Julie's Organic Blackberry Sorbet Bars

A recent trip to Costco gave me the chance to sample some of these Julie's Organic Ice Creams, specifically the Blackberry Sorbet bars. They are a certified organic product and they are delicious.

I honestly walked down the aisle and saw the sample and took a lick. They had a wonderful flavor to them. I didn't even know that they were only 60 calories! The texture is smooth, not like shaved ice at all. In a sense it is creamy. The flavoring was perfect as well.

I didn't buy a box from them though. I went to the WinCo next door to get a smaller box for $2.99 for 4 bars. That is still a rip off, but at least it's not like the Baskin Robbins scoop I got for the same price. At least I get to enjoy this one for 4servings.

If I were on a diet, I would say these bars are perfect. Take a look at the nutrition info.

Nutrition Information:
1 bar
Calories: 60
Fat: 0g
Carbs: 16g
Fiber: 0g
Protein: 0g

The ingredients include, blackberry puree, evaporated cane juice, tapioca syrup, pectin, and some stabilizers like locust bean gum and guar gum. All organic stuff.

It's a good snack. Very impressive
I give it a 7/10

Stride 2.0 Spearmint

Gum is a must have in my life. It is truly one of the miracles of the world. You can stick it in your mouth and chew chew chew. It will get rid of your hunger, bad breath, and sugar cravings. Many gums can also clean your teeth. Most gums are sugar free and less than 5 calories per stick. What's not to love?

Stride has always been one of my favorite brands of gum. The gums is, as they say, long lasting. I like both fruity flavors and minty ones. I have no preference for either, it just depends on my mood at the moment.



So I needed to pick up some gum and I got the new Stride 2.0 Spearmint flavor. If I choose mint gum I usually get the spearmint kind because it is truly the best. Before that day I had no idea that Stride even upgraded. Apparently they were reading our feedback and they upgraded their products so we can enjoy their gum more.

Part of the upgrade included the packaging. They claim it's "cooler" without the excess "mumbo jumbo". I really didn't really care for the package upgrade, but I did like the gum wrapper upgrade idea. They switched to foil wrapping instead of paper so that our gum won't sweat or moisten in humid conditions. This is a definite plus.

They also changed the flavoring a little. It's a subtle change, but a change nonetheless. The taste of the gum is the same as the original for the Spearmint kind. It starts off with a good strong, but not too strong that it burns, spearmint taste that quickly dies down to a sweet and delicious minty-ness. But unlike the original, the flavor wanes a bit after a half an hour and the flavor seems to begin to disappear and change at the same time. The delicious sweetness is going away and leaving it to taste like plain mint. I remember the original kind not doing that.

In addition, the original kind used to pop the best bubbles in the whole wide world. This one pops okay, but I miss the old one.

Overall, the flavor at first is still the same, and it does last long in the fact that it doesn't deteriorate in your mouth. The only improvement that I liked was the gum wrapper. I say keep the gum wrapper, and bring back the original gum.

I give it a 6/10

Baskin Robbins Nutty Coconut Ice Cream (+ other flavors)

Today was one of the more exciting days of my life. I went with a friend and her daughter to the local library to check out some books. I browsed the fiction section, looking for something great to dive into. We only had about 20 minutes to look because we had to go pick up her son from summer school. I only found one good book, The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd, the bestselling author who wrote The Secret Life of Bees. It sounds like a good story.

But I am not here to review a book. I am here to review the trip we took to Baskin Robbins after we picked up her son. I have not been to Baskin Robbins ever before in my life. Amazing right; considering they are so popular here in America. To tell you the truth I have only been out to ice cream a handful of times. And I've only been to two places:: Cold Stone Creamery and Thrifty's at Rite Aid. That is going to change. I need to get a life.

Anyhow, my friend chose the Bananas ‘n Strawberries, which I took a lick of. I must say it was delicious. There was a Neapolitan-like flavor to it, but better! The banana flavor was perfect and the strawberry ice cream was fresh and delicious. There was also a hint of strawberry syrup somewhere in there. This flavor has been served since 1970. It's one of the regional flavors so you cannot find it everywhere.

Her daughter got the bubble gum flavor and her son a chocolate ice cream. I didn't have the heart to steal a lick from them so I cannot tell you how theirs tasted.



I got the best of them all! Nutty Coconut. I sampled it at first to make sure it was fresh, it was. So I happily got one scoop in a cup. It was nice, thick, and creamy. There were nut chunks everywhere. It's a flavor that was added to the Baskin Robbins menu in 1967. It contains roasted almonds, walnuts, and buttered pecans. I am a HUGE coconut fan, as well as a HUMUNGO nut eater. I love all nuts. Lucky for me I got a scoop that had nuts all over it.

The flavor was fantastic. The coconut flavor was perfect, although I wouldn't mind if it was a little stronger. But it tasted like a creamy dreamy trail mix. It definitely would go good with their Banana Walnut flavor.

Nutrition Information:
1 2.5 oz scoop
Calories: 190
Fat: 12g
Carbs: 18g
Fiber: 1g
Protein: 4g

It is definitely a flavor worth trying. I will go back to try their many other flavors one day when money rolls in easier. But as of now, I am broke and I cannot go too often. They are way overpriced at Baskin Robbins. I paid $2.99 for a single scoop that I finished in 5 minutes. I could have gotten a whole bucket of ice cream for that. It's not like the ice cream was any better quality than the ones from the store.

Overall, I prefer Cold Stone Creamery. Their ice cream is exquisite! But that doesn't mean I will never go back to Baskin Robbins.

So to conclude, I give this ice cream a 7/10.
It's delicious, yet expensive. But treating myself once in a while is a good thing.