Blue Bunny Novelty Ice Creams

Since July's Saturday Sacraments will be all about ice cream and since we started with a novelty selection, your Chocolate Priestess thought our first featured review of Blue Bunny Ice Cream would make sense if we stuck to the novelty theme.  They have a peanut covered ice cream cone but also ice cream sandwiches and bars so a wider selection.  We're going to look at five of these so hold on and get ready to cool down with us.

The first thing we had to get from Blue Bunny with our freebie coupons was the Mint Grasshopper we saw in the displays at Walmark, they came in a 10 pack box so with moderation this will last a while.  As you all know, I'm not a fan of Walmark for various reasons but the nice people at Blue Bunny told me flat out that that store had the greatest variety of their products.  That was true though we did find them spread out a bit over three sections -- novelty non-sandwich, sandwich, and tubs I'd say.  Let's get back to the ice cream shall we?

Mint Grasshopper Ice Cream sandwiches jumped out at us because while mint chocolate flavors are common, the added "grasshopper" name reflects something that should be creamy if we consider the grasshopper pie as opposed to the mint chocolate pie.  For ice cream which is creamy all ready this make perfect sense, doesn't it? The chocolate cookie crumbs were chocolatey but they didn't honestly compete much with the mint's flavor and cooling sensation.  A good combo for mint chocolate lovers certainly but I want more chocolate so I turned to the next novelty we bought.

Next to balance with the above product and because it was also unique among the ice creams we've tried in the past, we got Peanut Butter Fudge Chip Ice Cream sandwiches that also come in a 10 pack box.  This had a strong peanut scent but also a good cocoa essence as well when I took a sniff.  The cookie again stuck to my hand making our Milk Chocolate Acolyte ask when I didn't keep it in the paper it comes wrapped in.  Well, I like to get in close contact with my chocolate plus I had all ready unwrapped it for the photo.  Even this far from it you can see the chocolate chips, Sisters and Brothers.  The peanut butter ice cream was not too sweet and the chips crunched when I found and chewed them releasing a semi-sweet cocoaness into my mouth that really blended well with the peanut butter.  The chips coupled with the chocolate cookie held their own well and I preferred this sandwich over the first.

I wanted to make sure I tried some of the lower calorie novelties as well so I picked the Sweet Freedom Snack Size Vanilla Ice Cream Cones that come in a 6 pack box.  These are smaller than other chocolate covered cones I've seen before in grocery stores measuring 4.5 long and 1.75 inches in diameter on the scoop part.  The thin layer of milk chocolate is covered in peanut pieces and also cone pieces giving it a unique flavoring that does not allow the peanuts to dominate.  Until you eat through those pieces they are the main flavor then the vanilla ice creams lets the chocolate through.  The cone is covered inside with another thin layer of chocolate and the vanilla ice cream goes all the way down to the tip.  Good balance between creamy, chocolate and nutty flavors over all.

While I had cones and sandwiches growing up, the number one ice cream novelty I enjoyed as a child was those bars on sticks, I'm not even sure there is a specific word for these.  I chose two varieties to share with you all but there are a lot more on the website so as many choices as the store had, it didn't come close to the true variety that Blue Bunny offers.

First up is the Chocolate Sundae Ice Cream Bar that seems like it should be amazingly chocolaty.  It comes in a 6 bar box and has the wooden sticks that for some reason just make eating ice cream a bit more fun.  Both bars we'll end this Saturday Sacrament with measured 4.5 X 1.75 X 1 inches with only about 1 inch of stick at the bottom.  This is a bar of vanilla ice cream covered with tan, brown and black cookie crumbs all of which taste different from each other going from a sweet to a slightly semi-sweet flavor.  The fragrance is very strongly vanilla with a hint of a few other scents from the crumbs.  It makes no sound at all because it stated to melt very quickly after being unwrapped and therefore became wet -- but I don't think the crumbs would have made much noise any way.  Taking a bite I discoverd what you can see on the box: chocolate ice cream inside.  This is a sweet chocolate ice cream that blends smoothly with the vanilla layer around it.  Sadly the chocolate layer is nearest the cone so we get a bit less of it but it does go all the way through the bar.

The second bar and the final novelty to reveal to you all today, Sisters and Brothers, is the Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Bar that is also a 6 pack but there isn't a direct link to these on the website, only to a single King sized variety so the nutritional values are a little lower different. As you can see this is almost black in color once it hits the air and starts to melt, wetting down the thick covering of chocolate cookie crumbs. Oddly it smelled like nothing at all.  But it did have a slight crunch when I took a bite and inside was a strong cocoa and weaker creamy taste with a sweet edge that was surprising.  The pieces of cookies are so numerous and so integrated into the vanilla ice cream that every time I chewed it was a bit crunchy and nicely chocolaty in essence.  This was very much like having a few chocolate and cream cookies with a bowl of ice cream on the side.

My favorites then in order of best to least chocolatey:
     1) Peanut Butter Fudge Chip Sandwich
     2) Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Bar
     3) Chocolate Sundae Ice Cream Bar
     4) Mint Grasshopper Sandwich
     5) Sweet Freedom Snack Size Vanilla Ice Cream Cone

Don't forget that Blue Bunny is also sponsoring our July GIVEAWAY where you could win my favorite treats of these for yourself.  You have to enter the giveaway though on that page not here in the comment section below.  But please do leave a comment and let me, our Acolytes, friends, and Blue Bunny know what you thought of their bars, sandwiches and cones.   And so you aren't worried... No, I didn't eat this all at the same time. This was pre-written for you all, Sisters and Brothers, over the course of a full week with help of friends and Acolytes.