruti Strawberry Fruit Bars - Box of (4) 3 fl oz bars

Red Velvet Rivalry with Brigham's and New Orleans Ice Cream Company

As we wrap up summer and prepare for fall (and watch the sad series finale of Burn Notice SNIFF SNIFF), I seem to have once again let something sit too long in the freezer. So much for having a friday night fight, so let's dig into the fresh stuff first and then we'll do a little visual recap of the the NOICC flavor.

As requested by you guys: Brigham's Red Velvet Ice Cream

Red velvet flavored ice cream with red velvet cake pieces & a cream cheese frosting swirl

Fruttare or Chunks o' Fruti

So I've been planning to have a big ol' Friday night fight between Fruttare and Fruti since before the summer even began. I first spied Fruti at Market Basket back in... gee, I don't even know now, April maybe? They were just kind of humbly sitting amongst all the italian ice and fruit bar products and I thought "gee, I've never seen these before".

I went with the Caribbean Mix Fruit Bars because, well, I guess I was hoping for a nice fruit punch vibe. It's a fairly simple package that definitely has that small company feel to it. Unfortunately I left them sitting there in my freezer because we got buried by all the great free samples we got this year. It happens, I'm not proud of it, but it happens.

While that was all going on, I started seeing Fruttare bars pop up in stores and then eventually I started hearing those Ryan Seacrest advertisements for them. I felt like I was falling behind and that I should review them, but to be honest, I was having more fun eating ice cream and just wasn't ready to dig into any fruit bars. At some point I gave in and picked up the black cherry bars with the assumption I would mix them into my schedule.

Ben & Jerry's Cotton Candy Ice Cream vs.Friendly's Rockin' Poppin' Cotton Candy Ice Cream

[Both New for 2013, B&J in scoop shops for early 2014, pints later. Both still around for 2015, Friendly's returned for 2016] Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a very special festive edition of Friday Night Fights! Nothing screams summer like cotton candy, or better yet, children screaming FOR cotton candy, hehehe. To   meet the pent up demand of young ones everyone, both companies have released a special treat for us.

Introductions:

In this corner, we've got a pint of Ben & Jerry's Cotton Candy Ice Cream, a Walmart exclusive. I mean, it was a fight just to find this one. It's cotton candy ice cream loaded with candy sprinkles. I may be an adult, but I'll always be a sucker for sprinkles.

In the other corner is a 48oz container of Friendly's Rockin' Poppin' Cotton Candy Ice Cream, an East coast limited edition exclusive... yeah, that sounds good. It's cotton candy flavored ice cream as well, but now we've got "poppin' candy" (also known as generic pop rocks).