Cold Stone Creamery Ice Cream Sandwiches

Did you know Cold Stone made ice cream sandwiches? I guess one could assume they did, but... oh man, you know what I just realized? I've never actually been IN a cold stone creamery!! That's right, the dude who eats too much ice cream has never entered the sanctuary of super premium ice cream. It's always been my wife who goes in and the one time we both had the chance to go in they weren't open yet. Weird. We'll have to correct that at some point, but until then, I'll have to show you what she brought back from her latest trip.

I assume you can get a 4-pack with just one or two types inside, but my wife knew it would be best for all of us to pick up the 4-pack that had each kind of cookie sandwich that they carry (well, except for the Oreo ones which she didn't see). The problem is, this picture isn't really that flattering....

Go ahead, I dare ya to click the image above and get a nice close up of these fancy looking ice cream sandwiches. I'm guessing the closeup will get you thinking about grabbing your car keys, but before you go, let me tell you what I think.

For "dinner" Thursday night I tried half of Cookie Crumb Yum : sweet cream ice cream sandwiched by chocolate chip cookies & rolled in smushed Oreo cookies. I liked it, but the Oreos were so smushed that they became these teeny tiny crumbs that created an inhalation danger that I did not appreciate.

For "breakfast" Friday morning I tried half of Perfect Duet : Sweet Cream Ice Cream sandwiched by chocolate chip cookies & rolled in crushed milk & white chocolate curls. Now the curl bits shown on the cold stone website are alot bigger, but they still taste good like this. It's not quite like a chocolate coating, but it's vaguely similar. Now if I want to be picky on this one, I'd say that the duet part of Perfect Duet is just a small fraction of the overall cookie. Why not have half of the ice cream be chocolate? Or better yet, why not have  one of the cookies be a chocolate cookie with white chocolate chips? Now we're talking a very creative duet!

For dessert Friday night I tried half of Kiss N' Tell Chocolate :  Chocolate ice cream sandwiched by chocolate chip cookies & rolled in chocolate chips. The chips created a rather crunchy but fun experience. For whatever reason, there was a bit of a funky tang or something to the overall chocolate flavor, but even with that, it was still a nice treat. I've never had CSC chocolate, so maybe that funk is normal, Iunno.

For "lunch" on Saturday I tried half of the last sandwich, Cake Batter Sprinkles : Cake batter ice cream sandwiched by chocolate chip cookies & rolled in rainbow sprinkles. As you know, I'm not a huge fan of cake batter flavored ice cream, so that's why I saved this one for last. That being said, I really enjoyed this one. Cold Stone's cake batter flavor melds well with the creamy nature of their super premium ice cream. Sure there is still that mild punch of cake batter sweetness, but it's way better than any others I've tried. I really dug the sprinkles on this one. They're the good kind that kind of poof when you eat them (as opposed to the junky super hard kind). It was very hard not to go and finish the second half of this one off because it came together really well. I've got no complaints on this one.

Now that all is said and done, I'd like to say that overall I found these fairly tasty and I don't mind shelling out the $8.99 once to give each one a try, and these would probably make a fun treat to end a nice dinner at home. The cookies are nice, but I wish they were thicker and giving just a bit more flavor. I actually think the Blue Bunny chips galore has a better ratio going for it. The ice cream is creamy and fantastic, but ofcourse, it's super premium and full of fat which would make me hesitate on eating these often.

Just to recap: Yes, I kept my caloric budget in mind and ate these things half at a time. A half isn't totally filling, but I'm pretty sure I would regret eating the whole thing. Have you ever checked the nutritional info over at coldstone's website? It's, well, horrifying really. Even as an occasional treat, you have to be careful with this stuff. As my old boss use to say, "fat equals flavor" (what can I say, we talked alot about food). The good side to my intake thriftiness is that we don't have to pick and choose who gets what sandwich, we can just try all of them and everyone is happy.

Oh yeah, the cookies say to let stand ten minutes... the only thing that made me wait was taking pictures, and that was only about 2 minutes because I'm just not that patient.

Oh, one last word of warning: My wife tried the Cherry Cheeseshake when she picked these up and it was way too cheesy, and that's coming from someone who adores cheesecake. She had a bit left over that I could have tried, but I took one whiff and said NO THANK YOU! talk about potent!!