Ice Cream Reviews

I love ice cream. I really do. I've driven over an hour just to visit the closest ice cream shop in my area (almost an hour away- yes, it's pathetic). Now having said that, I'm not the kind of person who can just sit down and swallow down a pint. A full gallon of ice cream will sit happily in my freezer crusting over with ice for quite some time until one of my friends sees it and finishes it off for me or I finally take pity and trash it. Even a pint of ice cream may suffer the same fate. You see, as much as I love the taste, the refreshing feeling, the good memories, and the tempting new flavors of iced treats, I really only enjoy them in phases and small doses. Oddly enough, my taste for the cold and creamy has been revived during the coldest part of the year.

With a town this small, the selection of frozen foods is limited to the tried and true, and the family sized. I'm generally not in the market for either of those things. Hence, my hour trek to the next big town to get ice cream at Publix. I had Tofutti on the mind, and really wanted to try one of the vegan desserts that they'd finally started selling this far South. I ended up going for a pint Soy Delicious and Whole Fruit.

Soy Delicious is a product obviously relying on soy for creaminess. And it succeeds beautifully. I'm generally not that crazy about products with soy milk unless it's cooked because, as tasty as soy is, it sort of makes me sick to my stomach to taste more than a few mouthfuls of it. I could taste the soy milk in this, but without that added pleasure of nausea. The Mocha Almond Fudge was thick and creamy with mocha ice cream and a ribbon of gooey fudge. I'm not particularly fond of almonds in frozen meals due to their tendancy to get chewy, and this was no exception though not really "bad." I think I'll go for a nut free version next time, but they've convinced me that it's Soy Delicious enough to try again. The company also works for the Sea Turtle Resoration Project, so animal lovers look out. They have a very impressive website as well that you may want to check out: www.purelydecadent.com

I was initially wary of the Whole Fruit Mango Sorbet because of the amount of sugar. I love my sugar just fine, but a fruit sorbet with a ton of added sugar seems a bit odd. Regardless, I bought it. Aside from the fact that it was slightly too sweet for me, it tasted like cold, fresh mango puree. They bragged on the label that "each bite bursts with the intense taste of fruit" and I couldn't argue with that; it really was like eating the real thing. They also laud that it is fat free, though I don't think it matters if it sends me into diabetic shock. Since both Dreyers and Edy's teamed up to create this product, I knew that they would deliver on the promise of a smooth and creamy texture, and naturally they did. Overall, a pure taste of summer and deliciously fresh. I've checked online and they also have a no sugar added line, though not in mango. I'll probably go for that next time.

I hit Harry's Market, a branch of Whole Foods, when I went home this week. Despite the four hour drive, I braved buying even more ice cream. Last time, I'd seen that Celestial Seasonings, a company known for its flavored teas, had branched out into the ice cream business. I just had to, especially since the flavor I wanted to try was on sale. Celestial Seasonings Tea Dreams has a variety of flavors that tea drinkers will be familiar with. In particular, I chose the Vanilla Ginger Spice Chai. It's labeled as "Velvety Vanilla Rice Dream with a Zesty Ginger Ribbon and Gingersnap Cookie Chunks." I guess I could taste a hint of the chai taste I bought it for, but it was more like a cold ginger snap. Ginger recently is one of my favorite flavors, so I couldn't argue with that. I picked up a box of Rice Dream rice milk a few weeks ago, but haven't cracked it open yet, so I can't compare. All I know is that this stuff freezes hard. Point in case, it was still mostly frozen after over five hours in the car. I'm not crazy about this as an eating ice cream, so I plan on making ice cream sandwiches which I think will enhance the flavor while cutting it enough to eat more than one or two bites.

Also while at Harry's, I gave in a picked up some bitter melon and agar flakes like I had planned before. Expect news on that coming up soon.