Halo Top All Natural Light Ice Cream

[By Nick] Besides a few scandalous requests, I actually do enjoy reading our review request form. It gives me an idea of what you guys are looking to see as well as tipping me off to brands I’ve never heard of. In fact, the request form led to today’s review of Halo Top Creamery.

Never having heard of them before, I made my way over to their website to see what they were about and where I could find them. Of course, seeing as I live in the middle of nowhere, no one close carries them. A few emails later with a Halo Top rep (who's been a fan of the site for years) and every flavor in their line up appeared on my door step.

So who is Halo Top Creamery? Well, they’re a company trying to produce a healthier ice cream. They’re high in protein, low in sugar and only use all-natural ingredients. If you’re like me and see “protein” as one of the selling points, horrible flashbacks to Arctic Zero might pop up in your mind. Honestly, Arctic Zero is their main competition but the difference is that Halo Top is able to call their product ice cream so they’re already ahead in my book. All of their flavors except chocolate have just 70 calories per serving. The chocolate comes in at a “heftier” 80 calories. Technically speaking, I’d be able to eat every pint and still take in fewer calories than a full pint of select Ben & Jerry’s flavors. Not too shabby all things considered. Okay, let’s get to this!

Since Halo Top refuses to use artificial softeners, I was told to either let the pints temper for a few minutes or to microwave them. I believe microwaving ice cream is one of the deadly frozen sins, so I’ll just let them sit out on my counter like a fine gelato.

Well that’s not how I wanted to start this one out. It looks as if both pints of Halo Top Vanilla Bean ice cream didn’t do too well on the journey to my house. I really hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. I’m actually hesitant to even try this one but hey, they sent these over for me to try so I must press on. Okay, I have good news and bad news. The good news is that the flavor hasn’t been affected at all. It has that classic vanilla bean flavor with a little bit of egginess to it. Halo Top has managed to fuse the flavors of vanilla bean and French vanilla to produce a very solid vanilla. The bad news (which I’m blaming on the shipping) is that the texture is off. Some parts are very creamy for a low-fat product but others are frozen blocks. The texture is going all Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde on me and it takes away from the flavor. If the texture is normally all smooth, I’d say Halo Top has one of the best “healthy” vanilla flavors on the market. Let’s move onto their chocolate flavor and see if it was able to arrive intact.

Okay, Halo Top Chocolate ice cream looks good right off the bat. The chocolate base has a rich color to it which I highly appreciate but the taste doesn’t match up. To be honest, it kind of tastes like how I would imagine dry, hot chocolate mix would taste. It even leaves your mouth dry as I’d expect hot chocolate mix would do (trust me, I’ve never tried it). I’m guessing this comes from the “high fat cocoa” in the ingredient list. The taste itself isn’t all that bad especially for such a low fat option but it does come off as a bit flat. I was informed that I had received the old formula and they are in the process of transitioning over to the new one. I’m thankful they already took action because overall this was one of the worst ice creams I have ever had. If you try the new batch, let me know how it is!

It’s time to complete the Neapolitan trifecta with Halo Top Strawberry ice cream. I’m not sure why but both pints they sent me appear to have experienced massive shrinkage. Instead of being full they both looked as if they were compacted from all sides. At least this one doesn’t look as bad as the vanilla did. The shrinkage actually made the ice cream denser than the first two, but sadly the flavor is pretty mute. There are hints of strawberry but it’s not all that strong. I love strawberries so this is a bit of a disappointment. That said, I have had Arctic Zero’s Strawberry and would say that this one is better. That’s what they’re aiming for so I guess that’s a positive.

Last up is the “odd” one of the bunch: Halo Top Lemon Cake ice cream. I guess I spoke too soon when I said Haagen-Dazs had the only lemon ice cream base on the market. This one seems to be the most promising aroma wise since it smells like a fresh squeezed glass of lemonade. Scooping some out, this one scoops the smoothest of the bunch. This transitioned over to the mouth feel as well. While you won’t mistake it for regular ice cream, there is some familiarity to the texture. Looking over the description, they akin the texture to cheesecake and I’d say they’re not all that far off. The taste is very pleasant and reminds me of a fresh lemon mousse. I might even go as far as to say its almost reminiscent of a lemon meringue pie, albeit one lacking tartness. In fact, I feel like Halo Top should have named it that instead. The lemon flavor isn’t overbearing and reminiscent of B&J’s Liz Lemon. You could easily down the whole pint without even noticing it’s that good. With only 280 calories in the pint, you won’t feel bad about it either. All and all, this is easily my favorite flavor of the bunch.

TL/DR:

  Vanilla Bean: Damaged in shipping, flavor great but the texture was off.
  Chocolate: Being reformulated but currently tastes and feels like hot cocoa mix.
  Strawberry: Also damaged in shipping. Flavor was very mute.
  Lemon: The best of the bunch. Tastes like lemon mousse, feels like cheesecake.

As you can probably tell, I’m not a part of Halo Top’s target market but they do have a couple of flavors that I’d be willing to pick up on occasion. If you ever see Halo Top in the freezer section, don’t hesitate to grab their Lemon Cake or their Vanilla Bean. I wouldn’t recommend the Strawberry or the Chocolate flavors though. I have no idea how their new chocolate will be and there’s just too many better strawberry options out there for what they’re aiming for.

I would just like to thank Halo Top for the opportunity to try out their line and hope they do well enough to get Arctic Zero off the shelves. That would be a victory for all of the frozen dessert world.