REVIEW: Baskin Robbins Reese’s 3-Pointer

March 6, 2017March 5, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

Everyone has their favorite things, and for me, three of the greatest achievements of man are basketball, ice cream, and peanut butter. As beautiful as all of these elements of life are on their own it’s not too often that all of them come together. Sure, peanut butter is great in ice cream, and Reese’s will release occasional limited cups in tandem with the NBA or NCAA, but for all three of these things to combine into one is something of pure magic; and in tandem with March Madness Baskin Robbins is making my dreams a reality with their newest flavor of the month – Reese’s 3-Pointer. This made-for-Sean E scoop combines Reese’s Pieces candies, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and a Reese’s Peanut Butter and Chocolate ribbon all swimming in a sea of chocolate ice cream.

The chocolate ice cream is your standard affair – a smooth light milk chocolate that isn’t over the top sweet, bitter, or remarkably rich. It’s much more basic than the chocolate fudge base Baskin Robbins have at their disposal, and while it isn’t a bad base ice cream it’s definitely the most underwhelming aspect of this scoop.

The mix ins utilized here are a real treat for those with a love for the PB cup and the most dominant of them is the chocolate peanut butter ribbon. The ribbon has a smooth, almost flaky texture that reminds me of a soft serve cone that has been dipped in a chocolate shell with the way that it melts on the tongue. It’s a solid peanut butter-infused chocolate, and with the Reese’s spread being the second ingredient on the list it’s no surprise how powerful the flavor comes through. it does a great job of boosting up the ice cream and weaving the Reese’s profile into nearly every bite.

The Reese’s Pieces are a bit of a miss in this format; they freeze pretty hard and lose all of their signature creamy and oiliness that makes them a movie theater staple. The chunks of peanut butter cup are the best part of this flavor and pop with the nutty saltiness you know and love, working with the ribbon to really shine against the mellow chocolate base.

The coolest part about this flavor is that it is literally like eating an ice cream version of a Reese’s Peanut Butter cup. While many flavors will utilize chocolate and peanut butter (like BR’s own great Peanut Butter ‘N Chocolate) or peanut butter cups as a mix in, this one eats liked the beloved Hershey’s classic turned into a frozen scoop-able dessert and is a treat for Reese’s lovers like myself. While it’s a couple of execution points away from a full on alley oop, it’s a damn fine flavor that most people will be happy stuffing their nutritional stat sheet with.

Rating: 8/10

REVIEW: Milka Oreo Chocolate Candy Bar

January 20, 2017January 20, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

Yep, 2017 really is the year that dreams come true. The GOAT American grocery cookie Oreo and wonderful Swiss chocolate company Milka had a couple of late night drinks together, made sweet love, and gave birth to the Oreo Chocolate Candy Bar. It’s as simple as it sounds and has been executed beautifully. Let’s dig in.

Immediately I’m greeted with really high quality smooth and sweet milk chocolate bursting with authentic Oreo flavor. The ratio inside of creme to cookie is awesome and unpredictable – sometimes you’ll get a little more creme and sometimes you’ll encounter a big cookie chunk. The creme has that signature creamy foundation with just a hint of graininess and the cookies are as crispy and crunchy as opening a freshly sealed pack of Oreo from the store. The taste overall reminds me almost exactly of a milk chocolate covered Oreo with all three of the components really well represented.

I was also fortunate enough to find the original version of this bar that has been available outside of the States for awhile, so I thought I would compare the flavor of the two.

The chocolate on the “Milka and Oreo” version seems thinner and is lacking the richness and milky depth of the US one. It tastes less chocolatey and less sweet at the same time, and doesn’t help to elevate the creme beyond what feels like textural filler. The cookies also seem smaller and kind of soft, almost stale, and lacking in that signature Oreo crunch that makes the stateside bar so tasty. Maybe this bar was sitting around for awhile but it’s not expired and my initial impression is that it tastes cheaper and is surprisingly inferior to the one seeing massive distribution right now.

The Oreo Chocolate Candy Bar truly eats like a perfect hybrid between snack cookie and candy. It deviates just enough from a traditional cookie or bar of chocolate to make a satisfying new product yet tastes like something you’ve had before in the best way. It would be awesome to see Milka and Nabisco collaborate further to release some of the more rare yet popular flavors like Cinnamon Bun, Birthday Cake, or Peanut Butter. It should also be noted that this bar is available in four varieties – the smaller, single serve one that I tried which has six breakable pieces, as well as a wider, thinner bar, a king size of the version from this review, and the Big Crunch Bar which is massive with a single layer of cookie in the middle.

Rating: 9/10

REVIEW: Baskin Robbin’s Superfudge Truffle

January 11, 2017January 12, 2017 / seansskillet / 2 Comments

New year, new flavors, new excitement. Even though they didn’t close out the year with the strongest choices, I will always look forward to the Baskin Robbin’s flavor of the month. January 2017 sees a return of a former featured favorite from BR’s past, Superfudge Truffle, which combines a rich chocolate fudge ice cream with decadent chocolate truffle and toffee truffle pieces.

Are you a fan of chocolate? Meet your new heroin. This is one of the richest, thickest, chocolate on chocolate onslaughts I have ever scooped into and it is GOOD. There’s no beating around the bush with the decadence in this ice cream – the chocolate fudge base is so fully loaded with chocolate it’s nearly black with a sticky brownie-batter like texture. The base, while called fudge, is actually better than most fudge’s I’ve had because it isn’t so overwhelmingly sweet that it’ll give you a headache (like most fudges are). Just when you think you’ve hit the ceiling of chocolate indulgence you frequently run into a chocolate truffle, which melts with the luxurious texture you’d expect, and stands up to the deep darkness of the fudge cream.

One of my concerns going into this flavor was that there would be no reprieve from the chocolate, but the use of the toffee truffles works surprisingly well. While still chocolate in nature, the toffee truffles give a slight crunch and burst of saltiness that not only provides the palate a break from the cocoa but highlights its full bodied brilliance even more. Because toffee has a buttery and salty profile, as opposed to the pure sweetness of caramel or white chocolate, the alternating types of truffles keep the flavor fresh and insanely addictive. Some of them have a crunch like a giant chocolate chip and some of them blend their way into the chocolate fudge backdrop.

This flavor is very similar to another Baskin Robbin’s classic that flows in and out of rotation – Mississippi Mud – which combines chocolate fudge ice cream with regular chocolate ice cream, fudge chunks, and a fudge ribbon. Mississippi Mud was my go-to for total chocolate annihilation when it was available, and Superfudge might even best it because of the use of only the fudge base and the inclusion of the toffee truffles. Superfudge Truffle is on par with the best flavors Baskin Robbin’s have released the last couple of years, AND, when it’s all gone it leaves dark chocolate psychedelic artwork in your cup. Double win.

Rating: 9/10

REVIEW: Trader Joe’s and the Astounding Multi-Flavor Joe Joe’s

January 9, 2017December 24, 2017 / seansskillet / 3 Comments

Yes, it’s January, and technically the holiday season has come and gone, but there are such an insane amount of delicious seasonal products released every year that sometimes it takes a little longer than December 25 to get to them all. This could end up being my last Christmas-y write up of the year, and fortunately, it’s a good one. Trader Joe’s have done something I have always wished Nabisco would do with Oreo’s – released a variety pack. This, however, is no ordinary variety pack, this is the “Trader Joe’s and the Astounding Multi-Flavor Joe Joe’s” variety pack featuring four different sandwich cookies, covered in different chocolate, and garnished with additional texture/flavor boosts.

Let me start off by saying there isn’t a bad cookie in the box, and I am going to attempt to talk about each one and rate them somewhat based off of each other because honestly they all kick ass.

First up is the only one you can get in a separate package outside of this box – the Peppermint Joe Joe in Dark Chocolate with Peppermint Sprinkles. It should come as no surprise that this one is awesome, since Candy Cane Joe Joe’s are one of the best seasonal cookies TJ’s offers, it’s a no brainer to amplify those flavors even more and they simply slap even harder. The dark chocolate is rich and indulgent, with the peppermint “sprinkles” on top actually being crushed up pieces of candy cane that give crunch and an extra mint boost. Completely crave-able and delicious, the only thing I can fault this one on is the dark chocolate coating mutes a bit of the mint bite from the creme and the “sprinkles” don’t add enough to really take the minty-ness over the top. Still, an absolute winter wonderland in your mouth.
Rating: 9/10.

Next we have one of my favorite flavor combinations ever with PB&C – Peanut Butter Joe Joe in Milk Chocolate with Dark Chocolate Drizzle. Chocolate and PB is an automatic win and this cookie basically transforms the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup into cookie – beautiful round shape and all. As much as I was looking forward to this one it didn’t give me the depth of peanut butter flavor I had hoped for, once again being a bit muted by the chocolate cookie and double chocolate coating. One of the best aspects of a solid peanut butter cup is the ratio of PB to chocolate and I’ve never been a fan of a cup that gets too chocolate dominant, which happens here. Again, still completely delicious but some of the fatty nutty nuances of the peanut get lost in the drizzle party.
Rating: 8/10

The third cookie in the lineup is the most unique and by far the one I was most excited to try – it was actually the push that came to shove that convinced me to spend $6.99 on this box of brilliance – Ginger Joe Joe in White Chocolate with Ginger Sprinkles. I absolutely love white chocolate when it’s executed well and ginger is one of my favorite flavors of the festive season (or anytime, really). I have never tried a naked Ginger Joe Joe so I’m not sure how this one stacks up but the first flavor I got was lemon. I’m don’t know if this is a weird mind trick from the flavor play of the ginger and white chocolate together but the initial bite reminded me of that lemony cookie flavor you get from a box of Barnum’s Animals crackers. The white chocolate is smooth and sweet, and on the finish you get a pleasant little dance of ginger that gets extra heightened when a bite with the gingersnap crumbles comes into the picture. The flavor on this one really seemed to vary depending on the amount of sprinkles, with either just enough, or not enough ginger spiciness to mellow out the white chocolate.
Rating: 8.5/10

Finally, last but definitely not least, the one I was least looking forward to and took me by surprise – Double Chocolate Joe Joe in Dark Chocolate with a Milk Chocolate Drizzle. This cookie is a perfect example of don’t dog it till you’ve tried it, because while I expected this to be a relatively one-note boring experience it ended up being my favorite in the whole box and absolutely perfect. The layers of chocolate on chocolate give a rich, almost brownie-like flavor and texture to the cookie, with the variations between the creme, wafer, and coating being more distinct than in the other three Joe Joe’s. This cookie channels all of the greatest chocolate indulgences, reminding me of not only brownies but layer cakes, truffles, and candy bars. It’s got the kind of cocoa richness and depth you would expect from a high end chocolate shop like See’s or Godiva, not a cardboard box of cookies from a grocery store.
Rating: 10/10

The whole happy family

It took me awhile to review this product, not only because each cookie has 130 calories and 11 grams of sugar, but because I wanted to give each one its proper due in how they not only stood on their own but how they fit in in relation to the others in the box as well. During the holiday’s Trader Joe’s becomes awash with an insane amount of high quality limited time products and these astounding Joe Joe’s are no exception. Highly recommended, highly delicious, highly dangerous.

Overall rating: 9/10

REVIEW: Muscletech NitroTech Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar

January 6, 2017January 6, 2017 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

I am a peanut butter crazed lunatic. It’s one of those everyday kinds of foods for me, not always in abundance, I just gotta get some creamy nut butter in my life on the daily. For this reason I don’t buy peanut butter or chocolate peanut butter flavored things because I am almost always let down and have to add actual peanut butter to it to make it decent. In fact, I think almost all protein bars are improved with a little peanut butter, so I tend to skip PB flavor because I’ll end up adding my own anyway. All of that aside, after being very impressed with the Muscletech NitroTech Birthday Cake protein bar (which I never reviewed but you should buy) I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and try their Chocolate Peanut Butter crunch bar.

Off the bat this bar looks like the lost cousin of a Combat Crunch, with little crunchy whey crisps poking their way through a creamy yogurty coating, wrapped around a whey protein base. What makes this bar unique is the coating is peanut butter with the inside being chocolate, whereas most products trying to tackle this flavor do it the other way around, emulating a Reese’s peanut butter cup.

Flavor-wise this bar is pretty tasty but is still far from hitting the mark of the luxuriously creamy and perfect experience of peanut butter chocolate. The strongest flavor here is the chocolate, which is surprisingly less sweet and more cocoa-forward than I expected. The deep cocoa taste mixed with the soft chew of the center of the bar reminds me of a brownie kissed with the essence of peanut butter. Since the only peanut butter taste comes from the coating, it fades quickly and unfortunately crumbles and breaks as you eat it. The one aspect they nailed as far as a PB profile goes is an underlining saltiness, which is good since this bar has more sodium (350 mg) than I usually like to take in with my protein supplements.

Overall this is a pretty solid effort that is neither incredibly impressive or a big letdown. It’s much better than Combat Crunch’s attempt, which is my least favorite of their bars, and the sorry attempt by Quest, but can’t touch Muscletech’s spin on Birthday Cake. It still falls short on delivering the ultimate chocolate peanut butter experience but could be a good choice for those who really crave this combo but don’t want to dig into a Reese’s. In all honestly, just grab a Reese’s.

Rating: 7/10

Quick Nutrition: 240 cals – 8g fat – 350mg sodium – 24g carbs – 5g fiber – 5g sugar – 22g protein

REVIEW: Jack Nicklaus Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream

December 14, 2016December 13, 2016 / seansskillet / Leave a comment

Every once in awhile I find myself face to face with a great deal on a foreign ice cream that is too tempting to pass up. I don’t mean when Talenti or another higher priced brand goes on sale, but when some weird unknown creamery shows up looking official and carrying a decent price tag. This particular mystery creamery is fronted by none other than golfing great Jack Nicklaus, and apparently he’s found himself a hobby in retirement. Among a couple more adventurous flavors was Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, a classic I was willing to give a shot.

Opening the cold green carton started off pretty good, with the use of a brown sugar ice cream base instead of your typical vanilla or some kind of unflavored white mystery flavor. The brown sugar not only helps to accentuate the cookie dough vibes but leaves the cream with an extra rich buttery texture that is perfectly addicting. The off white/brown color of the ice cream also immediately reminds the eye of dough, but unfortunately that’s where the doughiness ends for this pint.

The mix-ins Jack put into his attempt at a classic flavor are so bare that they’re almost pointless and don’t add much to the taste or texture. To be fair the description does say “chocolate chip cookie dough pieces” but the pieces here are more like crumbs and are so small you can’t even tell if they’re good. What should be chocolate chips are more the size of cocoa nibs, or roughly half of your average chip.

Even with their small size there are at least enough chips to get a feel for their presence, which can not be said for the actual dough itself. Going through the pint I got less than ten pieces of cookie dough, and each piece was probably the size of a dime. When you get a bite it does have that buttery sugar squish that you want but it fades so quickly you wonder if it even happened.

All scooped up – still barely any dough

Had this simply been a brown sugar or French vanilla flavor it would have been a success, but unfortunately it misses the mark on delivering what it advertised. One of the things that appealed to me about trying this ice cream was its significantly lower calorie count than many of its competitors. Clocking in at 160 per half cup, compared to Ben and Jerry’s at 280, Mr. Nicklaus is really proving that you get, and taste, what you pay for.

Rating: 6/10

REVIEW: Baskin Robbin’s Peppermint Bark in the Dark

December 8, 2016December 7, 2016 / seansskillet / 2 Comments

Although still technically autumn, the flavor gods have officially decided it’s time to be immersed in a wintery mintery wonderland as crisp and cool as the air outside. For the last week or so it feels like the air may as well be peppermint flavored as that has been the dominant taste every time I’ve opened my mouth. Baskin Robbins have decided to fittingly join the party with their December flavor of the month Peppermint Bark in the Dark.

Originally released in December of 2013, the flavor is as straight forward as it sounds – peppermint bark in chocolate ice cream. The pairing of chocolate and mint is one of the most classic holiday flavors around, so classic that unlike eggnog or pecan pie it can be found year round in everything from York Peppermint Patties to BR’s own Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream. It’s this common-place profile that makes this flavor a little bit of a letdown as the headliner of a year that brought both a new spin on a Halloween flavor (Trick Oreo Treat Dark) and cookies and cream mashed up with Frosted Flakes (Oreo Milk ’N Cereal).

The ice cream is good – a rich chocolate base that carries the essence of peppermint in every bite, with the occasional bursts of very strong peppermint and crunch from the bark – it’s just not anything particularly new or exciting. The pieces of bark hold their own and deliver cool bursts that fill your mouth with Christmas cheer, floating along in a chocolate river with glassy-smooth texture. The scoop that I got did not have nearly as many, or as big, chunks of peppermint bark in it as the promotional picture which is a bit of a rare letdown for Baskin Robbins. The picture on their site and ingredients also imply some kind of ribbon which I didn’t have any of. Again, the ice cream is solid and of high quality, just not as good as the previous two years’ December Flavors of the Month – York Peppermint Pattie and Oreo Cool Mint Chocolate – both of which had more elements to keep them exciting.

Searching for them chunks and swirl – not so much

What would make this a more successful flavor? One more component – a ribbon or swirl or additional mix-in (maybe it was supposed to be there, Baskin HR were of no help trying to figure this out), and maybe something less predictable. Toss a marshmallow swirl in to highlight the white chocolate and call it “Santa’s Rocky Sleigh” or some spiced cookies and caramel and call it “Peppermint Stocking Stuffer” – something along those lines. A perfectly suitable flavor for the holiday’s, just a tad bit boring and not anything you should rush to the scoop shop to try ahead of any other chocolate mint mash ups from other brands in grocery or otherwise.

Rating: 7/10

Sean's Skillet

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