Deluxe Ice Cream

[New for 2024] I was looking for ice cream news back in March when I stumbled upon a Pennsylvania news article that was talking about how Giant (Stop & Shop) had a new ice cream out that they called a duplicate of Ben & Jerry's. The thing is though, the folks who own Giant/S&S also own Hannaford (Food Lion), and since 2021, Hannaford has had their own brand of ice cream that they tout as a cost effective alternate to B&J's.... Big surprise, both come from the same plant in Maine. Let's dig in to....

Deluxe Ice Cream - Brookie Dough

vanilla and chocolate ice cream blended together with cookie dough and brownie bits

Deluxe Ice Cream - Strawberry Cheesecake

cheesecake ice cream with strawberries and graham cracker ribbon

I've never seen that much ice cream on top of a seal! The worst part is that it makes the ice cream look super watery. The cheesecake one is messy, but not as messy.

This photo isn't inspiring either. The brookie dough looks pretty barren and the cheesecake looks watery now too. Have I wasted a bunch of money?

Wow, look at the cheesecake flavor! I adore graham swirls and this shot makes me want to start scooping immediately.... just ignore the watery, freezeburned edges.

Oh, before I proceed, I need to point something out. Both pints claim to be 91 grams per 2/3 cup serving, but the cheesecake is distinctly heavier than the brookie dough. I need to find my scale....  oh yeah, the brookie dough seems to line up with it's states weight per serving, but the cheesecake weighs way more than it should. What is up with that?

I go brookie dough first and it's not terrible! It's definitely freezer burned, but they seemed to have tweaked it since the Hannaford sample I had. I guess I should point out that the description says the vanilla and chocolate are "blended", not "swirled". That's why they are one uniform color. There's also not a ton of bits in here which is disappointing.

I take my first graham filled scoop of the cheesecake flavor and I like it instantly. It's a tasty swirl in a fairly cheesy base. The strawberries arent coming across very well, but overall, it's very easy to keep scooping this one. My only major complaint? Yup, it's somewhat freezer burned too. I hope the swirl keeps up!

Ok, that'll do it for now to be safe (it is freezeburned so I don't want to eat a ton of it on the first scooping). I'll have to go back for the cheesecake again in hopes of finding a fresh pint.

One More Note: Now technically I did a comparison with the nutrition stats from my Hannaford post (here) and the Brookie Dough is similar, but less sugary. I was not impressed with this flavor last time, so let's hope they've fixed it.

On Second Scoop: I went back to the cheesecake one first (ofcourse!) and it's still very enjoyable. The problem is that the swirl is fading away, and that's my favorite part. The icy strawberries are icy, and not adding a ton of flavor, but I feel like I would miss them if they were gone. I probably won't eat the whole pint because of the freezeburn, but I will dig through the center to see how the graham holds up. As for the Brookie Dough, I quickly checked the rest of the pint and in the end, I think the whole pint had maybe a dozen mix-ins, mostly cookie dough. That's not really acceptable.

Verdict?  cheesecake one is fun
Buy Again?  I'll give cheesecake another shot