Stone Ridge Creamery Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

I'd like to start this review with a little confession. This was suppose to be a review of Stone Ridge Creamery's "churned" Cookie Dough Ice Cream. Unfortunately the containers in front were a little beat up, so I reached in the back for a better one. I wound up grabbing a chocolate chip container because it looks almost identical to the cookie dough container. The embarrassing part is that I didn't notice until I cracked open the container and thought "where are all the cookie dough chunks???"

packaging circa 2009

Now it's been over two months since Stone Ridge was in the freezer, so let's recap from the beginning. Supervalu owns a whole bunch of grocery store chains, including my local Shaws. Like any nationwide chain, they make their own stuff. Now I haven't seen the Stone Ridge logo slapped on anything else, so it currently appears to be limited to ice cream, though maybe in your area it's different.

The Stone Ridge creamery selection isn't huge, but they do get their own little section. They have a handful of regular flavors, 2 sherbets (orange and orange/lemon/lime), and then their low-fat "churned" flavors. Slow-churned, cold-churned, and double-churned were already taken, so what else where they gonna call it? It says 1/2 the fat and 1/3 the calories...not sure about the calorie comment unless they are comparing it to Ben & Jerry's. For churned flavors, I remember chocolate chip, cookie dough, and an all natural vanilla. I went for cookie dough, but like I said, I missed.

I was more than happy to dig into a fresh container of ice cream today. After realizing I had bought chocolate chip, I proceeded with the taste test and I was not disappointed. It's a nice vanilla mixed with a hearty supply of big chocolate chip. I can't even remember the last time I bought a container of chocolate chip, so this was a welcome visit back to an old friend. The texture is fine and it has the off-white color that vanillas can have. Not sure what that means, must have to do with how you apply the vanilla (vanilla bean versus vanilla extract maybe? iunno). Either way, for low fat, it's just fine, especially for an entry level ice cream ($2.99 max, but often on sale for $2.79). So, no real complaints here for this respectable attempt at a low fat chocolate chip ice cream.

On Second Scoop: I've actually really been enjoying this ice cream. I think it's the chips that really win me over. I was actually on a chocolate kick and was ready to doss the bowl with Nesquik when I decided to take a bite first. It actually won me over and I decided to keep the lid on the Nesquik. It's plain, it's simple, and it works.

Update: The Stone Ridge Creamery section at Shaws has signifigantly grown since I first wrote this post (incase you are wondering why I said they only have a few flavors)

Nutrition: 120/40-3/0/3