Ice Cream Overload

Due to the overwhelming heat wave, I went full out to experiment with all the flavors of the season…of ice cream, that is. 

The ice creams that I rigorously tested were: green tea, green tea mochi, blueberry cheesecake, pistachio, cookies n cream, and coffee java chip. Today I'm giving you the low-down on my results, with ratings out of 5 stars.

Green Tea

The green tea was from a friend - a really solid ice cream that's not too sweet. It's perfect for people looking for a healthy alternative to the overwhelmingly sweet ice creams that's been inundating our grocery stores. This one had an almost bitter aftertaste, which is probably an acquired taste that not everyone would like right off the bat. Although I liked it, I wish it were a bit sweeter to satisfy my sweet tooth.

Rating: ***** 4/5 stars

Blueberry Cheesecake

The blueberry cheesecake is about as American as you can get. It's like 20 cups of sugar in one scoop. Everything about it screams, "Oh my dear gosh, I'm getting the sugar rush of my life!". It's not that bad, but again, probably not everyone would like it. I had to finish half of my friend's scoop because she thought it was way too sweet. I liked it though, especially the cheesecake bits intermingled with the sticky sweet ice cream. You can't really taste the blueberry all that much (a bit too artificial), but the loaded cheesecakes give it some texture and bite.

Rating:  ***.* 3.5/5 stars

Next up is a special treat - a white chocolate frozen yogurt with mochi and mango. This one almost tastes like the ones in the stores, except there are only two flavors. I wanted to try the original Californian tart flavor, but that one ran out. The white chocolate was a bit too artificial tasting in my opinion. But the toppings were nice - mochi and freshly cut up mango definitely spruced things up.

White Chocolate Frozen Yogurt

Rating: ***.* 3.5/5 stars

Speaking of mochi, our next subject in question was the green tea mochi ice cream. Actually my fridge stopped working for a while right when I took it out, so it liquified and became a ball of droopy cream. I had to fight the urge to eat it before stuffing it back into the fridge. 

After all that considerable effort (and a whole lot of willpower), the ice cream became a lot more enjoyable. I really liked the mochi skin on the outside which was chewy and melt-in-your-mouth good. The ice cream too was rich, like the previous green tea ice cream, except with a bit more sugar. The whole thing is powdered in some white coating, which gives your mouth a little mustache after eating it. It's also portion controlled for the weight-concious - one package comes with 6 little balls (though you also have to fight the urge to eat at least three). This was by far my favorite ice cream, at least so far. Oh yea, you might want to wait a bit to let it thaw before you bite in, or else it'll be like a mini-tooth freeze.

Rating: *****.* 4.5/5 stars

Double Cookies n Cream

Next up was the Turkey Hill Stuff'd collection. This suspect in question was double cookies n cream. Just looking at its birds-eye view gives you a glimpse at its awesome cookie and cream mess. The cookie tastes more like brownies than Oreo cookies, and the vanilla cream is pretty darn sweet. It tastes good right out of the fridge, but if you leave it around for more than 5 seconds it melts into a sugar slush.

Rating: *** 3/5 stars

I was pretty excited about this next one - Talenti coffee chocolate chip gelato. I really enjoy the Talenti series, especially their Blood Orange, which I sampled once in a grocery store. I had to find an excuse to take two more samples that day because it was so delicious. We've tried the pistachio gelato before, which is full of real pistachio bits and really rich in nutty flavor. 

Talenti Coffee Choco Chip Gelato

This one is also well-balanced in terms of the sugar to cream ratio. There's a rich coffee flavor that you can even smell, and the choco chips add some crunch to that, which I really enjoyed. It tastes a lot more artisan (Brooklyn style) than the regular ice cream brands.

Rating: ***** 4/5 stars

This next one is your grocery friendly ice cream - Friendly's Smooth Churned series - Purely Pistachio. With only 1/2 the fat, you can still taste a lot of sweetness. I'm not sure what they're cutting down because it was like a mouth full of sugar and some pistachio. The flavor and color were too artificial to be real, and the only thing I liked about it were the pistachio bits (even that's kinda rare to dig out).

Friendly's Purely Pistachio

Rating: *** 3/5 stars

On a side note, I mixed together the latter three ice creams together in one tasting. Due to the heat, some of it melted before I could probably savor it, resulting in a really, really sweet sugar slushy. Probably not the best way to eat ice cream, so from now on I'm either going to eat it out of the tub (for ice creams that melt easily), or scooping it into nice rounds (for ones that are rock solid and need a while to thaw).

Finally, there's a tub of an Asian mango ice cream that my friend got me that I haven't opened yet. Will let you know the results. 

Asian Mango!

Btw: What's your favorite ice cream flavor? Let me know in the comments section!