Dine In. Chill out. (tm) - Time to try Schwan's Monkeying Around Banana Ice Cream

Greetings everybody! Things have been so crazy that it has been two weeks since I opened a new container of ice cream especially for the blog. Lucky for me, our new friends at Schwan's marketing company have sent over three of their latest treats. If you don't know Schwan's, they are a "quality food - home delivery company". My neighbor actually gets Schwan's deliveries, so let's see what all the fuss is about.

I'm feeling kind of crazy... or maybe delirious, not sure which, but I'm going to try Monkeying Around first (which is fitting as my son climbs all over me as I try to type this). Now it's been a year and a half since I tried the very similar Breyers Banana Cream Pie, so let's go see how much my taste buds have changed.

Well, here is our first view of Schwan's ice cream, what do you think? They've gone with a longer, shorter design then a typical store bought container. On one hand the description is a bit hard to read, but on the other hand it doesn't take long to figure out this is BANANA ICE CREAM.

Here's the top view and it's alot easier to make out. Now we can clearly see that the exact description is banana ice cream with a graham cracker swirl and fudge coated banana pieces. Also notice the big #249. If you go to Schwan's website, you can pop 249 into the search box and jump right to this item.

TADA! Now what do you think? The banana bits aren't huge, but they certainly are everywhere aren't they? Now the swirl doesn't really look very intimidating, but as I scooped, I got stuck....

Stuck you say? See, the ice cream got soft pretty quickly and my spoon wound up going under this huge chunk of graham cracker swirl you see before you. It's pretty good too. Pleasant, not too sweet, not to crumbly. I approve, but technically I pretty much always approve of graham cracker swirls.

Final pic: the infamous penny test. You can see the chocolate shell is a decent size on the rather small banana bits. I freely admit that there's not a ton of flavor to be had here. It's a bit of banana, not a giant fudge covered banana. I am ok with this. The bits tend to be solid, but not consistently.

Ok, I think I've covered everything but the actual taste. Now Schwan's gives all of their customers the ability to comment on all of their products. The mix of mostly 5 stars with scattered 1 stars is pretty funny actually. (Keep in mind that most of these reviews are probably from people who like banana ice cream). Now at first, I thought maybe I was getting an imitation banana flavor vibe, but I gave it a minute and then I started to dig this ice cream. Maybe I ate the swirl in some kind of funny way to mess with my senses, but to me, this stuff totally tastes like banana bread. A sweet, creamy, melting banana bread, but banana bread none the less.

So, while I'm still not a lover of banana ice cream, I am enjoying this more than the Breyers. I think it's a mix of the banana bread vibe with the banana bits adding a crunch that spices things up enough to keep my attention. I'm not going to be a banana ice cream convert, but they've got a decent ice cream here with a unique taste. It even gets the approval of my wife and daughter!

 I look forward to trying more of their flavors, stay tuned!

Verdict?  definitely different
Buy Again?  my wife says yes!

2012 Update: Born 2011. Gone 2012.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size 1/2 cup (65g) Servings Per Container  14
Amount Per Serving
Calories 170	from Fat 80
	% Daily Value*
Total Fat 9g	14%
- Sat Fat 5g	24%
- Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 20mg	7%
Sodium 70mg	3%
Total Carbohydrate 21g	7%
- Dietary Fiber  <1g	2%
- Sugars 16g
Protein 2g
Vitamin A 4%	Vitamin C 0%
Calcium 6%	Iron 0%