From the title of this post, I'm pretty sure you can take a good guess.
Yes, I love German Chocolate Cake. My Dad introduced it to me when I was real little- maybe as young as six year- when he had picked it out as his birthday cake flavor. I'll be honest- I didn't like it at first. It was an odd taste of chocolate I had never experienced before. And the tan frosting covering the top didn't please my young, immature, six-year-old palette. But as I grew older, I grew to love German Chocolate as well, along with it's cake form. I mean, a rich, bittersweet, dark chocolate base with a caramel-y, coconut-y, pecan frosting? I thought to myself, "This cake has a little taste of everything!" It was one of those desserts I never got to have very often, but deep down I knew I really, really loved it.
Course', when I began getting wise on nutrition, I realized cake wasn't something that could be included as a daily indulgence. I mean, cake never was a daily treat for me- What I'm saying is that I now know that cake's nutritional stats can get pretty bad. An average slice of the German Chocolate variety will be about 300-400 calories, in fact. And maybe that wouldn't be so bad if cake had some real nutritional value to it, but all those calories are big, ol', empty nothings. Little protein, little fiber, makes for little reason to eat... Sigh.
So I guess it's real nice to know that Edy's/Dreyer's has recently released three new limited editions for the summer season, and one of them is -you guessed it! German Chocolate Cake (Spectacular! no less). Funny thing is, I've been dying for a German Chocolate ice cream to be produced. I was wondering why no company had thought it up yet. But now, it's finally getting the dairy makeover it deserves! I was so excited for this flavor to be stocked on shelves, and when it popped up in the freezer section at the supermarket today, I just had to snag a container! While this flavor has its place in both Edy's Grand and Slow Churned lines, I picked up a half gallon of the latter, since its lower in calories and fat.
Edy's official webpage describes its Slow Churned German Chocolate Cake Spectacular like this: "When you mix rich chocolate light ice cream with a caramel coconut swirl and brownie pieces you get a Limited Edition flavor every country can enjoy!"
Um, newsflash, Edy's: I know your trying to be smart by referencing to the fact that this is "German" chocolate (hence why they say "a flavor every country can enjoy"), but German chocolate is named after its creator, Sam German, not the country. Why not actually try to teach your consumers something instead of keeping them in a state of ignorance? You're better than that. Come on!
Well, all teasing aside, it's time to give this ice cream a shot! Will this flavor truly turn out to be "spectacular?" After dinner, I got out the container and dug right in!
I headed straight for the area where the brownie bits were and measured out half of a serving. The brownie pieces were small, but plenty tasty. They had a very thick, fudge-like texture. In fact, they reminded me of the taste of actual German Chocolate Cake. I loved em'! I even believed they were actual cake pieces at first, not brownies.
The chocolate ice cream was average. Nothing made it any different from standard chocolate ice cream. And Edy's light ice cream isn't all that great. It's airy and, like I said, melts at a rapid pace. It had a slight fudgy taste, but couldn't they have done something a BIT different, flavor-wise? I mean, there is an obvious distinction between German chocolate and regular chocolate. Otherwise, what would be the use of calling it German chocolate in the first place? Seriously, couldn't they have at least made it a dark chocolate base? Or something? Dark Chocolate's at least somewhat closer to the real thing anyway...After my first small sampling, I scooped out two more servings into a bowl and tossed in some Fiber One cereal as a mix-in. Gives it a good crunch!
What I noticed with my full bowl of ice cream is that there was a HUGE lack of brownie bits. Lack, as in, I didn't get anything. None at all! Considering they had been my favorite part of my first ice cream sampling, I was really disappointed. As I ate, I realized that all my dessert truly was was a bowl of regular chocolate ice cream with some cereal mixed in. I wanted German chocolate ice cream with some cereal mixed in. I mean, this ice cream was becoming straight-up boring. The only thing that made my bowl special was that I was finally able to notice some minuscule pieces of shredded coconut on the sides, which had a nice sweetness to it.
Deciding not to give up just quite yet, I went back to the container to look for some more brownie pieces. I mean, maybe I had just scooped up in the wrong spot. I dug and dug, searched and searched... but only ended up finding a single, tiny piece. Wah! A huuuuuge disappointment...
So, did I find Edy's German Chocolate Cake ice cream as spectacular as I had hoped? Not in the least. I wasn't impressed. I knew this was their Slow Churned version and all, and I was aware that their would be a smaller amount of mix-ins (as in the brownie bits and caramel swirl) when compared to their Grand ice cream, but still. I barely got any! Their was a huge lack here of what was supposed to make this ice cream unique. I think Edy's biggest mistake was using a regular, plain, old milk chocolate ice cream as the base. If they had used a slightly different flavor here, I'm sure I'd have no complaints in the first place. I'd even be able to forgive them for the tiny percentage of mix-ins. But no, it was just boring chocolate. If I wanted boring chocolate, I would've bought boring chocolate, you know? And the part that actually did taste like German Chocolate- the brownie bits- was practically nonexistent. And you know something else? Where in the world are the pecans? There are supposed to be pecans in German Chocolate Cake.Maybe I was expecting too much out of Edy's here, but I really feel like this ice cream wasn't their best effort. I was hoping for a lower calorie, creamy alternative to German Chocolate Cake I could afford to eat whenever I had the craving to do so, but this ice cream isn't even worth the calories, despite their only being 110 of them per serving. Simply put, I'd rather have some other flavor ice cream for dessert, or something different altogether. I guess I'll just have to keep on waiting for a German Chocolate Cake ice cream worth indulging in.
I'd give it 5/10.
Edy's Slow Churned German Chocolate Cake Spectacular!
- Pros: Fudge-like brownie bits taste just like German Chocolate Cake, thick caramel swirl, sweet shredded coconut, 110 calories per serving
- Cons: Brownie bits are not only small but also far and few between, ice cream base is just your average chocolate, no pecans, airy, melts fast, boring, sad lack of mix-ins, doesn't do German Chocolate Cake justice...
Well, what do you guys think? Would you still give this ice cream a try? Have you already tried it, in fact? If so, am I being to hard on Edy's? Tell me what you think in the comments section below! I'd love to hear from you!
Till' next time, this has been RiRi Ri-porting!
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