Snack Review: Safeway Green Tea Ice Cream

I was so excited to see green tea ice cream in my Safeway - in the Safeway store brand! If Safeway is making this flavor, it must really have become mainstream. And if green tea ice cream is mainstream, can black sesame be far behind, at least in specialty brands?

Well, if you are a fan of green flavor, I will have mercy and not torture you with suspense: this was sooooo disappointing.

The first hint should have been that this green tea flavor comes with a big swirl of vanilla ice cream in it. I wondered, did they think that Americans would find this so scary that they needed something comforting and familiar mixed in?

Well, it’s worse than that. They thought that Americans would find this flavor so scary that they left all the flavor out.

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Snack Review: New Zealand Natural Ice Cream

I’m kind of a strange choice when it comes to reviewing ice cream. You see, after jaw surgery in my teens, I was left with two small metal plates in my upper jaw. You know how painful metal can be to touch when it’s cold outside? That’s kind of how my jaw starts to feel after too much ice cream. So, I eat it sparingly, and when I do eat it, I want it to be good.

Now we come to the question of what exactly entails good ice cream. If you were to set a dish of Häagen-Dazs ice cream next to a dish of generic grocery store brand ice cream, I will inevitably choose the generic brand. I can’t explain it, but I like cheap stuff. New Zealand Natural Ice Cream is NOT cheap. With that in mind, how would this premium ice cream fare in my freezer?

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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.

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Snack News: Viennetta Returns!

‘Tis the season for tidings of joy, and have I got some joy to tide! That beloved frozen dessert of our (ok, my) childhood is returning, albeit for a limited time. That’s right, people, Viennetta is back!

What is Viennetta, some of you may be wondering. Well, it’s basically layers of ice cream and chocolate shaped like a wavy yule log. It has crispy layers and melty layers and layers of just plain goodness. For a more detailed look, there’s even a YouTube video of the making of Viennetta.

As a kid, I loved seeing the box of Viennetta in the bag when my Mom came home from the grocery store. Needless to say, I’m excited to see it back! Plus, the price is right - only about $3 for a box. The only downside of this re-release is that it’s only until March 2009, so if you’ve been missing it, go get some now and stock up! Both chocolate and vanilla varieties are now available.

Snack Review: Breyers Triple Chocolate Ice Cream

While visiting my Mom the other day, we discovered that we had the house to ourselves, so we brought out the Breyers ice cream. My Mom is a big fan of Breyers, so she always has some various flavor packed away in her freezer. This time it was Breyers Triple Chocolate All Natural Ice Cream.

I’m all for chocolate, but sometimes things can be a little too chocolaty, so I was hesitant to try it, figuring all three flavors combined would give my taste buds spasms. The three flavors in this ice cream carton were: white chocolate, dark chocolate and milk chocolate. I decided to try all of them separately before combining them.

I tried the white chocolate first: I noticed the taste of chocolate right away, but my Mom didn’t think so and said it tasted like plain vanilla. She is so wrong.

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