Small BK Smoothies just a buck this weekend

I had to go grab something for work around lunch, so I grabbed lunch too.

Burger King is letting you try a small of their new smoothies for just a dollar this weekend. You may have already seen the tropical or strawberry banana flavors, but this one is actually the just released raspberry flavor.

Yes it's "fresh" but not fresh in the sense that they are blending up fresh raspberries for you. I'm guessing it's more like freshly poured from the container, or that the two base mixes have been "freshly" mixed together. It wasn't bad, and was basically what you would expect for a dollar. It's not going to be some ten dollar fresh fruit smoothie, or even the 4-5 dollar smoothie from your favorite lunch spot, it's just a no fat beverage to fruit up your lunch --- ha, just realized I cant even really call this a "chilly" beverage because I don't think any of the ingredients where frozen (well that or they melted real quick).

Ingredients: SMOOTHIE MIX, RASPBERRY: Sugar Syrup, Water, Concentrated Grape Juice, Concentrated Orange Juice, Concentrated Pear Juice, Apple Puree Concentrate, Raspberry Puree, Concentrated Raspberry Juice, Peach Puree Concentrate, Concentrated Apple Juice, Concentrated Black Currant Juice, Xanthan Gum, Pectin, Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum, Natural Flavor, Citric Acid.

Oh, and that's a tendergrill chicken sandwich if you really want to know. It was fairly tasty but it had so much mayo on it that the chicken literally slid out of the bun when I went to eat it.

Verdict?  Not bad, price is right this weekend
Buy Again?  Maybe on occasion.

Clemmy's Sugar Free Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Review

[By Nick, discontinued / out of business] After my nightmare inducing experience with Iskream, I was asked if I would review another brand of sugar-free ice cream. As being the nice guy that I am, I said yes with no hesitation. When asked which product they wanted reviewed they said Clemmy’s Vanilla Bean. Dear Reader, your wish is my command.

Seeing as I gave some background on Iskream, I might as well give a little on Clemmy’s as well. Clemmy’s was created when the founder, Jon Gordon, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Being a fan of ice cream, Jon wanted to make sure that just because he had to cut out sugar that he wouldn’t have to cut out ice cream as well. After not being able to find any decent sugar-free options, he took it upon himself to create a satisfying sugar-free ice cream. As well as being sugar-free, Clemmy’s is also all-natural, gluten-free and even lactose-free. Clemmy’s actually goes so far as to say that it is “simply the best-tasting ice cream in the world.” Now those are some big words for such a little guy in the ice cream world.

Well you’re probably wondering how they make it sugar free, right? No? Well I’m telling you anyway. Actually first let me say that they’re the only 100% sugar-free ice cream as well. This is made possible by the use of xylitol which is a natural sweetener that comes from the bark of the birch tree and also fibrous
vegetables and fruits. Sounds very appetizing I know.

Okay the dragged out prelude is over, let’s get to the product itself.

I do like the packaging here. The vanilla flower and bean pods are large and given a place of prominence. The little dots covering the container represent the actual vanilla bean flecks. It's a small but very creative touch. I mean, come on, it's only vanilla, so they did their best to make the packaging visual appealing to the consumer. Oh fun fact: this pint doesn’t expire until February 2014, I’m not sure if that is awesome or disturbing because of the total lack of preservatives. Either way, I’m ready to try this one.

New Orleans Satsuma Dreamsicle Ice Cream

Yet again New Orleans Ice Cream company has delivered another free pint of ice cream excellence. You know me, I don't just say something is good because it was free. I mean it here. Just you just wait and see, they'll be spreading across the country before you know it. I see big things in New Orleans future.

New Orleans ICC Satsuma Dreamsicle Ice Cream

All Natural Ultra Premium Ice Cream

new post tomorrow night

New post tomorrow night with super gigantic post to follow that one, but til then, imagine you bought these during your weekend grocery shopping (I know I wish I had)

Have a good night everyone!

Six Flags New England is no Riverside

I have such fond memories of Riverside. My mom took me there when I was a kid, it was one of the first dates I had with my wife, more good stuff like that, but yesterday did have me pondering the existence of modern amusement parks, as least ones branded with the supposed six flags of fun. Oh sure, we had a good time on the rides, usually after waiting excessively long times to get on them anyway. I get it, six flags runs 30 safety checks to keep themselves lawsuit free, but do I need to wait 40 minutes to ride a 90 second roller coaster? If the park was full that would be one thing, but it really wasn't that busy. I think one of the tricks is that they only have one car on the tracks now, where as back in the day they would have one car on the tracks while the next one was loading. And the seats, oh the tiny little padded seats. I'm an averaged sized being but the whole day I felt like every ride was designed for people 12 and under (unless I wanted a ride to go upside down anyway).

Again, we did have fun yesterday, but in the six hours at the park, I think we rode maybe 10 rides, that's it. Maybe I'm just remembering Riverside more accommodating that it actually was. Oh well, at least lunch should be cheap.... or not. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by a place that charges $38 for anyone over 2 years old to go into a park. I wound up splitting an $11 cheeseburger with my daughter because I just couldn't bring myself to buy two. Granted, it came with about a pound of very tasty curly fries, but $11? Really? That doesn't even include the $4 for a drink (or $3 for a bottle of water).

That's not all because I had to work way too hard to find that burger. Every place was pizza or chicken strips, chicken strips or pizza. What's up with that? We kept walking by the food stands, hoping to hit Johnny Rockets because they must have burgers... nope, they've been replaced by a much more generic place - that doesn't have burgers. Had my daughter not been paying attention to the little place behind us, we would have starved to death apparently....   actually I was about two seconds from getting ice cream for lunch, but we found the burgers, and saved the ice cream for later.

These are Oreo Razzles and the picture is proof that eventually we did get our afternoon ice cream in before leaving the park. The one on the left is "vanilla" and the other uses a soft serve twist. I put quotes around vanilla because I wasn't actually getting a whole lot of vanilla flavoring out of the base, so I'm kind of glad I got myself the twist. (technically I gave my daughter first choice but she went with vanilla)

Part of me is debating picking on the employee who made these, but the other part of me wants to say that at least she tried since I'm guessing it was the razzle machine causing most of the trouble. She started off with a healthy heaping of Oreo bits, some softserve, and then mixed it up. She then added softserve two or 3 more times blending after each turn, and even then they weren't really that well blended (I had to manually blend it to really get the flavors mixed up). Oh well, the razzles still got the job done, but the vanilla base was pretty terrible (and bright white). Oh, and if you are curious, they all come in M&M flavor and they will set you back $5.49 + tax.

Verdict?  Definitely not a blizzard
Buy Again?  Do I have a choice?

Nick gets an ice cream themed tattoo

[By Nick] For those who don’t know, ice cream isn’t my only love. That second love would be for tattoos. I know it’s a controversial topic and not everyone likes them but I truly have a passion for them. I already have two half sleeves and I’m currently working on adding to my chest.

After long deliberation and many, many, many ideas throw away, I finally came up of a way to combine my two loves into one super being. No I’m not talking about tattooing ice cream but instead I decided it was time for me to get an ice cream related tattoo.

Yes those are two ice cream scoopers in the shape of an X. I’m straight edge as well so I thought what a better way to add even more meaning to the tattoo then by incorporating that in there as well. Stay True is there to remind myself no matter what stay true to who I truly am (an ice cream lover). Also there are inscriptions on each of the scoopers, one being “On Second Scoop” of course and the other being “Zeroll” which is the brand of ice cream scoop that has been used by my family all of my life. Now this isn’t a post to divide people because everyone’s opinion is different but more or less a post just to show another side of myself. Sure I do love ice cream but there is more to me as well.

Now here’s a hypothetical question for you readers, if you were to get an ice cream related tattoo, what would it be? If you can’t come up with something that deals with ice cream chime in with whatever tattoo idea you are or would consider getting. Remember everyone has their own option when it comes to things like this so let’s keep this as civil as possible.

Dubba's Disclaimer: I'm not a huge fan of doctor's needles, let alone tattoo needles so I in no way coerced or encouraged Nick to do this. He wanted to show his love of ice cream and went with it.

Red Mango Mixed Berry Parfait Review

Ok, the following thoughts might be a little messy since I decided to try and type a thought on my phone after every bite or two. I needed to buy lunch today but I have been trying to eat healthier. I could have went with something like a nice salad but I decided on something a little more blog friendly.

The Mixed Berry Parfait from Red Mango (16oz - $5.30)

Weight Watchers Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ice Cream Bar Review

[By Nick] There seems to be an endless variety of weight watchers ice cream products. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it though. Everyone loves ice cream yet nobody wants to gain weight. I’m fine with it because I love having a huge selection of treats to choose from. This leads to today’s product..

Weight Watchers Chocolate Dipped Strawberry Ice Cream Bar

low fat strawberry ice cream with a strawberry swirl

dipped in a milk chocolate flavored coating

Jon Donaire Cake Batter Ice Cream Cake Review

My wife spied a few new looking Jon Donaire cakes at Walmart, and rather than picking one or the other, she figured it best to bring them both home. Let's dig into the more unique Cake Batter one first.

40 oz of Creamy cake batter flavored ice cream and whipped topping on moist white cake with rainbow sprinkles and chocolate flavored swirl. I'm not a huge fan of cake batter flavors, but I'm thinking Jon Donaire won't let me down here.

Edy's Triple Cookie Fudge Sundae Review Fail

Well, this is just embarrassing.
We've got another review failure here...

and when I say failure, I mean....

We've got ourselves a container of ice cream that is 

over two months past the "best if purchased by" date.

Edy's Triple Cookie Fudge Sundae Fun Flavor

Friendly's Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Review And using ice cream as ice cubes....

I'm pretty sure I always say this, but Friendly's is such a middle of the road company that I never know quite how to describe them. They have an average texture that's somewhat soft and never really gummy (at least not on their normal flavors). It's not super creamy nor super dense, it's just an agreeable product that you can't argue with. So, in an attempt to bring a little normalcy into the house, I bought one such flavor.

So we've got Friendly's Rich & Creamy Cookies 'n Cream

All Natural Flavor Premium Ice Cream

Graeter's Elena's Blueberry Pie Ice Cream Review

I don't know if I'm losing my marbles or just my self control, but yet again I find myself chowing down on a pint of Graeter's and I don't want to stop. The purists might say I have no appreciation for the chip infused flavors, but these sweet non-chip flavors are just so excellent. Let's begin.

I found myself at Price Chopper about a month ago, and what do they have in stock but Graeters! And not just any old chip flavor, they have this very purple container of Elena's Blueberry Pie Ice Cream. I couldn't resist and brought home "Rich vanilla ice cream with luscious blueberries and tasty bits of flaky pie crust. An irresistible flavor orignially created by a loyal Graeter's customer for the benefit of The Cure Starts Now Foundation." Mmmmm, ice cream for charity ALWAYS has my support.

Hubigs Apple Pie Ice Cream from New Orleans Ice Cream Company

Oh geez, I've gone and got myself backlogged again. I know I did the Wonka reviews a little too close together (partially because of my refusal to put them all in one post), so I wanted to take my time with the New Orleans Ice Cream reviews. It's good stuff and seems deserving of some better spacing as they begin their nationwide rollout. Problem is, now I feel like I'm behind the 8-apple ball.

This is Hubigs Apple Pie Ice Cream from New Orleans ice cream. Now Hubigs isn't some funky spice or cooking style, it's a New Orleans bakery institution that is beloved by many. Unfortunately tragedy struck early Friday morning,  July 27th, 2012. The bakery was destroyed by fire. It was a sad day for the community. Hubigs was knocked out for four months after Katrina yet went on to regularly feed the overworked local police and firefighters with unsold pies during the recovery (You can read more here). I wish them the best in their recovery efforts and if you are interested, the best way to help right now is to keep Hubig's in your thoughts, prayers, tweets, newsfeeds, and shirt closet. Until they are back on their feet, they can't make anymore of this ice cream.

S'mores Ice Cream Sandwiches An Aldi Sundae Shoppe Treat Review

Happy National S'mores Day 2012! Here's how we celebrate it around here.

[By Nick] Growing up, I use to love to go camping. Okay that was a lie; I hated camping with a passion. Being eaten alive by bugs and lacking indoor plumbing was not appealing to me. The only reason I wouldn’t object to going was that I knew we would be making one of the greater desserts of all time, s’mores. Sure nature is beautiful and all but it’s nowhere near as beautiful as the sight of a perfectly crafted s’more. I would seriously make sure that we had the ingredients packed or I would refuse to move until they were acquired. Looking back on it, I was a complete brat but I was the youngest so leaving me behind wouldn’t have been the smartest idea.

I’ve been disappointed with most ice cream representations of the classic dessert so I was a bit hesitant when I saw these sandwiches at my local Aldi. For those who don’t know, Aldi’s is a lower end grocery chain that specializes in keeping prices low by selling mostly in house items. They are kind of like Trader Joe’s except not as high quality. Seeing as these were a special buy, aka limited edition, I knew I would hate myself if I didn’t give them a try before they disappeared. So with a little hesitation, I threw these into my cart and on my way I went.

The description is what truly sold me on these. 

I mean seriously who could resists something that bills itself as

 

toasted marshmallow ice cream with milk chocolate flakes

and chocolate swirl between two graham wafers

Whole Fruit Mixed Berry Smoothie Review

Alright everyone, time for your monthly/quarterly lecture about balancing your high octane treats with stuff that is frozen, but still healthy. Tonight's treat falls into the healthy category.

To be honest, I can't believe I suckered myself into buying another Whole Fruit product. I haven't made that jump to where I'm comfortable with sorbet and that was driven home by bad experiences with both Whole Fruit Raspberry Sorbet and Whole Fruit Strawberry Fruit Bars. However, I'm not one to give up easily, and if I remember right, they were pretty cheap.

They don't say new, but I'm pretty sure these are new for 2012. They come in strawberry banana (reviewed at freezer burns), pineapple mango (I don't do pineapple), and mixed berry. You get four 4 fluid ounce cups at a whopping 100 calories per serving.

Science Experiment Sunday It's the Limited Orange Cream Shake from Arby's

Hope everyone had a good weekend. 

I know I certainly had a little too much fun with a certain "shake" this weekend.

Maybe the Curiosity Rover has my science juices flowing...
...maybe I'm just crazy... either way, I blame Wil Wheaton.

 Friday 6:17 PM - Now What do we have here?
It's the (new for summer 2012) orange cream shake from Arby's

Well it should look like this

But looks like this

But I'm not complaining. I ordered a fast food orange cream shake, I'm not expecting the world in a cup here. I expected an orange creamsicle flavor and a typical fast food shake thickness and texture and that's exactly what I got. Sure, I would have preferred a bit more vanilla to mellow out my treat, or say maybe a 15-20% reduction in orange flavoring, but overall it's a decent flavor that pairs surprisingly well with my roast beef sandwich and curly fries.

And now time for a little nauseating fun....

Now, who wants to never drink another fast food shake?

You see, I didn't finish the shake, so after a few hours in the fridge, I dropped the cup in the sink.

I figured it would melt and then I could pour it down the drain.

Friday 11:10 PM - I popped the lid and removed my straw... and this happened.

This is not what I would call "melting"

Confused, I started scooping... and made this crater.

I think I might be a little nauseous.

And now I am officially frightened.

Day 2

Saturday 8:29 AM - I wake up and check on my creation

Ummmmm..... this use to be a shake

I scoop down and discover an orange liquid has separated from the solids

At some point during the day, I poured out the orange liquid and dumped the solids onto a plate

Day 3

C is for cookie, that's good enough for me

9:05 AM - It is now the second morning and all is well.

The treat is now tough enough to hold up tooth picks

6:42 PM - We are now officially at 48 hours since I purchased the shake....

It still smells of orange cremesicle. There is no foul odor or signs of mold.

I don't know about you, but I think I realize why it's called a SHAKE and not a MILKSHAKE. Let's check out the ingredients and see what we see.

Orange Cream Shake: Vanilla Shake Mix (whole milk, sugar, high fructose corn syrup, nonfat milk, grade A sweet whey, cream, artificial vanilla flavor, mono and diglycerides, cellulose gum, guar gum, carrageenan, dipotassium phosphate, sodium citrate, sodium chloride, sodium carbonate, annatto, caramel color), Orange Cream Syrup (high fructose corn syrup, corn syrup, water, natural flavor [water, gum acacia, natural flavoring, sucrose acetate isobutyrate, potassium sorbate and sodium benzoate {preservatives}], citric acid, sodium benzoate [preservative], Yellow 6). CONTAINS: MILK

Wow, that's surprisingly tame and contains a fair amount of dairy.... so why in the world hasn't it spoiled? Keep in mind that it's been humid and around 78 in the house all weekend. If this was a plate or a cup of milk, the whole house would reek by now. I'm frightened... so so so frightened. Do you think a B&J or Cold Stone shake would live on like this? I think not!

Verdict?  Taste is as expected.... ability to survive the apocalypse is not
Buy Again?  Uhhhhh, that would be a no

Day 8 Begins....

The first 168 hours of life have come to an end.... yet the shake survives! At this point, my science experiment is boring me and taking up way too much counter space. The good news is that I seem to have figured out how they make cheetos....  The substance is airy, somewhat crumbly, yet somewhat spongy and sticky. I'll never look at Arby's shakes the same way again.

April 2014 Update: The orange cream shake has returned... and I am not buying one.

April 2016 Update: It's back again for a limited time!

Iskream Chocolate Fudge Brownie Review

[By Nick, pints have been discontinued]
I am about to do something that has never been attempted before in the history of this blog. I am going to review an ice cream…with no sugar added. I can already see Dubba shaking his head. You might ask why I’d want to review a product like this. The answer is that I was asked a while ago if I could do some reviews of flavors with low/no sugar added. Lucky for you guys, back when I made my order from Ice Cream Source, I happened to add a pint of Iskream Chocolate Fudge Brownie to my list. The decision was mainly out of curiosity seeing as I wondered how it would stack up compared to “normal” ice cream.

So a little background on Iskream is in order. Introduced by three friends in Connecticut in 2011, iskream became the first and only ice cream to use Truvia rebiana. Truvia rebiana, for those who don’t know is an all-natural zero-calorie sugar substitute. According to their website “Iskream® was founded to create a brand of ice cream that is delicious without the guilt.” Let me just say if you feel guilty after eating ice cream then you have a problem. Last time I checked the majority of people are happy when they’re eating ice cream. I mean, come on, when someone has a bad day, breaks up with their significant other or something else depressing happens, what do they reach for? That’s right, ice cream. Okay that ends my tiny rant; let’s just get to the product already.

Described as “Rich decedent Belgium chocolate headlines this assault on the taste buds, not to be upstaged by the moist chunks of brownies folded into this chocolate lovers paradise” I’d just like to say bravo to Iskream’s PR company. That has to be one of the best descriptions of an ice cream product I have ever seen in my lifetime. It also manages to hype this pint up as if it was the ice cream version of Tim Tebow. Hopefully this won’t be as big of a failure as his quarterback career will be as a Jet (is it football season yet?).

Friday Night Fight Twix vs Twix Ice Cream Bar

I know companies have painfully forced the year of the greek froyo upon us, but in a much more fun world, I want to call it the year of the candy bar inspired ice creams. Maybe Magnum kicked it off last year, or maybe good humor did, but we've all lucked out and this year has really taken off. We've got York and Mounds from Good Humor, Cadbury from Blue Bunny, and then Mars, oh Mars, how you've made me smile this year. It's a good year to be an ice cream blogger.

So tonight, we dig into one of my favorite candy bars, Twix, and it's upgraded counterpart, the full size Twix ice cream bar. Sure mini Twix ice cream treats have been around for quite some time (heck, I injured myself on one 4 years ago), but there's something special about a full size treat.

Tofutti Cuties Snack Sized Sandwiches A Non-dairy Treat Review

Today, August 2nd, is National Ice Cream Sandwich day. I would have enjoyed it way more had I not slammed my head into the corner of a very large and sharp pointy object. Now don't worry, the very nice doctor says I'll live, so to celebrate the day and my non-concussed victory, I give you a different kind of sandwich.

Look, I understand that there is the strong perception that I hate non-dairy frozen products because frankly, that's how things usually turn out. However, that's just a coincidence. If something tastes decent, I'll like it.... I just have trouble finding one of these products I like.

This is a box of Tofutti cuties

DQ M&M Brownie Blizzard The August 2012 Blizzard of the Month

So, the August 2012 Blizzard of the Month is...

the M&M Brownie Blizzard

"A mix of M&M'S^® milk chocolate candy pieces, chewy brownie pieces 

and chocolaty topping blended in creamy vanilla soft serve"

Problem is (as is always the case), my local DQ is ill-prepared for today.

When I asked for an M&M Brownie Blizzard

I got an M&M blizzard with Brownies

notice the subtle difference : It means no chocolate sauce