Since our university recently acquired Halo Top Ice Cream, which claims that each pint contains between 280 and 360 calories, (about 70 calories per serving), my roommates and I decided to see for ourselves if this brand tastes as good as the nutrition label looks. Finally finding a worthy use for all the extra flex I have (don’t ask), we purchased a variety of their flavors over the course of a week, (don’t judge us) to see if the ice cream is better than the Ben and Jerry’s we’ve ben living off of for the past two semesters.
Here are the results:
First Impressions: Okay, so the packaging is hella cute. We’re suckers for adorable labels and artsy designs on products, and the Halo Top containers succeeded in activating our ecstasy over this aesthetic. Each flavor has its own packaging; the colors and designs are based on the flavor you’re trying, ex. Red Velvet looks like red velvet cake, and Mint Chip is green with dark flecks on it. You get the idea.
When you take the top off to get to the ice cream, there is an aluminum cover on top. I didn’t love this, since I find it unnecessary and wasteful, but since Halo Top is made differently than other ice cream, it might need it.
Once the top(s) come off, the ice cream appears like regular ice cream. However, upon an attempt to dig our spoons into it, we discovered that it has a much harder texture. The explanation is on the side: since they do not use artificial sweeteners or sugars, it freezes harder than other brands, so it takes longer to thaw. They played it well, though, ending their blurb with “it’s worth the wait!”
Now, the reviews:
Vanilla Bean: The most basic flavor of any ice cream, so trying this one was necessary. It was pretty good, but not quite like true vanilla. Unlike the other flavors, it was lighter then I was expecting, but not too bad.
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough: The cookie dough balls were noticeably smaller than in your conventional ice cream, but there were a lot of them, so I didn’t much mind. However, they were really the only source of flavor in this one, since as I mentioned before, the vanilla was not as strong as I was used to.
Red Velvet: The first one I tried and by far my favorite. It was a nice shade of red, with generous chunks of cake mixed in, and it tasted just like red velvet cake, which is my favorite. My only criticism is the fact that the largest size is comes in is one pint.
Cookies and Cream: This one tasted more like vanilla than the vanilla. Not to say it wasn’t good, but I was expecting cookies and cream, and it was not what I got. Too much cream, and not enough cookie chunks.
Cinnamon Roll: This one was much anticipated, and I was very excited to see that our school sold this flavor. The first bite was a mouthful of cinnamon; if you’ve ever taken a bite of a cinnamon stick, that’s basically what it was. One you got past the initial surprise, it was pretty good, but not what I was expecting.
Chocolate Covered Banana: This one did not quite adhere to the freezing rule, and I later discovered that it was because I had unwittingly purchased the dairy free version of this flavor. Despite this, I enjoyed the flavor, but it was not my favorite. The banana flavor far outweighed the chocolate, which was swirled into the ice cream, so my roommates left me to eat this one myself.
Mint Chip: Mintier than your average toothpaste, but not to the point of inedible. However, there were not nearly enough chips to balance out the mint, and they were extremely tiny. Overall, this one was good too.
Final Rating: 3.5/5The flavors were not bad; however, some did not taste the way they were advertised. One thing consumers expect from a product is that it conforms to how it is advertised, and even though they were different than I thought in a positive way, I still did not like that the flavors were not like how the descriptions made them seem. For a college student who’s going to have many loans to pay off, I do not want to spend money on something unless I have a clear idea about what it is.
However, the nutrition side of the product saved its score. At an average of 70 calories per serving, with 5g of protein, 2g of fat, and 6g of sugar, you can eat an entire pint literally guilt free.
Which I did.
Overall, I like this product and I can definitely see myself buying more in the future. It’s a great thing to eat when you’re trying to cut out sugar but you can’t let go of your sweets.