Gelato!! Costa Rican Style!

This begins the Costa Rican portion of the Ice CreamCapades! The other night we went to a gelato shop. It was deliciouso! I hope that we can go back soon!

The gelato was extremely creamy and rich. It was a very good price compared to the states. The flavors offered were lemon, chocolate, strawberry, kiwi, and pistachio. The two flavors that I got were pistachio and lemon. The pistachio had small pieces of pistachios in it and the lemon had small pie crust clusters in it; both were equally delicious! I would give this place a 10 in gelato shops!

Spoon Me!

 I am sorry, There are no pictures this time, we are out of town and I forgot the pictures we took. Look forward to next week because we will be in Costa Rica!! I will hopefully be able to find some good ice cream to blog about down there!
Spoon Me
Frozen Yogurt shop Rating
 Rating Between 1-5      
Yogurt Quality    2      
Yogurt flavor variety    1      
Mix in variety    2      
Price    2      
Atmosphere of venue    2   

    I have heard mixed reviews from those who have tried spoon me and I decided I needed to try it myself. Everyday there is a featured name of the day, and if it is your name you receive a buy one get one free. Well, today’s name was Kyle and so we decided that this would be the best time to try it out.
    Spoon me offers only four flavors, three of which stay the same all the time (Acai, Natural, and Chocolate). The featured flavor of the day when I was there was Pina Colada. Kyle and I both chose to get the eight ounce size that cost five dollars. Though they do pack it in, I would rather fill my cup myself for cheaper.
    When it came to the mix ins there are about six fruit mix ins and about 15 candy mix ins. They offer the typical chocolate chips, brownie bits, cookie dough, cheese cake bites, etc. I was sad to see that my favorite Butterfinger was not an option; in fact they do not have any candy bars at all. One thing that they do offer that I have never seen anywhere else are crushed pop tarts.
    After calling ahead to see if they offered any lactose free flavors for my husband that is lactose intolerant, I found out that all their flavors are diary free; in fact their yogurt is a powder that is mixed with water. This explains why their yogurt is not creamy at all. I do have to hand it to them however, for being a powder/water mix it tastes pretty good, just not the type of creamy yogurt I would go for. After trying spoon me, I am sad to say that I will be joining those who also gave it a poor rating.

Johnny's Dairy

Ice Cream Rubric

Shake

Johnny's Dairy used to be known as "The Dairy" and was a local favorite. Cows were milked on site and the milk and ice cream was fresh. Now the milk comes from Johnny's Dairy Riverdale location and the ice cream comes from Farr's. Sorry its sideways, I couldn't get it to rotate

Place: Johnny’s Dairy Location:  North Ogden, Ut Shake Flavor: Carmel, Nilla Wafer	Rating 1-5
Ice cream thickness	3
Mix-in amount and consistency	4 (amount); 3 (consistency, I do like larger chunks, but majority of the mix in was still in whole form)
Flavor variety and mix in variety	4
Creaminess level (Watered down or not)	4

                Johnny’s Dairy was better than I thought it would be. I imagined that the shake would be from hard ice cream and that the mix ins would become crumbs. It was taken to the other extreme when I found that the nilla wafers had not been crushed at all. I would have liked the cookies to be in smaller pieces, but overall they made a pretty good shake! Also, there is an option to get your shake made out of skim milk as well if they have one that is open. They have a smaller selection of mix ins, but a larger variety of flavors. 

Sink the Sub Challenge

SINK THE SUB CHALLENGE

            I decided the best way to start my ice cream capades was with an ice cream challenge. Christopher “Fats” Jones and myself journeyed to Logan Utah to attempt the “Sink the Sub Challenge” at Sub Zero.

            Sub Zero  is a great ice cream place where they first allow you to choose your own base cream; their choices are custard, premium, low fat, fat free, rice milk, and soy milk. They then allow you to choose your flavor and mix in, and then they freeze it into ice cream before your eyes using liquid nitrogen.

            We discovered this challenge a few months ago and finally attempted it last Thursday May 18, 2011. When we first read about this challenge the criteria was: a gallon and a half of ice cream, 2 people, 30 minutes; throwing up is allowed and if you accomplish it you will receive free ice cream for a month.  However, when we arrived to take on the challenge we found that the criteria had changed and there was a trick involved.

            The new things added to the criteria were 2 maraschino cherries (my worst enemy), half a pound of brownies, I don’t know how many chocolate chip cookies, and a whole can of whipped topping. We also discovered that the challenge required a gallon and a half of “Cream”, which after the cream is s frozen it actually becomes 2 and a half gallons of “Ice cream”. Also, free ice cream for a month had become one free ice cream a week for one month equaling 4 free ice cream visits.

            Fats and I decided on half vanilla flavoring and half cheesecake flavoring. When we began I thought I was in heaven. It was so delicious! The chocolate chip cookies added the right amount of crunchiness, the brownies were soft, and the ice cream was creamy and delicious. We ate straight for twenty minutes enjoying every bite. When we hit the twenty-minute mark it was like hitting a rock wall. We had vanquished over half of our foe but there was still a long way to go. When the employee’s told us we only had 5 minutes left, we knew it would not be possible for us to finish the bowl. Instead, we opted to pack up the ice cream and enjoy it later.

Here We Goooo!!

So so GOOD!

By this point we were both shivering from the cold ice cream, so cold but so funny!

Believe it or not, but that is five quarts still in that bowl. We can 't do it :( We would rather save the ice cream and eat it when we can enjoy it

            I believe we could have finished it if they had kept their word and given us a gallon and a half of ice cream. We ate over half and still took home five quarts. It was a fun challenge over all.

IceCreamCapades

I SCREAM 4 ICE CREAM CAPADES

            My name is Randee, I am Kyle’s wife and I have an obsession for ice cream of all kinds. This summer I would like to find a few bests in the ice cream world. I would like to find the best self serve ice cream / frozen yogurt parlor, the best shake, best fast food ice cream, and ice cream parlor.

            In order to find the best self serve ice cream/frozen yogurt parlor I plan to compare “Yo-gurt” (North Ogden), “Menchies” (Layton, St. George), “Yogotogo” (Kaysville, Centerville), “Frogurt” (Riverdale), “Crave” (St. George), “Farr’s Fresh” (Riverdale, Clinton), and any other place I come upon. I will rate these places on the creaminess and flavor of their product, variety of toppings and flavors, and atmosphere of location.

            Now to find the best shake. Everyone has their own opinion of a good shake; my opinion of a good shake is thick and creamy, and if I ask for a mix in, I do not want the mix in to become crumbs in the shake. For example, if I ask for oreo’s in my shake I do not want the shake blended so much that the oreo’s become crumbs, I want to be able to eat chunks of oreo’s. I will rate each shake on the variety of flavors/ mix ins, creaminess and thickness of the ice cream, mix in consistency (crumbs to chunks) atmosphere of the location, and overall experience. On my list of places to compare are “Kirts” (North Ogden), “Country Boy Dairy” (North Ogden), “Pettingills” (Willard), “Maddox Drive-Inn” (Willard), “Calls family Drive Inn” (Willard), “Peach City” (Brigham City), “Le Beaus” (Bear Lake), “Bear Lake Pizza” (Bear Lake), “Bear Lake Chevron” (Bear Lake, I hear they have the best shakes), “Jakes over the top” (Various locations in Utah), “Neilson’s Frozen Custard” (Bountiful, Layton, St. George), and of course any other location I come upon or is suggested to me.

            The fast food ice cream will be compared between Arctic Circle, Wendy’s, McDonald's, In-n-out Burger, Warren’s, and any other location I come upon. Each place will be rated just as the shake restaurants.

            The best ice cream parlor will be determined between Cold Stone (Various locations) , Sub Zero (Provo, Ogden, Logan), Farrs Ice Cream, Frosted Rock (Clinton). These places will be rated on their creaminess, flavor variety, and overall experience.

            Wish me luck! I am very excited to go on these capades to find the BEST ice cream!!!