Klondike Ice Cream

Update Review, 2021

In early 2021, Klondike introduced a few new products, including new exciting flavors of cones and ... shakes.  Shakes? From the grocery store freezer aisle?  Yup.

Shakes

"Get ready for the greatest shake since the invention of milkshakes- all in a cool, convenient pouch. Deliciously creamy and loaded with great taste, these shakes are perfect for enjoying at home or on-the-go. So just sit back, chill out and slurp anytime, anywhere."

Ok, so, pre-made milkshakes?  Ones that, um, don't require any kind of shaking/mixing?  These didn't exactly sound promising.

Shakes come in three varieties, classic vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry (er, "Chill Out & Vanilla", "Wind Down & Chocolate", and "Sit Back & Strawberry").  I was only able to find the vanilla in my area, and I think strawberry is already discontinued, which was fine with me, as vanilla was my first choice.

"No blender, spoon, straw, cup, diner, or rollerblade waiters necessary to enjoy this mess-free marvel. Klondike Shakes come with a one-of-a-kind spill-proof pouch and built-in straw. Just shake, twist, and chill out in as fast as 3 to 5 minutes. Skip the burger & milkshake joint and make your next shake run to the ice cream aisle for the fastest way to shake on-the-go!"

Early reviews for these were ... interesting.  Nearly every reviewer said the "take out of freezer, wait 3 minutes" instructions were awful - that it took far, far longer for these to reach a soft enough consistency, 20 minutes or more.  They reported that the chocolate were far thicker, and never got soft enough (I couldn't verify, as sadly, I only found the vanilla).  They also said that these were ... not anything like milkshakes really.

And yet I was actually very, very excited for the Klondike shakes.  Why? Because many reviewers say that they taste like ... soft serve ice cream, particularly the vanilla ones.  Now, I could care less about milkshakes actually, but have a serious, serious fondness for soft serve ice cream, and that is NOT something you can get at home easily, so, I wanted to see if it was possible.  I think the only time I've seen soft serve packaged ice cream was in Tokyo, where in that magical place, even 7-Eleven had soft serve in a cone in the freezers (and other convenience stores, like Ministop, actually just have soft serve machines!).

Anyway, I live in the US, where soft serve at home is not a thing, so, if Klondike Shakes were even close, I was thrilled.

And, spoiler, thrilled I was.

Chill Out & Vanilla.

"We’re bringing all the joy of your favorite diner-style milkshake to your kitchen freezer! Twist open Chill Out & Vanilla to conveniently enjoy a classic shake with thick, creamy vanilla flavor blended together with Klondike frozen dessert anytime, anywhere."

I did attempt to evaluate the product as intended, as a milkshake.  And yes, other people were right - taking this out of the freezer and waiting 3 minutes did not yield a milkshake.  You could wait substantially longer, more like 15 min, or try warming it up in your pocket, but, 3 minutes, absolutely not.  The result once it softened was sorta akin to a milkshake, but even with the fairly innovative pouch, it was pretty hard to suck out.  Plus, you missed out on all the fun of using a straw, topping with whipped cream, etc, that you get with a real milkshake.

So, as a "milkshake", ***, because kinda annoying.  That said, the vanilla flavor was good - it did taste exactly like higher quality soft serve vanilla ice cream, with much more of a vanilla bean essence to it than something like McDonald's soft serve.

But I was much more interested in these for their likeness to soft serve ice cream.  After opening up a couple of these, I even found a technique to open along the seam of the pouch to easily extract the contents.  My method was pretty simple: pull one out, clean up my dinner dishes, and assemble the rest of my ingredients for whatever I was crafting (a sundae with hot fudge, bananas, strawberries, nuts, etc, etc), perhaps a cone with sprinkles, perhaps a warm piece of pie, crisp, or cobbler that needed to be served a la mode ... whatever it was.  By the time I was ready, so was it.  Cut it open, dump out the soft ice cream, enjoy.

It really was as close to soft serve from a machine that I can imagine getting at home.  Lovely soft consistency, not too melty, no icy bits.  Great vanilla flavor.  I actually really, really loved these, as soft serve.

The pouches are only 110 calories each, again, more like a tiny fast food soft serve than a milkshake, clearly.  They are kinda pricey for a small little soft serve, but, wow, so nice to have at home.

****+ as soft serve.

Original Review, February 2018

I've reviewed a lot of classic ice cream bars over the years.  Most fail to satisfy me, as I've turned into a snob, and these "ice cream novelties" and "frozen dairy desserts" just aren't exactly the quality level I've come to appreciate.

But I found a winner.  Klondike bars.

I didn't eat many of these growing up.  My family never had them.  Our school ice cream program never had them.  But I do remember liking them, although I rather suspected some of that was just the novelty of an item that came with a different wrapper style.  But maybe that is why I was so excited when I tried one recently?  They still are a bit of a unicorn to me, not a common item I encounter.

Klondike bars have been around since the 1920's, and are named after the Klondike River.  Their unique aspects are the fact that they do not have a stick, are square shaped, and have foil wrappers.  Klondike makes their signature bars in a huge variety of flavors at this point: original (chocolate), dark chocolate, double chocolate, heath, mint chocolate chip, s'mores, cookie dough swirl, krunch, reese's, oreo, caramel pretzel, brownie fudge swirl, neo-politan, and more.  Different flavors of ice cream, differing coatings, but all squares of ice cream coated in chocolate of some form.

The company also makes "Kandy Bars", described as "Klondike meets candy bar", shaped more like a traditional candy bar, but, made of ice cream.  And ice cream sandwiches, including Oreo ones (yes, with giant Oreo cookies and a ice cream filling with bits of oreo inside it (like what I tried in Canada, but made by Nestlé), and those made with Mrs. Fields Cookies.  They also are the maker of ... choco tacos!

Single Serve Klondike Bar.

Most Klondike bars come wrapped in that signature foil wrapper, but, single serve ones come in a more standard plastic bag wrapper.   I almost expected a foil wrapper inside, but, alas, nope.

The single serve bars are also 20% bigger than the standard, 102 grams instead of 85 grams.  The size threw me off a bit.

The Original.

"A huge hunk of creamy vanilla ice cream covered in a thick, chocolatey shell.  It’s simple, classic perfection — The best thing to happen to ice cream since, um, the invention of ice cream."

I had an original Klondike bar.  Just vanilla ice cream, just a plain chocolate shell.

The chocolate had a nice snap to it.  It was thick enough to taste, but not hard to bite into.

The ice cream was soft, sweet, and creamy.  I let it melt just a bit, and it got even better.

I really enjoyed this, simple as it was.  ****.