Recently I have become semi-addicted to Potbelly Chocolate Malts.  (Is it possible to become semi-addicted?  That’s beside the point…).  Potbelly chocolate malts are just the right thickness and have just the right amount of malt powder.  There’s something about the taste of malt powder where you can easily have too little or too much; and the Potbelly malt lands right in between.
The thickness of the malt is also excellent.  It takes some effort to suck it up through a straw, but not too much effort.  Again, they’ve achieved that critical balance.
Oh, and who can forget the cookies?  Two minature shortbread cookies on the straw, mmm tasty.
My only complaint is the size.  It’s a smaller size cup, but it’s still too much.  After finishing an entire malt I feel like I’ve eaten way too much.  I need about three-quarters of the current size.  That would be the right amount.  I realize I could throw it away after I’ve eaten 3/4; but wouldn’t that be a waste??

• Flavor: 5
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 2
• Overall: 4
• Cost: $2.86 at Potbelly

Haagen Dazs is having a free scoop day tomorrow, May 15 of two of their new flavors.  Find a shop near you. Unfortunately, there’s not one close to me so I won’t be making it out.

Today from 12 noon until 8pm you can get a free scoop of Ice Cream at your local Ben and Jerry’s.

Be sure to stop by and pick one up!  You can find your local shop here.
Also, if you’re feeling generous, put a few dollars in the bucket for whatever charity they’re raising money for at your location.

When it’s someone’s birthday you get them the kind of birthday cake they want. But, if they ever request an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins I recommend that you flat-out refuse. I don’t remember the last time I had such bad cake. The ice cream itself, which is rolled up into the cake was good, but the cake just made it not worth eating. We got a mini-roll cake with mint-chocolate-chip ice cream. The fudge covering the cake was the only thing worth salvaging.

• Flavor: 3
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture: 1
• Originality: 4
• Overall: 2.5
• Cost: $7.95

Wow.  That’s about all there is to say about pumpkin spice ice cream at Maggie Moos.  Generally, I’m not a huge fan of Maggie Moos.  They’re hit or miss and very overpriced.  But, Pumpkin Spice was amazing.  It was intensely spiced and the pumpkin flavor was present but not overwhelming.  And Graham crackers mixed in proved to be a great combination.  This is a seasonal flavor so go out and get some before it’s gone.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 5
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 4
• Overall: 5
• Cost: $5.05

I realized that I have never posted a review of McDonald’s Soft Serve Ice Cream before. Considering there is a McDonald’s right down the street from me (on 17th and R) it’s kind of surprising. So, today I’m reviewing McDonald’s Ice Cream.

McDonald’s seems to be pushing their ice cream more and more. Besides the relatively recent addition of McFlurrys, they also now have Oreo Sundaes, cookie sundaes and a few others. I went for the plain hot fudge sundae on their dollar menu. So, for $1.10, I got a hot fudge sundae and a small bag of peanuts. I found the bag of peanuts particularly interesting. I don’t remember ever getting this before.

The soft serve ice cream at McDonald’s is something I’ve always loved. It’s pretty smooth, it’s creamy, and it’s cheap. The hot fudge is also excellent. I was surprised as sometimes hot fudge really isn’t that good. Overall, it was well worth the trip down the block.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 2.5
• Overall: 4
• Price: $1.10

This week a new Baskin Robins/ Dunkin Donuts opened right near my house.  I’ve been for mini donuts once and tonight I went for ice cream.  When I was younger there was a Baskin Robbins that we used to go to after soccer games.  They had a camera and put up pictures on the wall and it was always a big deal if you or your soccer team were in one of the pictures.  Also, the Baskin Robbins was in walking distance from school.  About once a year during gum class we would all walk to the Baskin Robbins to get ice cream.  It was always an event to look forward to.

One of my favorite Baskin Robins ice cream flavors used to be World Class Chocolate.  I haven’t been to a Baskin Robbins for years so I didn’t know if they still carried it.  Good news: they do.  Better news: it’s still amazing.  The ice cream is probably the best textured ice cream I’ve ever had.  The flavors are white chocolate and chocolate mousse, so the texture is silky and mousse-like.  But, it’s not whipped or extremely light the way mousse it.  And the flavors are just wonderful.  I highly recommend trying World Class Chocolate at Baskin Robbins.

P.S. $2.08 for a single scoop is a tough price to beat!

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 3.5
• Cone: 4.5
• Overall: 5
• Cost: $2.08

I don’t particularly enjoy fast food, but when I’m on a road trip (and more or less forced to eat it) I prefer Wendy’s.  I could tell you the whole long story about our drive back from Cape Cod and how I was holding out for a Wendy’s of which they don’t seem to have on I-95 in Connecticut, New Jersey, or New York and how it wasn’t until 3 in the afternoon in Delaware that we finally discovered one, but I won’t bore you with the details.  What’s important is that we finally found one and I got my Wendy’s.  And what’s great about it is I got a FREE Frosty.

I ordered my usual medium chocolate Frosty but when the woman poured it and handed it to me I noticed it was off-white in color.  I didn’t really think about and said, “Did they change the color of the Frosty?”  She realized her mistake and poured me a chocolate; but she also gave me the vanilla one for free!  So, I got two Frosty’s.  Surprisingly the Vanilla Frosty was quite good.  It tasted a lot like a McDonald’s soft serve cone (that artificial, but not grossly artificial vanilla flavor).  It had the same consistency as a Chocolate Frosty and all-in-all I was impressed.  In fact, I ate more of the vanilla than of the chocolate.  Next time you’re at Wendy’s give it a try.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 3.5
• Originality: 2
• Overall: 4
• Cost: FREE (for me) usually 99 cents

Wow. That’s what I have to say about Ben and Jerry’s new American Pie Ice Cream. I was very skeptical about trying this. Apple pie flavored ice cream? Not your typical flavor. It’s not even something that sounds good. But I thought I’d give it a try since I read about their American Pie Program. I did the online “allocation pie” and couldn’t even believe how different my pie looked than the federal government’s. But no need to go there.

I went to the Ben and Jerry’s store south of Dupont Circle last night where it was extremely crowded. While I was there I learned something new and interesting: they don’t seem to have all of the prices listed on the board. On the wall behind the counter it is listed that a regular cone costs $4.25 and a large costs $5.25. It also says that an extra scoop costs $1.50. Anyhow, I noticed that everyone seemed to get two scoops on their regular cone. When I ordered mine I unintentionally said, “I’ll have a scoop of American Pie on a cone.” Well, the woman only gave me one scoop, not two like everyone else. I didn’t want to raise a ruckus about this, since I did only say a scoop. But, it turned out that they charged me a price that isn’t listed on the board! My cone only cost $3.58 (which is $3.25 plus the outrageous 10% DC tax). Now, it seems like a little false advertising to me since they don’t list a small on their price board. Or I guess it could be called good marketing. Either way, not one of the approximately 11 people in line ahead of me got only 1 scoop. Amazing.

Back to the ice cream. It tasted just like apple pie. There were small bits of apples and crust throughout the smooth creamy ice cream. It was fruity and creamy and not at all sour (a lot of apple flavored things are sour). I’m going to say it again because I am still in such shock: Ben and Jerry’s American Pie ice cream tastes just like the real thing. I may have to try to make something like this at home. Maybe pureeing some homemade apple sauce with cream? I’m not a food scientist, but I might be able to make it. The trick is being able to come up with these ideas…

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 4.5
• Originality: 5
• Cone: 4
• Overall: 4.5
• Cost: $3.58

“The cupcake you eat with a spoon.” That’s the slogan for MaggieMoo’s new ice cream creations. The one described on their website is not the same as the one I got… The only option left at the Adam’s Morgan location tonight was “Better Batter.” At only $2.99 these things are a steal (compared to their $4.94 cones). The “cupcake” had a very thin chocolate cake layer at the bottom and whipped cream on top. In the middle there was Better Batter ice cream. I thoroughly enjoyed the flavor of the ice cream on the first bite, but by the last bite the ice cream tasted way too sweet. This is sugary ice cream. It does taste a lot like batter though. The chocolate cake on the bottom was good, as was the whipped cream. Overall, a tasty-treat that’s just too sweet. I look forward to trying the chocolate.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 5
• Texture: 4.5
• Originality: 4.5
• Overall: 4
• Cost: $2.99

]]> http://adailyscoop.com/2006/07/17/scoop-52-better-batter-cupcake-at-maggiemoos/feed/ 0 http://adailyscoop.com/2006/06/12/scoop-17-chocolate-peanut-butter-at-maggiemoos/ http://adailyscoop.com/2006/06/12/scoop-17-chocolate-peanut-butter-at-maggiemoos/#comments Tue, 13 Jun 2006 01:30:25 +0000 Ice Cream Maker Reviews http://adailyscoop.com/2006/06/12/scoop-17-chocolate-peanut-butter-at-maggiemoos/

Any disappointment I felt after our kickball team lost tonight vanished with one bite of Maggie Moo’s Chocolate Peanut Butter. I have never been to a Maggie Moo’s before, though I recently learned that they are a growing franchise and have a number of locations other than the one I went to in Adam’s Morgan. Like Cold Stone Creamery, MaggieMoo’s does “mix-ins,” one free mix-in per cone. Tonight I opted for just plain ice cream though and I’m glad I did. MaggieMoo’s Chocolate Peanut Butter ice cream was some of the best I’ve had since I started eating an ice cream a day over two weeks ago. Unlike other brands’ chocolate peanut butter ice creams, MaggieMoo’s is completely smooth. The smoothest, creamiest ice cream I’ve had in the past two weeks. The flavor was an excellent mix of chocolate and peanut butter, neither overpowering the other. It was extremely rich and had a more intense flavor than I expected. The only disappointment was the cone. I don’t know what the deal is, but no one seems to be able to get their cones right. My sugar cone was definitely stale. It tasted really good in terms of flavor, but the crunchiness was almost like chewing on Styrofoam. (Ok, it wasn’t quite as bad as Styrofoam, but I’m growing bitter at companies’ inabilities to have fresh cones.) Maggie Moo’s also offers cake cones for the same price as a sugar cone, but I have always preferred sugar. Maybe next time I will give the cake cone a whirl, or better yet, just play it safe and stick to the ice cream.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 3
• Cone: 1
• Overall: 4.5
• Cost: $4.95

I promise after today I will start eating more “real” ice cream. There have been too many ice cream bars and other non-ice cream ice creams for my liking. This site is about ranking real ice cream. Not ice cream bars or Wendy’s Frosties (is that the plural of “Frosty”? I don’t know). So, I will be traveling less and eating, making and rating ice cream more. Also, since several people have asked how I plan on not gaining weight during the next year, I am going to start exercising everyday and cutting most meat and processed food out of my diet.

But, back to the Wendy’s Frosty. On the drive home from the conference today we made a stop at Wendy’s. I haven’t been there in awhile and I’ve always been a big fan of the Frosty. So, I ordered one and wasn’t disappointed. The Frosty in at the Wendy’s somewhere on I-95 in VA tasted just as I had remembered. Frosties (or is it Frosty’s?) aren’t known for their smoothness. They are textured with small grains of ice evenly spread throughout their thick mass. But, they melt quickly into runny pools. I love the bites where some of the Frosty is completely melted and some is still frozen. The flavor is good, nothing spectacular; possibly just good because it is familiar. It isn’t an intense chocolate flavor, though it isn’t subtle either. Overall, just as Wendy’s new slogan says, it “tastes right.”

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 2
• Texture: 3.5
• Originality: 2.5
• Overall: 4
• Cost: $1.12

Today’s issue of USA Today (which is, of course, the only “newspaper” my hotel carries) features an article in the Money section about the rapid expansion of Cold Stone Creamery. According to the article “Cold Stone doesn’t just sell sundaes and sorbet, it sells sizzle.” I kept the article for future reference for the day when I would give Cold Stone a try. I didn’t expect that day to be today.

At the information desk in the Student Commons of VCU I asked the student working at the desk if there was an ice cream shop near by. The only place he could point to was a Cold Stone Creamery a few blocks away. At the store I picked out “Delicious Dirt”, which according to the marketers at Stone Cold, leaves me with only 11,499,999 flavor combinations left to try. Delicious Dirt is chocolate ice cream with Oreos mixed in. Unlike the USA Today article indicated there was no:

“raucous show of plunking, dunking and stuffing made-to-order ice cream creations and slamming them with gummies, M&Ms and Oreo bits. As they serve up the high-calorie concoctions, they juggle their ice cream spades, wiggle their hips and sing off-the-wall songs.”

Also, unlike the what the article said, there was no line out the door(despite it being a hot sunny day) nor did it take the employee ten minutes to scoop the ice cream. But, the article was right about one thing, the ice cream was good. It was very very chocolaty, fudgy even. I had to look to see if they had also mixed in a ribbon of fudge by mistake. The ice cream was thick and creamy, almost a malt consistency. The Oreos complimented the ice cream and were evenly distributed. They only disappointment was that the only cone they offered was a waffle cone, for an additional price. So, I stuck with Styrofoam.

• Flavor: 4.5
• Flavor Intensity: 5
• Texture: 4.5
• Originality: 3.5
• Overall: 4.5
• Cost: $3.50

Sitting here in the Ronald Reagan Airport I just finished my first official ice cream taste test.  Up for review is Edy’s Butter Pecan.  The flavor is a little caramely and it has a fair number of pecans.  On purpose or not, the ice cream was a little melted and therefore soft, but not too soft, there were no pools of melted ice cream at the bottom of the cup.  Let’s face it, I wasn’t going to start my “Ice Cream Project” today, but after arriving two hours early for our flight to Dublin through JFK and waiting in line for 30 minutes only to find out that the flight to JFK did not have a pilot and thus we would miss our connection, I needed some ice cream.  Edy’s Butter Pecan satisfied that need and helped me feel a little less stressed.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 4.5
• Originality: 3.5
• Overall: 4
• Cost: $2.65