Weis' Bar

Taste

I tried both the Macadamia Mango and Cream and the original Mango and Cream from Weis. I thought they would be pretty similar, but I was surprised at how much more the macadamias actually add. The macadamia bar seems creamier, the flavour more robust with the macadamia. The mango was its usual sweet self and the creamy was sweet and soft. My only gripe was that the macadamia seems to be towards the end of their shelf live.

Rating - 7.5

Look

I tried both the 4 bars and the 8 mini bars. I definitely prefer the mini bars as it’s just right for one sitting, unless you were feeling pretty hungry of course. I really like the look and their packaging. You can really pick it up and eat without much mess.

Rating - 2

C-factor

280ml of 4 bars for $5.99. Not too bad, but not the cheapest thing you can buy

Rating - 0.5

Swiss Points - 10

Ingredients

ice confection: mango (40%), water, sugar, milk solids, coconut milk solids, glucose syrup, vegetable gums, natural colour, food acid, anatural vanilla flavour. ice cream with macadamia nuts: cream (40%), water, sugar, macadamia nuts (12%), glucose syrup, milk solids

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Heaven Ganache Macadamia

Taste

I’m a fan of magnums but I didn’t really like Heaven , but I wanted to give this a try. The results? Better than I thought, but still not as good as magnum. Let me elaborate. The ice-cream is a bit too sweet, but the addition of macadamia is most welcomed. The chocolate is not as thick and morish as magnums, it being a bit soft and sweet too.

Rating - 6

Look

Beautifully packaged, the chocolate is glossy, and the ice-cream is just the right size for an individual indulgence.

Rating - 2

C-factor

385ml for $3.99 on special. It’s about the same price as a magnum so I would have to say it’s worst value then.

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - 9

Ingredients

cream, water, sugar, cocoa mass, macadamia nut pieces, vegetable fat, milk solids, skim milk concentrate, glucose syrup, invert sugar, mattodextrin, emulsifier, cocoa butter, flavours, vegetable gum, salt

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Bulla Chocolate & Vanilla Ice-cream

Taste

Bulla is the best of the "non-premium" supermarket brand out there. I've always been a fan of their vanilla. Not too sweet, with a hint of real vanilla, and not too much buttermilk either. Their ice-creams are always nice and airy, very soft and creamy and not at all dense. The chocolate was also gorgeous, a real chocolate taste!

They've won a lot of awards for their products, including

Rating - 7

Look

Not that great, and the tubs looks like every other tubs out there. The ice-cream is missing that "gloss" that makes them so inviting.

Rating - 0.5

C-factor

The 2L retails for around $4, the 4L around $7 and the 5L around $8 I think. It's great value for the product you get.

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 9

Ingredients

fresh whole milk, liquid sugar, fresh cream, milk solids non-fat, maltodextrin, cocoa powder (.8%), emulsifier, vegetable gums, vanilla flavour, colour

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Pure Gelato

Taste

I love Pure Gelato, as you can see from my recent post. However, it has come to my attention that I haven't actually posted any reviews on these before, so here goes.

The hazelnut gelato is one of the most well-known and popular of their flavour, and it has loads of awards to boost. I won't list them all but the latest was the GOLD RAS 2005. Yes, this is my favourite flavour out of the about 20 flavours I have so far tried from their selection. An intense hazelnut flavour, the gelato is very very creamy with chunks of real hazelnut spread throughout. It's quite addictive!

I also tried the Grand Marnier flavour which had very subtle orange taste, but I couldn't taste very much alcohol.

Of course a visit to the shops would not be complete without some take-home tub. We got the banana chop-chip at the urging of the sales girls. I've had a thing for banana gelato ever since I tasted the most sublime and beautiful banana gelato in Venice. Since then I've been on the hunt for great banana gelato, both in Italy and in Oz. I came close at Gelateria di Piazza in San Gimignano in Tuscany, but unfortunately I can't go to Italy all the time to get my fix, and I thought Pure Gelato could be the Saviour I was looking for. Alas, it was good, but not good enough. There was still a fake banana taste... not like that silky smooth gelato that was just like eating a frozen banana...The choc chip were not of that high quality either...prehaps this is due to them using less bananas due to their high cost? Maybe I should give this another try when banana prices are back to normal.

Another visit to the shops, where I had the Passionfruit, which is one of the best gelatos of any flavour I've ever had, the tangy passionfruit combining with the crunchy pulp. If only they use the good quality wafer cones...

The 3 flavours I picked up this time are:

• Amaretto (Roast Almond) (Gold 2004 DIAA NSW), (Silver 1997 DIAA) was lovely, if you like that roast almond taste. It tastes a bit like that Chinese almond stew dessert.
• Coffee & Walnut is another of their new flavours. The combination of their award-winning coffee gelato with the nuttiness and saltiness of walnuts is wonderful.
• Green Tea is available as a flavour from quite a few ice-cream and gelato places nowadays. Even though this one won lots of awards (Silver RAS 2005), (GOLD RAS 2004) , I found it quite ordinary, just like all the other green tea available out there.

Rating - Hazelnut - 8, Grand Marnier - 7, Banana - 5.5, Passionfruit - 8.5 , Amaretto - 7.5, Coffee Walnut - 8, Green Tea - 6

Look

The hazelnut was a light brown and tan colour, the Grand Marnier a creamy beige/orange. The banana a very light yellow with bits of choc chips in clusters throughout.

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

You can buy at their factory 1L for $7.90 and 2L for $12.80, 5L for $32.00 It's expensive but you know I am always willing to pay the price for quality. If you join their VIP club you can get 20% off their gelatoes on a rainy week day.

Rating - 1

Swiss Points - Hazelnut - 10.5, Grand Marnier - 9.5, Banana - 8, Passionfruit - 11 , Amaretto - 10, Coffee Walnut - 10.5, Green Tea - 8.5

Ingredients for Banana

fresh mjlk, fresh cream, sugar, milk powder, milk protein, lactose, natural stabiliser, natural emulsifier, banana pulp, glucose, chocolate chips

Available At

Pure Gelato Factory
30-32 Brighton Ave
Croydon Park
NSW 2133
Phone (02) 9716 4488
Website

New Zealand Natural Ice-Cream

Taste

We got Tiramisu and Mocha Almond Fudge. The Tiramisu was rich and taste just like the tiramisu I made last month. Not too sweet, but with that coffee and cream cheese combo. The Mocha Almond Fudge was also great. The coffee was stronger in this, it's a bit more bitter than the tiramisu, and there were lots of little bits of almonds. The fresh waffle cone crunchy and sweet, like real waffles should be. I am becoming a big fan of NZ Natural's products!

Rating - 8

Look

Cream and brown. These actually come in normal size, not the giant cones that a lot of chains are doing nowadays. A slip on cover separates your dirty hands with the cone.

Rating - 2

C-factor

Ice-cream is never cheap, at NZ Natural, they are $4.00 for a small 2 flavour cup (the "Regular"). But who can go pass the experience of eating ice-cream by the beach while listening to great jazz?

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 11.5

Available At

New Zealand Natural
Website

Nestle Caramel Drumstick

Taste

I was a bit apprehensive when I went to Coles to stock up on Drumstick specials. However, when we got there, only the caramel flavour was left. First of all, readers of this blog will know that I am not a big fan of caramel, secondly, what's wrong with this flavour in that there's so much of this stock available but nothing for the other ones?

Luckily, I was surprised. The caramel was sweet, but it was crunchy and added great contrast to the smooth and creamy vanilla ice-cream.

Rating - 7.5

Look

I am not a fan, but the box does its job of keeping the ice-cream in good shape. I think over the years they've developed the packaging to a point where it is the easiest to eat an ice-cream cone.

Rating - 1.5

C-factor

475 ml for $2.75 on special. Very good!

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 10.5

Ingredients

water, milk solids, sugar, vegetable fat, flour, glucose syrup, skim milk concentrate, sweetened condensed milk, cocoa, emulsifier, malodextrin, vegetable gum, potato starch, flavours, malt, salt, mineral salt, colour

Available At

Supermarkets everywhere

Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream

Taste

German Chocolate Cake -Swiss chocolate ice cream with coconut, walnut pieces, milk chocolate brownie bits and a caramel ribbon - was better than I expected. Big chunks of brownie bits, with small chunks of walnut and a sweet caramel flavour. There was enough chocolate taste to justify it being chocolate - which I might say for some chocolate ice-cream is not the case.

Espresso 'n' cream - A rich combination of extra strength lowfat Jamoca ice cream with chocolate flakes swirled together with creamy lowfat vanilla ice cream - probably my fault for ordering "low-fat', but I was more after the espresso taste and didn't read the low-fat bit until I looked this up on the web. It wasn't the ice-cream though, it was very creamy, but the fake espresso flavour that got me on this one.

Jamoca Almond Fudge - Our own Jamoca ice cream with a chocolate fudge ribbon and roasted almonds - was yum. I have no idea what Jamoca is, but it was nutty and chocolaty, with the almonds adding crunch.

Old Fashioned Butter Pecan - Butter Pecan ice cream with butter-roasted pecans - also great, with a caramel nutty flavour tieing together the ice-cream and the roasted pecans.

Conclusion - stick with the "American" flavours and you will be rewarded.

Rating - 7.5

Look

A happy image with white and pink being the theme. The shops have that kiddy look. They're not going for sophistication here.

Rating - 1

C-factor

$5.80 for a 2 scoops, the stupid guy working there didn't let me use my e-book voucher because 2 scoops is not a "regular" as it said on the coupon. There is no "regular" on the menu, only small or large, at other places like New Zealand natural, their "regular", which is defined on the menu, is actually 2 scoops. So screw him, he only works at an ice-cream parlour anyway. Their customer service points just went straight out the window, and this sort of experience people don't forget.

Rating - 0

Swiss Points - 8.5

Available At

Baskin Robbins
Website

Ice + Slice Gelato

We headed here after our dinner at Peasants Feast.

Taste

I had a 3 cone gelato with walnut, coconut and tiramisu ($5.80), Slokky had a 3 cone gelato with turkish delight, cinnamon and pistachio ($5.80). The good thing was we got to taste test the flavours before we ordered, so we didn't pick any dud ones. There were some not so impressive ones (like hazelnut), but remember we are gelato connoisseurs after our Italy trip. All the flavours we ordered were top notch! The most impressive was the turkish delight, not only for being innovative but also that it wasn't that sweet and captured the turkish delight taste, not to mention the really appealing baby pink colour!. I was quite impressed because they also had other cool flavours like green apple + ginger and strawberry + balsalmic, which you don't get in typical gelato store, and the quality of the ingredients were great. How much ice-cream you get though, depends on which waiter you get. Tsa got an ok 3 scoop, but Slokky and I were lucky and got huge scoops!

Rating - 7.5

Look

The seating was comfy, the gelato displayed seductively, the decor modern. How can gelato look bad?

Rating - 2.5

C-factor

The place was cosy, cool and quite popular. We got 25% off with our e-card voucher, and Luke & Tsa got their desserts for free due to the inadequacy of the staff, so all in all, we got a good deal.

Rating - 1.5

Swiss Points - 11.5

Available at

Ice + Slice Gelateria
135 King Street
Newtown
NSW 2042
Phone (02) 9516 4595

Ice Kreme + Meat = Pig

The highlight of the week was the Krispy Kreme FREE ice-cream day. For more info, see my review.

Saturday afternoon was BBQ at Nic & Slow's. Of course BBQ meant meat (sausages, steaks), veges (loads of salads and plain potatoes!) and snacks (chips and dips and tarts too), and being Nic's house, cakes (cinnamon sponge and jam sponge) and watermelon (just watermelon)!

Sadly, I have to report that Slokky and I will be going on a Pre-Holiday diet after CNY, so the Gluttonous Sins category will be very sparse until our holidays starts, (although Slokky misbehaviour should still get a good workout) but I promise you that once that starts, there will be LOTS and LOTS of entries!

Krispy Kreme Ice Cream

The highlight of the week was the Krispy Kreme FREE ice-cream day. I mean, what could be better than FREE ice-cream? Slokky and I arrived at Auburn KK before the designated 12pm start, and fought it out with the kids to be the first in line

Taste

Tick, tick, time passed very slowly when you wait for ice-cream. We watched the kids in front of us ponder what flavour they wanted. The choices were:

• vanilla
• chocolate
• cookies and kreme
• passionfruit and mango sorbet
• caramel
• macadamia

Of course, they ALL wanted chocolates.

Finally, at 12.02, they started serving us. What they didn't tell us though, was that it was only 1 scoop per person, and we got stamped before getting ice-cream. I had 1 scoop of macadamia, it was pretty good, but I've had better - pretty creamy, but not enough macadamia taste or macadamias for that matter. Slokky had cookies and kreme - not as good as mine, and the cookies didn't taste very good, too much vanilla essence.

Rating - 7

Look

Hey ice-cream always look good!

Rating - 2

C-factor

FREE ice-cream? That's top marks from me!

Rating - 2

Swiss Points - 11

Available At

Krispy Kreme nationally
Website