Good Humor Ice Cream

Ice cream.  I eat a lot of ice cream.  It is part of my *daily* life (yes, really).  Thank goodness I have a large freezer.

I eat ice cream as the "a la mode" to warm pie or fruit crisps, I stuff cookies with it to make ice cream sandwiches, and of course, I make a mean ice cream sundae. 

I've been this way my whole life.  As a kid, we always had gallons of multiple flavors of ice cream in the freezer, Carvel ice cream cake was the birthday cake of choice (even though my mom is an avid baker!), and for a quick grab-n-go, we always also had assorted "novelties" from the frozen food delivery service on hand.  And of course, elementary school lunch had ice cream day, iirc it was Fridays, and I took it quite seriously - I was the one who took the ice cream order regularly, or was the distributor, etc.  

For the most part, I left generic ice cream novelties, the kind sold from neighborhood ice cream trucks or the school lunch program, behind long ago.  I continued my ice cream eating, no question, but upgraded to more premium brands (ok, in college I'd trade in my "meal equivalency" for pints of Ben & Jerry's at our diner ... sssh, don't tell mom!), but otherwise, I've turned towards more ... grown up offerings.

That is, until I started traveling for my job frequently, and learned about all the generic brands in other countries, which were rarely better than what we had, just, different.  It became part of my world travel experience, checking out the ice cream freezers at every office, and trying as many ice cream novelties as I possibly could (like Heartbrand in Europe or its Australian counterpart Streets).  And of course, for the lucky offices that had quality products, trying those too (such as the Belly Artisan Ice Cream in Toronto, the Great British Ice Cream Company or Jude's in London, Mövenpick Ice Cream in Zurich, and international only flavors of Ben & Jerry's).  It was during these times that I also got back into American novelty ice cream, partially out of curiosity how we compared, but also, well, because the ice cream freezers in other US offices had them, so, why not try?  In the Cambridge, MA office I had all the regulars - Hood, Nestlé, and Blue Bunny/Blue Ribbon - and really fell back in love with novelties (but sorry, I still will rarely go for an It's-It ... does this make me a bad San Franciscan?

Anyway.  Are you still reading?  Let's get back to reviewing some ice cream, er, frozen dairy desserts.

Good Humor is perhaps the most well known brand in the US.  They were the original sponsors of ice cream trucks, the ones who introduced us to "the ice cream jingle", etc.  I probably don't need to tell you much about their product line: ice cream sandwiches, eclair bars, etc.  These are the same kind of items I remember from elementary school, although I do not know for sure what brand we had in particular then.

It turns out, some are actually quite decent ...

Giant Vanilla
"Frozen vanilla dairy dessert sandwich"

The ice cream sandwich.  Classic as they come.  

Not a treat that I think I have ... ever picked?  Literally.  I am pretty sure I never, ever, ever picked an ice cream sandwich like this in my life.  I have no idea why, but, they have never called out to me.  Even as a child.  

And yet, here I am, an adult, deciding to try one for the first time.  I tried it on a day when I was having a strange craving for a chocolate whoopie pie (so random) but also kinda wanted ice cream, and remembered seeing the classic, soft chocolate cookie, vanilla ice cream filled, ice cream sandwich in my parent's freezer.

It was time to try.  This one came supersized, "Giant".

Giant Vanilla.

"A giant treat with vanilla ice cream packed between two chocolate flavored wafers – each bite better than the last."

I knew exactly what to expect, having obviously seen many an ice cream sandwich consumed over the years, although this one was, as named "Giant", bigger than a standard ice cream sandwich.  Otherwise, it looked exactly like every ice cream sandwich I have seen other's enjoy: large, soft, chocolate rectangular wafer cake-like cookies that have little tiny holes in them for some reason, filled with vanilla "dairy dessert".  Simplicity.

I took one bite, and ... well, I liked it.  It really did match the craving I had, in many ways.  Sure, not a whoopie pie, but the "chocolate flavored wafers" were quite soft, lightly chocolately, and more like a soft whoopie pie cookie than anything else I can think to compare them to actually (certainly not a cookie ...).

The vanilla dairy dessert inside was sweet, not really "vanilla" in any way, but sweet and plain, and quite smooth.  Not a premium ice cream, not even an ice cream, technically, but it melted perfectly, and balanced well with the chocolate wafer.

I also truly enjoyed the form factor - not sure why I always went for other sorts of novelty treats, really, as it fun to lick around the edges as it melted.  I will note however that it did leave quite the chocolate residue on my hands!

Overall though, this matched my craving, and pleased me.  Classic for a reason.  I'd have another, if the mood ever hit.

***+

Chocolate Eclair.

"Chocolate and cake on a stick, yum! We wouldn’t blame you if you d-éclair this cake-coated frozen Chocolate Éclair dessert bar as your favorite."

Another variety I don't really remember often going for: the chocolate eclair (nor, the strawberry eclair for that matter).  Although I did vaguely remember liking the crunch coating, so, as an adult, on a research mission, I tried one.

It looked better out of the package than I expected.  I enjoyed ... elements of it.

Chocolate Eclair: Coating.

"Creamy chocolate and vanilla dessert bar. Made with our famous signature cake coating."

The "signature cake coating" really was quite generously, and well, applied.  

The "signature cake coating" really was quite generously, and well, applied.  You could see the bits of 3 different styles of cake - two chocolate, one white.  All was stuck on with some kind of very mild chocolate ("milk chocolate flavored coating"), per the ingredient label.

I liked the coating. It didn't taste stale, was sweet, was really just pretty tasty.

***+ for the coating.

Chocolate Eclair: Inside.

Inside though, is basically just ... kinda icy, not really creamy, ice-cream-like vanilla stuff, and, a fudgicle/fudgsicle like core.  Not really my thing.

I do think there is a time and a place for a fudgicle, perhaps, but just not what I go for.

** for the core.  I won't likely grab one of these again.

Oreo Dessert Bar

"All those Oreo® Cookie Pieces! Our fan-favorite frozen dessert bar is loaded with Oreo® Cookie Pieces, with scrumptious Oreo® cookie crunch coating. Glass of milk not required."

Well, this was ok, but keep in mind that I only quasi-like Oreo.  You definitely need to want to be in the mood for Oreo to enjoy this bar - this is for Oreo and cookies-n-cream lovers, no question.

Decently coated in chocolate bits, "Oreo Crunch", tons extra in the bag.  They were, well, Oreo crumble.  

Oreo Dessert Bar: Side View.

From the side, it was less well coated, but this allows you to see the "milk chocolate flavored coating".  It really just helped affix the crunch bits, didn't really have any flavor nor add to the bar.

Oreo Dessert Bar: Inside.

Inside was the ice cream like filling, studded with Oreo cookie pieces. 

The ice cream wasn't very good, not creamy, icy, but if you like the sweet "stuf" inside an Oreo, it surely tasted like that.

So ... overall, you had the Oreo cookie bits, the sweet "stuf", and it certainly had a lot of Oreo going on, and would appeal to any cookies-n-cream lover, but, you had to want, well, Oreo.

*** for me.

Reese's Dessert Cup.

"Made with REESE’S Peanut Butter Swirl! Enjoy this fan favorite peanut butter ice cream cup with chocolatey coating."

While the other items I mostly tried just out of curiosity, and were not things I ever cared about even growing up, *this* one I was extremely excited for.  Peanut butter cups?  Sign me up.  I adore a chocolate + pb combo.

I gleefully broke into it.

It delivered.  It was delicious.  And yes, it tastes pretty much like a peanut butter cup.

The chocolate shell had a nice snap, creamy milk chocolate, seemed reasonable quality.  It was quite satisfying to bite into, cracking open.  Reminded me of a Klondike Bar (Klondike also makes a version of this, but people tend to have higher accolades for the Good Humor version).

And inside?  Um, yeah.  PEANUT BUTTER.  This is a peanut butter forward product, no question.  So rich, truly wonderful tasting peanut butter ice cream.  Unlike many of Good Humor's frozen novelties, this one is actual ice cream, and you can tell.  Considerably creamier.  Great peanut butter flavor.

It took a while to find the "real Reese's Peanut Butter swirl" it said it was made with, but I suddenly found a harder chunk near the middle, off center a bit, that turned out to be basically pure peanut butter.  Glorious.

Overall, this was a delight.  You definitely need to be in the mood for peanut butter, and richness, but if you are, and if you love peanut butter cups, this is basically a giant ice cream version of a peanut butter cup, and is done really quite well.

****, and I'd certainly have another when craving peanut butter.