Review: Breyers Double Churn No Sugar Added Triple Chocolate

Breyers Double Churn No Sugar Added Triple Chocolate tries to be diet and decadent. Now, I believe if a dessert is going the healthy route it should provide real benefits like Arctic Zero Chocolate. Or if it wants to be luscious then go all out ala the Klondike Triple Chocolate Bar.

Sadly this ice cream fails on both counts, leaving the consumer with a half-assed product that satisfies no one.

Where do I start with this wack concoction? Let's begin with the ice cream itself. Breyers says it's double churned and extra creamy. Hmmmm. If this junk was quadruple churned it still wouldn't be creamy. It's actually quite chalky in taste and feel. The off flavor resembles a poorly constructed mocha ice cream. Plus it has a slight artificial aftertaste! Also this product is very airy. Chances are you'll be digging in for a second scoop of mediocrity.

Did I say I didn't like this ice cream?

The second and third components of this chocolate triumvirate fair a bit better. The chocolate chips are very hard, presumably because there's not a lot of cocoa butter in them. But at least they possess decent flavor with a tinge of bittersweetness. I would find only a few fudge stripes in every bowl, which was a shame because they're the yumminess part.

Click here to access Breyers product page. The Triple Chocolate package on the website looks different than what I bought but the nutrition facts and ingredients are almost identical. Each 1/2 cup serving contains 110 calories, 5 grams of fat (3g saturated), 4 grams of sugar, 8 grams of sugar alcohol and (surprise) 4 grams of fiber. This product has much less calories, fat and sugar compared to a typical serving of ice cream. Then again, it contains sucralose (aka Splenda) and other artificial ingredients. Each serving is worth 2 Weight Watchers Points.

I would pass on Breyers Double Churn No Sugar Added Triple Chocolate. It's too fake and doesn't taste good. Those are reasons enough to avoid this.

Review: Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich

Late one night I needed some quarters for the laundry so I walked to the liquor store down the block and purchased a Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich. Thus concludes the riveting tale of how I bought $2.50's worth of ice cream sandwich. Okay, that's not an interesting story. Let's get to the review.

Wow. This is one amazing dessert. The cookies are so savory! It's like biting down into a pair of fresh baked cookies... that came straight out of the freezer! All the wonderful nooks found in a great homemade cookie are here. I also loved the flavor; sweet enough to know you're eating a dessert but not at all overpowering. There's plenty of chocolate chips spread around to boot. Each chip finishes with a surge of flavor that's unexpected but very appreciated.

The outer ring feels a bit foamy before giving way to ice cream that is thick, delectable and velvety. It becomes soft serve-esque within minutes of leaving the freezer. There's no question the ice cream steals the show here.

My only real complaint with Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich is its thickness. I wish this dessert was thinner and more stretched out. Then again if that happened I'd probably eat so fast I'd barely have time to properly savor it.

There's some weird numbers floating around the internet regarding this product's nutritional content. I've post how the label reads on my 6 ounce dessert. Each ice cream sandwich consists of 380 calories, 17 grams of fat (nine saturated) and 32 grams of sugar. Benefits are minimal.

Do your taste buds flavor and try Nestlé Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich once. At least. It's not available everywhere and costs a little extra but this ice cream sandwich is worth the effort.

Weekend Wrap #8

What to expect next month:
January was a hectic month but I managed to bang out five frozen food reviews. Hooray for me I suppose. It was a fun experience trying (and enjoying) products I'd never tried before. I'm already hard at work for February including a review scheduled for Monday about one amazing dessert.

In other developments:
Recently I dined at an all-you-can-eat buffet. And not one of those nice buffets neither. None of the food was good. Reminded me of "Rapper's Delight" by The Sugarhill Gang:

"...the macaroni's soggy, the peas are mushed and the chicken tastes like wood."

Anyway, at least I had dessert to look forward to. These wack buffet joints do the dessert section justice, I'll give them that. There's cookies, brownies, cakes, puddings and, of course, the ever-glorious frozen yogurt. And actually this particular restaurant even had an ICEE dispenser. An ICEE dispenser! Regardless, my full attention was aimed toward the frozen yogurt. It's my favorite dessert when I'm out and about. I wanted it naked. No shirt, pants or socks. Okay I'm kidding. But I do like frozen yogurt plain -- sans sprinkles, fudge, cookie crumbs or other toppings.

So this buffet had the frozen yogurt with the typical vanilla, chocolate and swirl flavors. As anyone who's gleaned this blog would know I went with chocolate and yikes it came out looking about five shades too light. The texture was cool but there was no flavor to speak of. Bleh.

My trip to the grocery store later that week turned out better. Tina's burritos were on sale for 22 cents! Usually they sell for 50 cents and sometimes 3 for a dollar so this was definitely a bargain. I loaded up on the Bean & Cheese variety as well as a couple of flavors I haven't tried. Also I picked up a box of M&M's ice cream sandwiches. They looked really good and I needed a dessert after going through pints of Arctic Zero Chocolate and Ciao Bella Mint Chocolate Chip.

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Review: Ciao Bella Mint Chocolate Chip

Filed under Amazing Yet True: I had never tried gelato until Ciao Bella Mint Chocolate Chip. Well maybe I dabbled with the Italian dessert once or two before but this was certainly the first time I actually went out and bought the stuff.

I actually had gelato on the brain for quite a while when I went shopping a few weeks ago. After all it's a new decade and Frozen Food Journal is headed for better and brighter things. Ciao Bella, with its clean and hip packaging, stood out in the freezer section. The fact that it's all natural didn't hurt neither.

So my first foray into gelato didn't get off to a great start. The Ciao Bella container has a hard plastic lid that requires a little more effort to open than I'd like. But thankfully it serves as the gateway to a fine dessert.

The gelato has a refreshing finish but expect a mint flavor that's sweeter than most frozen desserts. I'm sure part of that extra tastiness is due to the little dots of Belgium chocolate thoroughly sprinkled in. They're imperceptible on their own impact every spoonful. The bigger chunks of chocolate possess a tinge of bittersweet flavor that works well as with the sweet gelato.

I really like the smooth consistency of Mint Chocolate chip and it's also very dense. Not as thick as Arctic Zero Chocolate but I had no problem getting multiple servings out of one pint. I got my pint for $5 at Whole Foods in Los Angeles. Use the Ciao Bella Gelato search to see if a pint is sold in your area. If you live near a major city chances are good. As a last resort you can also purchase Ciao Bella from an online store but I highly discourage this method unless you feel like paying a ridiculous amount in shipping (my estimate was almost $30 to send one $7 pint).

The product page is, err... a little light on information. Perhaps Ciao Bella is trying to avoid having to mention the 230 calories, 13 grams of fat (with a staggering nine grams of saturated fat) and 22 grams of sugar in each half-cup serving. The gelato is primarily made from milk, cream, sugar and corn syrup while the chocolate chips are comprised of chocolate liquor and cocoa butter. Decadence at a price.

In conclusion this product is quite delicious, very unhealthy and expensive. I enjoyed Ciao Bella Mint Chocolate Chip as a one-time treat but probably won't buy it again. However I look forward to trying more gelato and other Ciao Bella flavors.