Snack Review: QB’s Ice Cream Treats and Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Rice Marshmallow Treats
A properly made Rice Krispie treat is one of the great achievements of American culture. And all you need to do to get one is follow the incredibly simple recipe on the box, which includes only three crucial ingredients and no baking. The technology behind it – turning rice into things that snap, crackle and pop, to say nothing of the mystery that is marshmallows – is no doubt awesome. But in the kitchen, there’s nothing simpler.
And if you have any sense, you’re totally content when you eat one. You don’t say to yourself, “hmm, if only this had brown rice in it” or “hey, how about some ice cream at the same time?”
But not everyone has your good sense, so, we have these two products.
The Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Rice Marshmallow Treat is made with vegan marshmallow, which is even more mysterious than normal marshmallows – I don’t really understand how egg whites can turn into marshmallows even after reading the recipe, but it’s even more bewildering to think how they do it without.
Although they are vegan, don’t think they are some big healthy deal. Despite being made with brown rice, the nutrition facts show that they have an insignificant amount of fiber. Also zero vitamins – aren’t normal Rice Krispies at least vitamin fortified?
I am very skeptical of packaged crispy rice treats. They are mostly horrible, and I particularly resent them because they’re the reason I didn’t find out how wonderful the homemade version was until I was very grown up. We didn’t make them from scratch in my family – I know, how un-American, I should have been searching through her drawers for my mom’s Communist party membership card – and the lousiness of the packaged ones put me off from trying to make my own til someone else’s homemade ones opened my eyes.
I feel that I have recovered sufficiently from my resentment of years of crispy rice deprivation to judge these products on their merits, now. I would say that these are not particularly awful, and for a packaged rice crispy treat, that’s pretty good. There are no stale off flavors. It’s mostly about the texture, and at least they don’t taste actively bad.
If you are a vegan with a craving for crispy rice treats – well, if you are a vegan with a craving for crispy rice treats you probably have more problems than I can begin to address here, but, you might as well give these a try. And if you are not a vegan, you might still want to buy these instead of the stale nasty name-brand kinds but, take my advice. If you have never made them yourself, you really need to try.
Now, turning to the QBs, when we saw these at Whole Foods, my Technical Staff and I looked at each other and immediately said – not “Wow, sounds good! I have to try these!” – but “Snack review!!!”
I should make it clear that that reaction is NOT a compliment. It means that the item in question is so outlandish that for the physical safety and mental well being of the public – well, basically, we needed to take one for the team. In particular, to safeguard your dental health: A rice crispy treat is already a pretty energetic chew. What on earth would happen if you froze one?
The answer to that is that they are not normal rice crispy treats. They’ve obviously been specially formulated for freezing, and they’ve kind of gone too far the other way – when we tried one sort of partly defrosted when we first got them home, the rice coating fell apart in our hands. They’re OK when completely frozen, though, and definitely not hard to chew. What’s a little odd is that the rice seems to be chopped up very small. I thought it tasted OK but a bit too sweet; the Technical Staff, however, opined that it was ‘like sawdust.’
They come in chocolate and vanilla. I chose chocolate, and the chocolate ice cream inside them is pretty good. It’s low in fat so it tastes fairly dark chocolaty instead of creamy, which is the right choice for combining it with such a sweet coating.
But, is the combination more than the sum of its parts? Is it the result of a spark of culinary genius and insight beyond the imagination of those lesser mortals who are perfectly content with our plain homemade rice crispy treats? Will you wonder how you ever lived without it?
I would say: If you’re feeling a little jaded with a snacking classic, go see if they’re selling any red and green rice crispy cereal for Christmas this year – store brand is OK - and make your own treats out of that.
11 Comments
Linda on December 19th, 2008
Well good for her, because she didn’t learn how from her mom!
Who, incidentally, denies participation in any other un-American activities
aside from denying her offspring Rice Krispies treats.
love 'em on February 11th, 2009
Me and my friends tried QB’s the other day and they are awesome. The checkers at whole foods grinned when they saw us put them on the conveyor belt and they were like “those are so good.”
Not liking them is weird. Not liking the idea of rice crispie treats filled with ice cream is just crazy.
fullshred on May 4th, 2009
These things tasted like garbage and look terrible. Total waste of money. If you want the real thing, try Rice Creams. They were the first to market with this combo and you can order them online. http://www.ricecreams.com
dave on June 24th, 2009
I’m straight delicious. As the chocolate member of my QB crew I can say, without a doubt, that we all natural and all good! If you don’t believe me, follow me on my twitter page https://twitter.com/DaveQB - hit me up and get your twitter on with my friends. How can you hate on somethin’ so good people!
Peace
Your boy DaveQB
ktw on July 15th, 2009
In regard to the Trader Joe’s, you said “I would say that these are not particularly awful…” Have to disagree. They are, particularly, awful.
anony on July 21st, 2009
i thought these looked so cute. Really, really disappointed. The rice krispy completely falls apart and almost tastes sweet. It’s overly, overly sweet. The ice cream seems good but i wish there would be more of it, less krispy and that the rice krispy was . . i don’t know, just better. Not a fan . . oh well. They idea/box is cute!
anrcampbell on September 4th, 2009
I’m not sure why these things are called QB’s. They are the third string back-up quarterback of ice cream novelties. Sure they showed promise early on and were drafted in front of other, far better choices like Drumsticks or Puddin’ Pops. However, as soon as they get out on the playing field that is your mouth, their game quickly unravels. The crispy rice represents the QB’s lackluster passing skills. Just when you think this 190-calorie beast is going to be palatable, the pass gets intercepted. You scramble around looking for the tiny nugget of chocolate and when you bite in… SACK! KB Treats has apparently elected to use the same ice cream that goes into Frosty Paws. Frosty Paws are dog treats. I would avoid this culinary disaster like the plague.
John on September 5th, 2009
To start, they need a new picture on the package. I was expecting a cube of ice cream and instead had an ultra thin layer. I can’t believe I am blogging about this however I don’t know the last time I was irritated because I overpaid to try a product.
bjt on January 15th, 2010
A very troubling product indeed - the packaging dazzles but the product is nothing like what is seen on the package. It would sound like hyperbole to say that it tasted like my frozen beard clippings covering a hunk of frozen shaving cream if it weren’t an accurate description. I agree, definitely a QB sack and fumble return for a touchdown by the defense with no yellow flags on the field just a white receipt that was crumpled in a disgust.
purplebug1109 on February 15th, 2010
These look cute, but they taste awful. If you manage to hold the thing together as you bite it (which is a job in itself), you are rewarded with a mouth full of what feels like saw dust. The little bit of ice cream gave a slight strawberry taste to the saw dust. Back to the drawing board on these.
Christian on December 19th, 2008
My mom makes me the real ones! She’s great!!!