Last night I was at a friend’s helping him pack for his move to the Netherlands next week.  He had to run out and buy more packing tape and guess what- he came back with some ice cream!  It’s been a long long time since I’ve had Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey.  I used to order it accidentally thinking it was Chubby Hubby (they sound kind of similar).  I’ve never been a huge fan of banana flavored things.  I like bananas, just not anything that’s flavored like banana.  So, I haven’t purchased Chunky Monkey in awhile.  But, I actually really enjoyed it last night.  It won’t ever be one of my favorites, but it’s not as bad as I remembered.  The banana ice cream is smooth and there are lots of chocolate chunks.  The only disappointment was the lack of whole banana chunks.  I like chunks of banana and there just weren’t enough.  If you like bananas definitely give Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey a try.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 4.5
• Originality: 4
• Overall: 4

Edy’s Dibs have been heavily marketed and there are often coupons in the Sunday paper. I didn’t want to buy a giant carton because I knew I would get addicted and eat them all in one sitting. Instead I found a small size at 7-11. The small size (4.5 oz) had about 20 pieces in it. There’s really nothing special about Dibs. There pretty much regular ice cream bars in bite size pieces. If you like ice cream bar coating, in this case Crunch bar, you’ll enjoy Dibs. I liked them, but I wouldn’t necessarily buy them again.

• Flavor: 3.5
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture: 3
• Originality: 4.5
• Overall: 3

I never realized that Kemps was a Midwest brand until I moved away from MN.  It’s always been decent ice cream, never amazing, never terrible.  Today’s Toasted Almond Fudge was about what I expected: not spectacular, but not all that bad.  The ice cream was just plain chocolate ice cream with toasted slivers of almonds in it.  The texture reminds me of the chocolate malt cups you can buy at baseball games.  It’s not a flavor that I would buy again if I wanted really good ice cream, but for the price it’s decent.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 3.5
• Texture: 3
• Originality: 2.5
• Overall: 3.5
• Cost: $2.50 at Byerly’s in MN

I had high hopes for this Haagen Dazs. I love anything peach, especially chunky peach ice cream. But, there were few chunks of peach in this ice cream. Most of the peach flavoring came from some sort of peach swirl (which was not identified on the carton). It was a gooey marmalade; a sticky, intensely sweet swirl that clashed with the very lightly flavored peach ice cream base. I would have been ok just eating around the swirl, but the ice cream base didn’t have enough flavor. Maybe if I had expected the swirl I would have enjoyed this ice cream a little more. But, I just couldn’t move past the fact that it is advertised as “Peaches and Cream”; the picture doesn’t even show the swirl. Haagen Dazs- you failed me this time—miserably.

• Flavor: 2
• Flavor Intensity: 2
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 3
• Overall: 2
• Cost: $4.29 at 711

The ice cream gods must have heard me when I remarked just a few days ago that Edy’s needs to have pint size containers. Because, I stopped in the 711 down the street from my house today and discovered pint size Edy’s. No joke! They only carry three flavors— Chocolate, Vanilla, and Strawberry—I opted for the strawberry. (711 also carries flavors of Ben and Jerry’s and Haagen Dazs that they don’t have at my local Safeway or Whole Foods (correction: they do carry 3 flavors at Whole Foods)). So, now I can throw out only half a pint and not half a quart. But, it comes at a price: $4.29. For a pint of ice cream this is outrageous. Safeway sells quarts of Edy’s for just over $5 and when it’s on sale it’s under $4. I guess we know where my priorities lie. From now on I’ll most likely buy Edy’s wherever it’s cheapest. (At Shopper’s in VA it only costs $3.99 for a quart! Oh the joys of living in DC…)

The strawberry ice cream was very good. It’s light and not very dense, but has a nice flavor. Because it’s not dense and rich, I don’t think it was a good as the Breyers I previously tested. As I said, the Edy’s Grand Strawberry ice cream was good, but I was left feeling very confused. It’s called “Edy’s Grand” which implies that it’s rich and thus bad for you. But, this strawberry flavored Grand only came in at 130 calories and 6 grams of fat. Yes, that’s more fat than their new “Slow Churned” flavors, but not any more calories. Are all Edy’s Grand ice creams this good for you? If so, then what’s with the new Slow Churned / Double Churned craze?

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 2
• Overall: 4
• Cost: $4.29 at 711

Since Edy’s Sundae Crunch didn’t satisfy my craving for a Drumstick, I thought I should get the real thing.  So, on my drive up to Cape Cod I stopped at a 711 to pick one up.  They had a ton of ice cream options, including my Drumstick.  But, only came in King Size.  Do American’s really need a King Size Drumstick with 450 calories and 27 grams of fat???  I know I don’t, but I bought it any way.

My memory served me right:  I love these things.  They are rich and creamy and crunchy and chocolatey.  Downright delicious.  The ice cream tastes extremely artificially flavored (vanilla), but that’s ok with me.  It hard to believe how creamy they can make this ice cream.  It’s almost like soft serve.  After eating off the top chocolate and nuts and having a few bites of ice cream on top of the cone, I decided to forgo the plain ice cream calories and get right to the good stuff.  The greatest thing about the Drumstick is everything that’s in the cone.  Layers of chocolate and ice cream and a chocolate core.  Very yummy.  And the cone itself is amazing.  I don’t know why everyone can’t have cones that tastes as good and crunchy as the Drumstick cone.  Of course, the inner chocolate lining helps.  As usual, the bottom was the best part.  A little bit of ice cream, a solid base of chocolate (which serves the dual purpose of taste and preventing dripping), and the crunchy cone.  If I ever had an ice cream vending machine, I would stock it only with Drumsticks.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 4
• Cone: 5
• Overall: 5
• Cost: $2.29

Ireland really is gorgeous. Today we took a ferry out to and then biked around the Aran Islands. Truly a quaint and stunning place. There are few shops on the Island and no ice cream shops, but they do sell ice cream at the small grocery store. I got a Classic Magnum Mar. I’ve had these before when I’ve traveled and they are good. The chocolate on the outside is richer than any chocolate coating in the US- maybe the closest comparison is a Dove ice cream bar. The inside ice cream is rich vanilla with vanilla bean specks. Honestly, this might be one of the best ice cream bars out there, but it still doesn’t compare to “real” ice cream.

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 3.5
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 3
• Overall: 4
• Cost: €1.40