Sandy inspired Freezer Spelunking Part 1 with Wegmans, Wonka, and Maple's

Hello all, hope you are all doing well through Superstorm Sandy. Since my company wasn't in the direct line of the storm, we still had to go in  Monday morning. I will admit that for awhile things didn't look too bad here in central mass but thankfully they let us out at 2pm before the high point of the storm (and about ten minutes after the downpours started). I headed home, barely missed hydroplaning into a jackknifed car, ran into a very empty Walmart, and then finally made it home to a sleeping son and one very hungry daughter.

Hmmm, well the power has already been flickering for about 18 hours, so I'm thinking I need to go freezer diving before I wind up crying myself to sleep again overall the loss of my beloved flavors (just teasing, I was upset last year, but I didn't cry... much... ok, I'll stop, no tears, real men don't cry... except when...)

At first I was thinking of doing a Sandy inspired Showdown featuring....

Wonka Chocolate Mintropolis Ice Cream

and Maple's Fresh Mint Stracciatella Organic Gelato

It should have been interesting as Wonka rocks the chocolate base with lots of peppermint patties & chocolate mint cookies while Maple's takes the neat spin of a sweet cream base infiltrated with fresh peppermint and chunks of dark chocolate. Hmmm, fun vs fancy, oh it could have been epic!

I first try the Wonka and it's a really nice chocolate mint flavor. My daughter devours her small sample serving and quickly asks for more (and I think I know why).

Here's another shot of the Wonka after I've gone down another serving. Look at the wall to wall inclusions. This is what I expect from every Wonka flavor, a crazy amount of mix-ins. I want to think this is a candy bar, not just candy included.

This one just does not fail with the inclusions. We've got chocolate covered balls of mint chocolate wafer cookie AND some very neat looking mini peppermint patties. I love that they even have that neat little ripple on the top. We certainly have a winner in this Wonka flavor, no doubt about it.

Now the competition? Well, the bottom of the Maple's says August 15, 20(fade to nothing). Ummm, best buy date? use by date? I scrape off the top and shoot for the heart of the gelato (usually the safest part of an old treat). I take a small bite... gritty, kinda minty... then another.. oh, oh no, something ain't right. >spit< ewww >spit spit<. Oh yeah, this one is long past it's use by date >spit< (rinse) It's bad enough it's gone gritty, but I can't tell if the taste is burning my tongue or what, but down the drain it goes.

here it is melting in the drain

Bummer, those are some funky looking chunks in there

Let's hope this next one didn't go bad too.

This is Wegman's Bordeaux Cherry Brownie Premium Ice Cream

Cherry Ice Cream with Bordeaux Cherry Pieces, Brownie Chunks, and Black Cherry Sauce

Wow, that's alot of ice (it formed under the plastic seal)

In it's defense, it does say Best Buy July 13th 2012.

No need to scoop from the top, let's just CUT to the chase

(I cut the pint in half)

Wow, that's a lot of cherries (and just a few small brownie cubes at the moment). Surprisingly this one is still very tasty. What really gets my attention here is this funky red cherry sauce. It's just such a neat touch in a world full of the same old cherry flavors over and over again.

Offhand, I can't think of any other flavor that has a cherry swirl in it. This one is definitely a step above the rest, much like Wegmans Premium cookie dough was top notch. I'll definitely have to pick this one up again (especially since it was suppose to be a surprise for my wife, whoops!)

Now my daughter would have been happy to call it quits and just finish up the Mint Wonka, but you know, I would be heart broken if my rare Graeter's flavors would bite the dust in a power outage. Back to the basement I went! (Stay tuned for Part 2 of our adventure tomorrow)