Break out the Magnum Ice Cream Bars! Summer is finally here: A Review of This Summers New Ice Creams

Summer is finally here in Vancouver! Get ready to stock your freezer full of this year’s new ice creams.

For the calorie-conscious, both Haagen-Daz and Nestle have released individual ice cream cups. For me, it’s a throwback to elementary school sports days when we’d each get a single-serving ice cream cup with our burgers and juice boxes at lunch. You know the ones, with the little wooden spoons and impossible-to-open lids.

I picked up the chocolate peanut butter Haagen-Daz ice cream cup because I have a certain weakness for peanut butter and chocolate. But the Haagen-Daz ice cream cups come in all different flavours including their classic vanilla, chocolate and of course coffee. I’m also impressed that the Haagen-Daz ice cream cup comes with a spoon inside, yes, total throwback to the wooden spoons from our childhood ice cream cups. As you can see from the photo though, the Haagen-Daz ice cream cup is significantly smaller than the Nestle’s Sundae cup. But I soon discovered that size doesn’t always matter.

When I popped open the lid of the Haagen-Daz ice cream cup, the spoon was so tiny that I almost didn’t see it. It’s attached to the lid and it’s a little flimsy, when I first dug it into the still rock-hard, frozen ice cream, I almost didn’t think the little guy would do the job. I had forgotten though that with quality chocolate ice cream like Haagen-Daz, you must give it a tempering period of at least 5 minutes before consuming. Luckily, just back from a long run, and still steaming hot, my warm hand was enough to melt the ice cream a little bit as I held the ice cream cup in one hand and scooped with the other.

The Haagen-Daz chocolate ice cream got tastier with each bite, as the ice cream starting melting a little bit more, the decadent and rich chocolate taste came through. And boy, was this ice cream rich so it really didn’t matter than it came in such a small container, even just a few small spoonfuls from the little plastic spoon was very filling. I dug around looking for mini peanut butter cups though. What I found instead was whole slabs of peanut butter as if they took a regular sized peanut butter cup, smashed it and mixed in the broken pieces. The peanut butter was interesting; it tasted like actual peanut butter, nutty and salty, the kind that you spread on your sandwich, not the sweetened peanut butter you find inside Reese peanut butter cups. It was a nice salty contrast to the sweet chocolate ice cream.

Next up: the Nestle Rolo Sundae cup. This ice cream cup did come with miniature Rolo candies sprinkled on the top of the sundae with a drizzle of sweet and nutty caramel. The chocolate taste in this ice cream was not nearly as deep and rich as the Haagen-Daz, it had more of a malty taste but still hit the spot on a hot day. The mini Rolo candies also added extra texture to the ice cream cup. I had expected to find other mini Rolo candies mixed throughout the cup but apparently the 5 measly ones on top are all you get. Given though, the sticky and sweet heavy caramel filling in each little Rolo candy made them into little bombs of rich flavour. Maybe just five is enough for this little cup of ice cream. The rest of the ice cream is marbled chocolate and caramel. I love the mix of nutty caramel flavours with chocolate, not nearly as much as I love the peanut butter and chocolate pairing though.

Speaking of which, I had to pick up these new Reese ice cream bars. They were so cute and unique in the Safeway freezer, I couldn’t help myself. And peanut butter and chocolate are my biggest vice. Packaged in a simple white bag, I ripped open the packaging to find that the Reese ice cream bar looked exactly as advertised like a big Reese peanut butter cup. Upon my first bite, I was hooked. The best part about an ice cream bar is the satisfying crunch of the frozen chocolate shell and the top of this Reese ice cream bar definitely had that; the bottom of the Reese ice cream bar was a little bit stingy on chocolate coating though, so little that some of the delectable peanut butter ice cream was peeking through. Is this what the bottom of a Reese peanut butter cup looks like? I have to admit I have never looked, Reese peanut butter cups don’t last very long in my hand before they are gobbled up in three bites max.

After tasting the salty peanut butter in the Haagan-Daz ice cream cup, the peanut butter ice cream in this Reese ice cream bar was very sweet in comparison. I loved it. It’s literally just like eating the ice cream version of a Reese peanut butter cup. The peanut butter taste is sweetened to the point of contrasting with the slight bitter aftertaste of its milk chocolate shell. It’s very slight but it creates the perfect flavour dynamic for an original and delicious frozen treat.

Now last but certainly not least are the new Magnum ice cream bars, made popular in commercials and billboards, I couldn’t go the whole summer without devouring one of these bad boys. Check out the below short film/commercial featuring Magnum ice cream bars directed by Haute Couture fashion designer, Karl Lagerfeld starring Rachel Bilson. No, she’s not the greatest actress so it’ll be interesting to see her play a doctor in this fall’s Heart of Dixie but she’s adorably seductive in the below Black Swan-esque short film. I love how she seems so much more interested in eating the Magnum ice cream bar than kissing her boyfriend.

I accidentally took a picture of the French side of the box, but the first Magnum ice cream bar I tried was the almond coated one with a milk chocolate shell and vanilla ice cream inside. I opened the box to find the ice cream bars wrapped in shiny gold packaging, it made me think of the golden tickets hidden in chocolate bars in Roald Dahl‘s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I could hardly wait to tear open the package for my first bite.

Dipped in rich and decadent Belgian chocolate, this Magnum ice cream bar was also covered with slivers of almond and both the thick and frozen chocolate shell and almonds gave away with a sharp and dramatic crunch with my first bite to reveal creamy and velvety vanilla ice cream inside, speckled with vanilla bean and bursting full of sweet, sensationally cool flavour. I can’t describe how perfect one of these Magnum bars are for a hot summer day. The taste of the chocolate shell is just as rich in flavour as the ice cream inside, it’s a nice and thick coating of chocolate too like a tasty armor around a very dense and smooth ice cream. There is something special about Belgian chocolate, as it melts on my tongue, it transforms into a silky, delicate ribbon of smooth sweetness. Regular American chocolate is a little more rustic, rough in texture, and doesn’t give the same smooth and delicate aftertaste as it dissolves.

The second Magnum ice cream bar I tried was the Double Caramel. No, I don’t know why mine came with some sort of strange Oompa Loompa curlicue top but it was more chocolate for me! Biting into this Magnum bar created an extra loud crunching noise because it was coated in a double Belgian chocolate shell. Sandwiched between the two chocolate shells is the most amazing caramel sauce I’ve ever tasted – sticky, insanely deeply rich with a nutty flavour that only enhanced the pure vanilla flavours of the ice cream inside. I don’t know what they put in their vanilla ice cream but it really stands up to the bold caramel flavours and the Belgian chocolate coating. I love the different textures of crunchy, sticky and creamy in this Magnum ice cream bar too.

I will definitely be going back to pick up more Magnum ice cream bar flavours. I’d love to try the white chocolate one. And of course I’ll go back for more Reese ice cream bars. I just can’t live without my peanut butter and chocolate fix.