REVIEW: Baskin-Robbins Cinnamon Roll Ice Cream

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Cinnabon is the Febreeze of a shopping mall. When you are within the aroma radius of a Cinnabon, all the other smells are enveloped by the enticing lure of cinnamon, cream cheese, and dough. While the Eau de Cinnabon is strong, the flavors of one of its famous cinnamon rolls are even stronger. However, that bold taste is not what you get with Baskin-Robbins’ Flavor of the Month Cinnamon Roll Ice Cream, which features cinnamon roll ice cream, dough pieces, and cinnamon cream cheese swirls.

The cinnamon roll base has a mild cinnamon flavor with a little something else that makes it taste a little bit different than a straight-up cinnamon-flavored ice cream. While the actual baked good has a bold flavor from the spice, it doesn’t hit the taste buds as hard here. With that said, it doesn’t lack flavor or anything like that, but again, it’s just that I wish the warm spice punch was more potent. Not even the cinnamon cream cheese swirls did anything to amp things up.

As for the cream cheese, the same thing I’ve written about the cinnamon level in this scoop above can be written about the cream cheese taste. While it’s definitely noticeable and gives the ice cream scoop a pleasant tanginess, it’s as slight as the spice.

As for the dough pieces, they don’t seem to add any cinnamon or cream cheese taste. They’re just there to provide a texture similar to the cookie dough pieces you’d find in any chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream. As someone who loves those chewy pieces whenever they show up in ice cream, I have no complaints about their texture, but I wish they added something to help enhance the flavor.

I know I sound down about Baskin-Robbins Cinnamon Roll Ice cream, but I definitely did enjoy it. Again, I just wish the cinnamon and cream cheese notes were stronger instead of tasting closer to what I imagine eating the cinnamon and cream cheese-saturated air inside a Cinnabon location is like.

Purchased Price: $4.39
Size: Single Scoop
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2.5 scoop) 180 calories, 9 grams of fat, 5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 30 milligrams of cholesterol, 90 milligrams of sodium, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 19 grams of sugar (including 16 grams of added sugar), and 3 grams of protein.

REVIEW: Tillamook Limited Edition Apple Crisp Ice Cream

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Baking. It takes forever, right?

Putting out the ingredients, preheating the oven, mixing the ingredients, spraying non-stick cooking spray, scrolling through a 2,000-word personal story to get to a recipe you found on the internet, waiting for your item to bake, and then opening the oven, which instantly burns your face and fogs up your glasses uses up so much precious time we have on this planet.

Thanks to Tillamook and its Limited Edition Apple Crisp Ice Cream, I can now enjoy the dessert’s flavors without touching an oven, glasses fogging up, or having my scrolling to the recipe be interrupted by a pop-up telling me to sign up for a newsletter.

The seasonal flavor features vanilla ice cream, crisp apples, and baked oatmeal streusel pieces. When I learned about this new variety, I wondered why it didn’t have apple-flavored ice cream. But, much like apple pies, apple crisps tend to be served with vanilla ice cream, so the basic base makes sense.

In my review of Tillamook’s Chocolate Collection, I complained about the tub’s lack of mix-ins. Many spoonfuls ended up without any. I don’t know if the folks at Tillamook read that review, but with this limited edition flavor, I have no criticisms about the number of mix-ins because they’re everywhere and hard to miss, no matter where you aim your spoon. Albeit, they’re small. However, if you take a normal spoonful, you’re guaranteed to get some, whether it be the sugary bite of the streusel, chewy oats, or the crisp apples. Even when I took dainty scoops using only my spoon’s tip and aiming for sections that looked like there were no mix-ins, I ended up with one almost every time.

The crisp apples are the fifth ingredient listed, but I only came upon a few tiny fruit pieces during the two servings I had. However, those were surprisingly crisp. Although it’s more of an icy crispiness, if that makes sense. But it somewhat fools my teeth into thinking they’re biting into crisp apples. Honestly, I thought “crisp” was there to fluff up the description, but color me surprised. Even though the fruit pieces aren’t abundant, I also got a nice apple flavor with the bites that had the oats and/or the sugary streusel pieces.

The mild apple taste from the mix-ins, the brown sugar bursts from the streusel pieces, and the vanilla ice cream create a delicious dessert scoop that can be enjoyed in a fraction of the time it takes to preheat an oven.

Apple crisps are considered a fall dessert, so I’m not sure how much longer Tillamook’s Limited Edition Apple Crisp Ice Cream will be on shelves. I hope it comes back next fall. But if you find it, I recommend picking up a tub because it has all the flavors and textures of the baked dessert.

Purchased Price: $8.99*
Size: 1.5 qt
Purchased at: Safeway
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 220 calories, 12 grams of fat, 8 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 75 milligrams of sodium, 25 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 23 grams of sugar (including 18 grams of added sugar), and 3 grams of protein.

*Because I live on a rock in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, things are a bit pricier here. You’ll probably pay less than I did.

REVIEW: Trolli Gummi Pop

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Being a fan of all things sour, I’m certainly no stranger to the Trolli brand… I also really love popsicles, so I figured I had a good idea of what I was getting into. Well, dear Impulsive Buyer, I’m here to tell you that I was 100% wrong.

These are, in a word, weird. In two words, they’re very weird. That’s not to say that they’re bad, not exactly, or that you shouldn’t try them. I’m just hoping that some of you will be better informed than I was before jumping into this big old pop of strange.

The flavor is great. Very reminiscent of a good Sour Brite Crawler but kicked up a notch, although not in sourness. I actually found these to be even less sour than the aforementioned Sour Brite Crawlers themselves. My Walmart, unfortunately, only had the Cherry Lemon variety, but I like both of those flavors, and that turned out to be important, as they are strong despite their frozen state. They never reach cloying or unpleasant levels at all, but both the lemon and the cherry are most assuredly there, and they announce their presence with gusto!

Next, we have no choice but to talk about the texture. It’s not gummy at all, like I’d been expecting, but nor is it exactly a popsicle either. Rather, it exists in some unique, third state…maybe even a different state of matter entirely, somewhere between Jell-O and an Italian Ice. The only thing I’ve ever tasted that even comes close to this texture was a “Not Melting Popsicle” from Kanazawa Ice I had while on a trip to Japan. It’s wholly unique, but not terrible, at least not once you get used to it.

Trolli Gummi Pop Cherry Lemon 4.

Did I hate these popsicles? No. Did I enjoy them? Also, no, but not as strong of a “no,” if that makes sense. I liked them enough to finish the box, and I’d probably buy the blue variety if I happened to see them (even if just to try that texture on my favorite flavor).

Purchased Price: $4.97
Size: 10 pops
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 6 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (1 pop) 70 calories, 0 grams of total fat, 0 grams of saturated fat, 0 gram of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 0 milligrams of sodium, 18 grams of total carbs, 0 gram of dietary fiber, 15 grams of total sugar, and less than 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: My/Mochi Sugar Cookie, Hot Cocoa, and Gingerbread Ice Cream

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In order to cover all the holiday flavor bases, My/Mochi has expanded its Christmas time varieties beyond Cool Peppermint and introduced Sugar Cookie, Hot Cocoa, and Gingerbread Ice Cream. Yes, popular seasonal flavors like egg nog, fruitcake, and lumps of coal are missing, but maybe they’ll come next year.

Sugar Cookie

It features sugar cookie flavored ice cream with sugar cookie pieces floating in it. At first I didn’t taste anything. But as I chewed the mochi coating, a sweet, light buttery flavor came through that instantly brought Santa’s favorite to mind. While the pieces embedded in the creamy filling don’t enhance the baked good taste, they do add a bit of texture, but not one you’d expect from an ingredient called “sugar cookie pieces.” Instead of a cookie crunch, the pieces floating in the ice cream add a sugar crystal crunch, like the decorative sugar sprinkled on top of the cookie. Personally, I prefer a sugary crunch over a cookie one. With its combination of flavor and crunch, I find these to be quite delicious.

Hot Cocoa

I partially expected this Hot Cocoa one to taste chocolate ice cream with marshmallows, but it’s much better than that. Its description says it’s hot cocoa flavored ice cream with marshmallows, and it tastes like what I wish my hot cocoa made from water and instant hot cocoa mix would taste like. While there are tiny mallow bits, the creamy filling itself tastes like there’s a bit of marshmallow within the chocolate base, which gave it a bit of maltiness. The bits are not soft, and they’re also not like what you’d get in cereal, but they add a snappy texture to contrast the creaminess and chewiness of the other two components. I enjoyed these slightly more than the Sugar Cookies ones.

Gingerbread

Gingersnap cookies was the first thing that came to mind when I took my first bite from My/Mochi’s Gingerbread Ice Cream, and then my body instinctively braced itself for the ginger burn that it’s experienced with the cookie. Thankfully, it never came. The level of ginger in this ice cream is strong and similar to Nabisco Ginger Snaps, but not having the burn makes these easier to eat. However, there’s something about this variety that makes me enjoy it slightly less than the other two. They’re good, but I find myself reaching for the other two first.

Overall

I’ve never had a disappointing product from My/Mochi and that continues with these three. I’m also sure that if the company comes out with a Lump of Coal flavor someday, it’ll probably taste great too.

DISCLOSURE: I received free product samples from My/Mochi. Doing so did not influence my review.

Purchased Price: FREE
Size: 6-pieces
Rating: 8 out of 10 (Sugar Cookie), 8 out of 10 (Hot Cocoa), 7 out of 10 (Gingerbread)
Nutrition Facts: (1 piece) Sugar Cookie – 90 calories, 2 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 15 milligrams of sodium, 15 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 11 grams of sugar (including 10 grams of added sugar), and 1 gram of protein. Hot Cocoa – 90 calories, 2 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 15 milligrams of sodium, 16 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 12 grams of sugar (including 11 grams of added sugar), and 1 gram of protein. Gingerbread – 70 calories, 2 grams of fat, 1 gram of saturated fat, 5 milligrams of cholesterol, 15 milligrams of sodium, 14 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 10 grams of sugar (including 9 grams of added sugar), and 1 gram of protein.

REVIEW: Baskin-Robbins Brie My Guest Ice Cream

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Baskin-Robbins’ Flavor of the Month for November 2024 is Brie My Guest. It’s a cheeseboard-inspired flavor that features brie and burrata ice creams, almond slivers, pistachio pieces, and apricot swirls. I was a bit saddened it wasn’t a charcuterie board-inspired flavor, but there’s always future Flavors of the Month.

Pardon my lack of cheese knowledge, but I’d never heard of burrata before having this ice cream. It sounds more like a Taco Bell mad food scientist abomination, but it’s a semisoft Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream. Thankfully, I know and have had brie before.

The cheese-flavored ice creams give this a cheesecake-like vibe. There’s some savoriness, but thankfully, it doesn’t go too far that it gets weird, like Van Leeuwen’s pizza flavor. The sugar and cream are doing their job of helping balance the savory with sweetness. I thought the flavors would be a little odd, but they were surprisingly tasty. They also paired nicely with the apricot swirls, which added a pleasant fruity tartness. My favorite spoonfuls were those with just the bases and the swirl.

Disrupting my enjoyment of the sweet, cheesy bases were the almond pieces, which provided a slightly crunchy texture but also a bit too much nuttiness that gets in the way of the ice creams. Maybe they should’ve been chopped a bit more instead of slivers? But I had a much better experience with the smaller pistachio pieces, which provided enough of their flavor that they let the headliners shine but also contributed some of their nuttiness.

The idea of eating brie and burrata-flavored ice creams may seem weird, but I enjoyed it and would’ve like it more if it weren’t for those almonds.

Purchased Price: $4.39
Size: Single scoop
Rating: 7 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: 260 calories, 13 grams of fat, 7 grams of saturated fat, 45 milligrams of cholesterol, 180 milligrams of sodium, 31 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 25 grams of sugar (including 18 grams of added sugar), and 5 grams of protein.

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