The Results were Minteresting!!

I feel like I've been neglecting you, my tiny little blog! Hubs and I have started making YouTube videos, where we try new foods or drinks, and we've been having lots of fun. 

A few weeks ago, I'd picked up a few different containers of ice cream, to munch on while I recovered from Lasik. Then I got a wild hair that we should make a video where we compare tons of different mint (or mint-adjacent) ice cream flavors, so I picked up the following flavors to try, amassing 13 total flavors to try:

• Tillamook Mint Chocolate Chip
• Prestige It's Mint to Be Creme de Menthe Ice Cream (Winn-Dixie store brand)
• Blue Bell Peppermint Bark
• Talenti Mediterranean Mint Gelato
• Great Value Mint Chip Ice Cream
• Van Leeuwen Artisan French Peppermint Stick Ice Cream
• Scoops Ahoy Mint Flare Ice Cream
• Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Mayfield Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Häagen Dazs Mint Chip
• Häagen Dazs Peppermint Bark
• Publix Premium Peppermint Stick Ice Cream
• Publix Premium Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

So with a ton of ice cream, we sat down and stuffed ourselves silly with ice cream (and gelato). I had a few preconceived ideas going in to this tasting, some of which got blasted out of the water! Before trying anything, I stated that my favorite mint chocolate chip is Breyer's, and my favorite peppermint is Publix Premium Peppermint Stick Ice Cream. 

So what were our findings? On first taste of each, we said: 

Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

No green food coloring, it's the best, it's so freakin' good

Scoops Ahoy Mint Flare Ice Cream

Tastes like a Baskin Robins flavor, fake but not bad, no chemical aftertaste, overall meh 

Van Leeuwen Artisan French Peppermint Stick Ice Cream

Real pink, not fake pink, unpleasant artificial aftertaste, I'd eat it if someone gave it to me

Mayfield Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Bright fake green, tastes weird, tasted like "freezer," both of us made faces when we tasted it, had a fluffy texture with little shards of chocolate (instead of chunks)

 

Publix Premium Peppermint Stick Ice Cream

It's mellow and minty with little red and green mint candies, no weird aftertaste; fluffier than Breyer's, but not better than Breyer's 

Prestige It's Mint to Be Creme de Menthe Ice Cream

Tasty, not a lot of mint, but good texture with little mint chocolate cup pieces

Talenti Mediterranean Mint Gelato

Green, but not a fake green; bad aftertaste, didn't taste minty - did being gelato skew the flavor? I remember this being much tastier in the past, or does it taste bad now, in comparison to the other flavors? 

 

Häagen Dazs Mint Chip

Very tasty, with flat chunks of dark chocolate, good texture, very highly rated

Publix Premium Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

Green, looks similar to Mayfield with shards of chocolate; not much flavor (like "Hint o' Mint"); you only know it's mint because it's green

Great Value Mint Chip Ice Cream

It's a pretty light green, not very minty, much lighter in weight when compared to Häagen Dazs Mint Chip, tastes like "buck & a half" ice cream

 

Tillamook Mint Chocolate Chip

Big pieces of chocolate that feels soft, naturally minty (still faint), chocolate has weird aftertaste 

Häagen Dazs Peppermint Bark 

Good, but different from all the others; Hubby liked this over the Peppermint Bark (I liked this more)

Blue Bell Peppermint Bark

There's no peppermint bark or chocolate at the top of the container, which made tasting the entire ice cream difficult, though when you do get a piece of bark, it's a nice substantial size; on second taste, we both liked Häagen Dazs Peppermint Bark much better

And our final ratings, from worst to first:

• 

  Talenti Mediterranean Mint Gelato
  
• Great Value Mint Chip Ice Cream
• Scoops Ahoy Mint Flare Ice Cream
  
• Van Leeuwen Artisan French Peppermint Stick Ice Cream
• Mayfield Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Publix Premium Mint Chocolate Chip Ice Cream
• Tillamook Mint Chocolate Chip
• Blue Bell Peppermint Bark
• Publix Premium Peppermint Stick Ice Cream
  
• Häagen Dazs Peppermint Bark 
• Prestige It's Mint to Be Creme de Menthe Ice Cream
• Häagen Dazs Mint Chip

Which means that Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip is the winner and still the #1 Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream in my world! 

 

Am I surprised by this ranking? A little, actually... Going into this, I thought that Talenti and Van Leeuwen would be much higher, and I expected the Prestige to be pretty bad. I was surprised that the Mayfield was as bad is it was, when I truly love their Vanilla recipe. But with Breyer's and Publix, I'm not shocked to see them rise so high to the top. 

(Hi there, Lazy Lady from June 2024... I still have so much ice cream in my freezer! Breyer's, both Publix, and HD Mint are all still there, staring at me. We've eaten everything else, even the Talenti and Van Leeuwen and Great Value. They were definitely bottom of the barrel, but I hate letting food go to waste!)