As an avid dessert, and ice cream fan, I've known about Serendipity for years, but never visited, even when in New York, where their flagship is.
I wasn't able to visit one of their locations, but, they distribute both ice cream pints and sundae cups to grocery stores, and one day I just couldn't resist trying it, drawn in by the crazy flavors. And I'll admit, the brand, at some level. You can also buy their famous hot chocolate mix, in several varieties (regular hot chocolate, salted caramel, and mint), and "Frrrozen Hot Chocolate" is a featured part of the ice cream lineup, available as a pint, a sundae, and an ice cream cake.
Individual Sundae Cups
Sundae cups are self-contained, ready to eat, complete sundaes. Intended to be single servings, I think, but I found it quite easy to break into two servings, just given how decadent they are (some are >500 calories!).
My very first Serendipity product was one of these to test the waters. Let's just say, waters tested, I dove in!
The cups are made in 4 varieties, I tried all of them.
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| Cookie Dough. |
Well, this was my first Serendipity experience, and it turn out to be delightful! I was really, really surprised by how much I enjoyed this. But, warning: this is a sweet one. I actually forgot that it was supposed to be cookie dough, and thought it was salted caramel.
I know it didn't look like much - the mini chocolate chips were just scattered around on top, not well distributed, and there weren't actually very many. The description said there was a cookie dough based topping as well, but it wasn't there, unless you count the little bit of the cookie dough swirl on the top? It didn't look special. But it really was good!
First, the texture was perfect - it wasn't an ice cream that froze too solid, nor too soft. I was pleased that it seemed to be the right serving consistency, right when I pulled it out. I'm quite used to needing to pull my ice cream out in advance (and really, usually plan that, heating my pie, my cobbler, etc while the ice cream softens), but for this, since it was a complete sundae cup, I didn't need to.
The only chocolate in the cup was the little chips on top, which wasn't quite what I expected, as I thought the cookie dough pieces, or the cookie dough filling would have some, and I did like the crunch and texture (and definitely the small size!), but I wished they were integrated more.
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| Cookie Dough: Inside. |
The vanilla did have elements of "cookie dough variegate" integrated (my first time hearing that term, but basically, just, a varied inclusion in the ice cream, in this case, the vanilla with the cookie dough elements, which when looking at the ingredients says both cookie dough filling and pieces (neither containing chocolate chips, just FYI). What this seemed to be was a few small chunks of cookie dough near the bottom (not very generous), and lines of the same cookie dough swirl that you could see on the very top, 4 thin ones, down the sides.
The cookie dough variegate was super sweet, again, I thought it was salted caramel at first bite, but it was more clearly cookie dough, particularly the chunks as I got to them. The chunks were good, very buttery, and, sweet.
I really did wish there was more cookie dough, more chips, more cookie dough swirl. As you can see here, the majority really was just the vanilla.
Overall all though, this was easily a complete dessert, didn't need additions, and was easy to pull direct from freezer and consume.
I am a little surprised by the nutrition stats on it though. The container really is a single serving, it looked like less than 2 scoops ice cream really (although I at 171 g, I guess it really is 2.5 scoops of half cup servings?), and it was 520 calories! For what looked like just 1.5 scoops of ice cream, and no real toppings, that seemed ... high. Was it the cookie dough?
I really did enjoy this, and would get it again. It made me very excited to try more sundae cups.
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| Salted Caramel. |
Next I went for the ever trendy Salted Caramel sundae cup, another vanilla ice cream base, this time swirled with chocolate "filling", caramel "filling", and some "choco flakes" (even though the product description does not mention the chocolate swirl).
Something had happened to this sundae cup. I blame something in the distribution line, perhaps a delayed shipment in the COVID world? It had clearly melted and re-frozen, with more freezer burn than I have ever seen on a product before. There was a layer of actual ice on top!
So, hard to really evaluate this one. The ice cream wasn't the smooth creamy vanilla from the previous cup, and seemed to have separated out into icy layers and cream layers, and that just was not tasty. The salted caramel and chocolate swirls were ... ok, but not very interesting. Just, well, chocolate sauce and caramel sauce. I didn't really taste much salt. Nor find flakes.
I dug to the middle of the cup, the bottom, anywhere looking for some part that didn't seem ruined, but, this was ruined. Very hard to evaluate. Clearly, this didn't go well for me.
There is a similar pint available, Salty Caramel Pretzel, that has chocolate covered pretzel bits in it as well.
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| Birthday Cake. |
"Creamy Vanilla Ice Cream with Pink Frosting Variegate and Topped with Pink Frosting Variegate and Sprinkles/Crunch."
Next up? Yup, the ridiculous Birthday Cake.
Another vanilla ice cream base, with a variegate, and something sprinkled on top. It looked great, with the swirls of the pink frosting, but the sprinkles and crunch were a bit, uh, meager?
Well, it said vanilla ice cream, but this was really, really sweet, and I think it was cake batter flavored, not vanilla. The Birthday Cake *pint* flavor is a cake flavor base, so it seems reasonable that this was too? The ice cream was creamy and smooth, not amazing, but not bad. But, it sure seemed sweet. Very sweet. Maybe that was all coming from the pink mix-in, it was a bit hard to tell, but, sweeter than any standard vanilla, no question.
The "pink frosting" was a cream cheese based swirl, not really what I'd consider a frosting, as it wasn't light and fluffy, but, it definitely tasted like, well, birthday cake. Very nicely done on this.
I can't say the sprinkles on top added anything to it, but there were more integrated throughout, and I did appreciate the fun and colorful element. The "vanilla crunch" was just laughably non-existent. It *would* have been nice to have a crunch element, and I ended up adding crushed up Bugels on top of mine.
Overall, I was pleased with the sundae, the standout element being just how intensely cake tasting it truly was. However, it was too sweet to just eat like this, so I ended up mixing it 2 parts Birthday Cake sundae to 1 part regular vanilla ice cream to mellow it out a bit. And I added whipped cream and fresh strawberries to *really* turn it into a sundae. And, the aforementioned crushed Bugels. I wouldn't get it again, but had no qualms finishing it all.
As I mentioned, they also make a Birthday Cake pint, that is a cake batter base, with pink frosting swirls, and sprinkles, just with pieces of pound cake mixed in too.
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| Frrrozen Hot Chocolate. |
"Creamy Chocolate Ice Cream with Whipped Cream Variegate and Topped with Whipped Cream Variegate and Chocolate Flakes."
I saved the Frrrozen Hot Chocolate for last, as I'm not a huge chocolate ice cream fan, but, I knew this is their signature flavor, so I should try it.
Like the others, it had a "variegate", this time whipped cream, which you can see running down the sides here, and was topped with more of it, and this time, chocolate flakes. The description doesn't say it, but it also had chocolate flakes in the ice cream, it was not plain ice cream.
The ice cream was ... well, like several of the others I had tried (all from same grocery store), ruined. Grainy. Only slightly chocolatey. I really did not like it, besides the chocolate flecks in it.
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| Frrrozen Hot Chocolate: Top. |
Here you can see the generous "whipped cream variegate", which tasted much more like marshmallow than whipped cream to me. It was gooey like marshmallow and just crazy sweet. So much sweet. Cloying. There was plenty on top, and plenty throughout the cup.
The chocolate flecks ("Choco Flakes" according to the ingredients) on top were really the only part of this that I liked.
Pints
Serendipity also makes standard ice cream pints for retail. Or, at least, the pint *form* is standard, but what is inside? No exactly "standard". Very, very different from most pints of ice cream you'll find ... Flavors have fun names "Unicorn Bliss Sundae", "Humble Pie", "Outrageous Banana Split", and the like. And all are loaded with inclusions.
I've tried many. But warning, these trend very, very sweet.
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| Unicorn Bliss Sundae | . |
I almost grabbed the Birthday Cake flavor, but then I saw the unicorn, and, well, embraced my inner child. I really should have actually *read* the descriptions, as the Unicorn one was actually just cookie dough. Doh. Birthday Cake sounded much better, cake flavor ice cream base, with pink frosting swirls, cake pieces, and sprinkles.
But it turned out, this wasn't just another colorful children's ice cream that was just plain vanilla cookie dough in disguise. Nope, this was entirely different from regular cookie dough ice cream.
And, um, it was insanely delicious.
So, yes, it was a light blue color, "Blue Vanilla", colored using spirulina, rather than food coloring. And it was just a vanilla base, a sweeter style I think, and really an excellent foundation: smooth, creamy, melted perfectly. It is clear this is a quality base product.
But it was the mix-ins that were insanely good on this one.
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| Unicorn Bliss Sundae: Glittery Swirl, Cookie Dough Pieces. |
The cookie dough pieces were good size chunks, and yes, they were bright blue and pink. Silly, yes, but they were great, not *chocolate chip* cookie dough, regular sugar cookie dough, sweet, buttery tasting, and quite delightful. Above average cookie dough pieces.
And then, um, the "glittery swirl". This turned out to be totally and completely different from anything I imagined. I thought it would be a soft component, but instead, it was actually solid chunks, all different sizes, some small but some gems like this that were quite large. And what was it? Well, it kinda seemed like very sweet white chocolate, with a fascinating texture from the edible glitter inside. The glitter wasn't sparkling exactly, but it added the texture, and the colors were fairly vibrant in it, this time made from red cabbage extract, turmeric extract, and radish extract, in addition to spirulina. Kudos to not just using Red #40 and Blue #1 everywhere! (They are used in the cookie dough though). The swirls were *crazy* sweet.
Overall, I kinda adored this pint for a little while, but only in small "doses". It is a dangerous pint, higher calorie, sugar, and fat than your standard ice cream, and one that makes you just want to keep digging through it and eating more and more (uh, oops, did I just admit that I consume direct from pint?). Perfectly soft creamy ice cream, delightful buttery chunks of cookie dough, and sweet crazy swirl? Yes please.
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| Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate. |
"Hot Chocolate Flavored Ice Cream with Whipped Cream Swirl and Chocolate Shavings."
Next, unintentionally, I tried the Frrrrozen Hot Chocolate.
How did this happen unintentionally? Well, I had another flavor on my grocery list when my mom did errands for me, and, this is what she came home with instead. I was fairly sad, as I'm not really generally a big chocolate ice cream fan.
This however was pretty extraordinary.
Perfectly creamy chocolate base, er, "hot chocolate" base. Flavored with "Frozen Hot Chocolate Flavor", whatever that is. What I do know is that it was rich and milky, and really delightful.
Mixed into the base, semi-sweet chocolate curls, decent size flecks of chocolate goodness, and plenty of them, well distributed throughout. They added delightful texture.
And then ... the "whipped cream swirl", which really was more like a ooey gooey marshmallow swirl to me, just like the sundae version. It was quite sweet, and, there was plenty of it. It really brought a fun element to the creation, basically turning it into an ice cream sundae, no additions needed. I would have probably preferred something more representative of whipped cream than this sweeter marshmallow style, but the gooey nature was pretty remarkable.
This all just came together very, very well. I could see it as "hot chocolate" inspired, with that crazy marshmallow-like swirl.
I still don't seek out chocolate ice cream, but this was a wonderful version of one. ***+.
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| Salty Caramel Pretzel. |
Next up, trendy salted caramel, but not what I expected, not a salted caramel base, but rather, a vanilla base, with a salted caramel swirl, and, the pretzels, coated in milk chocolate.
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| Salty Caramel Pretzel: Top. |
The vanilla ice cream base was good, above average, decent quality vanilla. I liked the "Salty Caramel Swirl", although I didn't get the salt from it, the caramel was gooey, sweet, and quite tasty, in small doses. But very sweet, and if you got a section with tons of this sauce, it was ... wowzer. A lot.
The pretzel bits I was torn on. Small little nuggets, er "nibs" according to them, coated in milk chocolate, that broke off as you took a scoop, leaving plain pretzels and bits of chocolate behind. The pretzels were rather soft, so didn't add the desired crunchy element I was really looking for, but there were tons of them, so they could add up to a nice crunch if you got enough. They didn't give the salty component I was looking for either, just a very slight salt. Much like many Ben & Jerry's mix-ins, they made me sad due to texture, but were almost awesome..
But overall, I did like it in some ways, again, like all Serendipity pints, soooo generously loaded with goodies, which I adore. Hard to stop digging into it! But like most Serendipity pints, just, too sweet overall.
*** (for the chocolate pretzels!).
Except of course I kept trying it, as I had an entire pint to get through.
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| Birthday Cake. |
"Cake Flavored Ice Cream with Swirls of Pink Frosting, Cake Pieces and Sprinkles."
And finally, I tried the Birthday Cake, the one I intended to get that first time, when I got distracted by the Unicorns. Pink frosting swirls, hunks of birthday cake (just pound cake), and sprinkles, in a cake batter base, not just vanilla.
I ... was not particularly into this one, the first time I tried. Like most of the flavors, it was just sooo sweet.
The ice cream base is "cake" flavored, yes, it tasted like generic boxed sweet vanilla cake. Sweet being a key here. Within the sweet base is plentiful sprinkles, pink and blue, also kinda sweet, but mostly waxy. And then, the pink frosting swirl, yup, just more sweet, a hard style, not really "frosting", just this harder pink sweet stuff. And the cake, it said pound cake, but I didn't find any the first time I had this pint (more on this soon).
Overall, this was just not very good. Yes, too sweet was part of the problem, but also the components were just generic and fake tasting - boxed cake, waxy sprinkles, meh.
My least favorite, and not one that I found any redeeming component of.
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| Birthday Cake: Later. |
Once I finally found the cake pieces, and was ready for sweet, I enjoyed it significantly more. Amusingly, the cake was my favorite part - and I never like pound cake! It worked in here, soft but firm, moist but semi-frozen, really kinda fascinating. It was the classic "problem" though, of a pint with hunks of a goodie you really want - the cake! - but them being rather sparse, which required digging, and of course, just eating more and more of the ice cream.
I did still find the base ice cream "meh" sweet, and the pink frosting got to be too much *very* quickly, and the sprinkles were crazy sweet and very generously throughout ... but again, it had its place, I guess, and I really did kinda like it.
**+.
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