Cold Stone Creamery Aquaman Blue Velvet Cake Ice Cream
blue velvet cake ice cream with brownies...
(and chocolate chips and glitter)
(and chocolate chips and glitter)
You may be asking "where's the glitter?" and that's a fine question. I went in to the very empty Cold Stone Creamery near my work and asked for this ice cream. The employee asked what size I wanted ("love it" / medium), scooped my ice cream from the tray, and then asked what I wanted in/on it. I was confused. I wanted the treat that was in the picture (maybe I should have pointed to it). She said it comes with one item, and as you can see, I picked a big, ooey gooey, delicious brownie. Was I supposed to ask for all three items separately and then get two upcharges?
Note: I have trouble going in new places, so maybe I wasn't being clear enough, but I just thought it would have been easier to order... maybe I'm just rusty as it's been five years since I have personally been in to a Cold Stone - my wife likes to take my daughter there for shakes on occasion when they go shopping (aka I'm not there).
So how is it? Blue, very very blue. I can't give you flavor specifics other than to say it reminds me of red velvet cake. Red velvet just has that certain mix of batter flavor and (smoothness?) that is also present here.
To be honest, I just wasn't a huge fan, though a part of that is because Cold Stone texture seems to have gone downhill. I know it's been a few years, but I don't remember their stuff being so gummy. It's really disappointing. I spend $5.30 for good ice cream, not meh ice cream.
The saving grace was the brownies, they really are delicious, though I suspect the missing chocolate chips would have helped break up the gummy base texture even further.
I wound up only eating half of this which was probably for the best because I had to wash the blue off my lips when I got back to work.
It's not that this ice cream is terrible, but it did disappointment me personally on several. Obviously if I had less texture issues or more love of cake batter flavors, this would be much higher on my list. As is, I'm not sure I even want to finish it.
On Second Scoop: (still working up the nerve to finish this one...)
Biologic foot note: yes, eating a bunch of blue dye does have unintended consequences...
Verdict? so blue
Buy Again? nope
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment of their ice cream. I loved Cold Stone when it first opened. Then I noticed I preferred local scoop shops like Baskin Robbins more because Cold Stone seemed gummy (well-stated) by comparison. Now, I like coffee ice creams (I know you don't) and Cold Stone has a good one with the brownie. But I always ask if the brownies are fresh (as in baked that day) because hard brownies totally foul up the ice cream. In our local cold stone, there seems to be less traffic through it in recent years so I've eaten a lot of stale brownies, and stale, overcooked waffle cones sadly. Now I only go when I get BOGO or 2/$6 coupons. A lot of Cold stone is just the novelty. My kids liked the anniversary a while ago when they had sprinkles that were numbers. My twins are six though. I skipped that novelty. For a while we had a Maggie Moo's. I came to like MM better, but it closed down. A local person reopened the previous MM and made it a no-name cold slab ice cream kind of place. But without the funny cow, it just doesn't have that pizazz. I guess I'm old and curmudgeonly. I prefer to spend my money buying high end Haagen Dazs when I want to splurge and just add my own toppings at home. Bah humbug to me!
ReplyDeleteOh I forgot to add that Target has a market pantry peppermint flavored Redi whip on their refrigerated shelves now. It's sooooo gooood if you like peppermint. I had it on the Yasso peppermint froyo, and it just magnified the taste! The Yasso sugar cookie tasted just like a sugar cookie too. I was impressed by both of these froyo flavors.
ReplyDeleteAnne, I have a Coldstone by me too and they claim that they "take great pride in the fact that they make their super-premium, smooth and creamy ice cream fresh, every day, right there in their stores, using only the finest quality ingredients…” Only thing is that any of their singing employees will tell you that all of their ice cream flavors start with the same daily delivered Sweet Cream Ice Cream base and then they add things to create a certain flavor. Maybe they are adding more xanthan gum since that is a common thickener a lot of keto people use nowadays to make their food seem more substantial or give it more texture.
ReplyDelete@Anne: Ha! My wife tries to only go when she has a BOGO coupon too! And as for Maggie Moo, I didn't realize they were having trouble (they aren't around me, but according to wikipedia they have gone from near 400 store down to 49)
ReplyDelete@Amanda: HAHAHAHAHAHA. I mean technically they probably shove some liquid mix in to some kind of ice cream machine so technically it's "made that day". I just looked at the nutrition facts on their website. Every flavor starts with either:
SWEET CREAM ICE CREAM [Cream, Nonfat Milk, Sugar, Corn Syrup, Whey, contains less than 1% of each of the following: Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan, Mono and Diglycerides, Polysorbate 80, Annatto (color)]
or
CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM (Milkfat and Nonfat Milk, Sugar, Whey, Cocoa processed with Alkali, Mono and Diglycerides, Guar Gum, Polysorbate 80, Cellulose Gum, Carrageenan)
the cold stones near me also have mostly disappeared, but i was always freaked out by the singing, it just wouldn't end
ReplyDeleteDubba, I just read your blue biological foot note. Fascinating. But truly...who am I to be critiquing Coldstone Creamery? Their poor employees probably develop carpal tunnel after banging and clanging all day on the cold metal slab to serve us ice cream. Some of the reviews I've seen are pretty much in line with your thoughts: "I have no idea what they put in it, but I agree that it's kind of like frozen Crisco"; "After a few visits, the ice cream texture turned very 'pasty' it even seemed to have somewhat of a pull to it like melted cheese"; and finally: "It's so dense that even after 95-degree heat it was a suspiciously thick, stiff, battery goo, unlike the semi-liquid of most melted ice cream. This made it feel like we were eating frozen frosting straight out of the tub." A few years ago, they made news for coming out with a non-melting ice cream that uses the maltodextrin found in Jell-O.
ReplyDeleteOkay, I can't believe I am this enthralled with the ice cream business.
So I take it you will be having a "blue Christmas", Dubba? You are a brave man to inject that color into your system.
@Anne: here's a simple Cold Stone copy recipe and you can add whatever you want to it: https://www.cookingclassy.com/cold-stone-creamery-sweet-cream-ice-cream-make-it-at-home/
Thanks so much for the copy recipe!
ReplyDeleteWhen I asked for the Aquaman, I got the blue velvet base, blondies, glitter, and whipped cream. I liked it.
ReplyDelete