Press Sample

I have something a little different to share tonight. I was given the opportunity to try out and review some Halo Top Ice Cream flavors. So I’ll be sharing my thoughts on Halo Top Ice Cream Mint Chip, Chocolate Mocha Chip & Birthday Cake

Now I know what some are thinking. Why am I sharing ice cream on a beauty blog? Well, because I feel like it really. Will I be sharing a lot of food related content? No. I don’t cook. I don’t make fancy snacks. Heck, I barely know where Nick keeps stuff in the kitchen because that’s not my thing. In our household Nick cooks, I do the dishes after. That’s our deal and we’ve held that deal together for almost 7.5 years now.

Ok back to my reasoning a bit more though. A few years ago Nick was looking into eating healthier, and I joined him on his journey. I knew how badly he wanted to eat healthier, and I also knew it would be difficult for him to stick to a healthier lifestyle if I was sitting here face slamming cupcakes. So I took the journey with him. As a couple, we decided to get healthier.

After a lot of research, he found the ketogenic diet. He spent time gathering recipes, finding ways that allowed us to still enjoy some of our vices but in a healthier way. He did an amazing job with it. He comes from an Italian family and, like me, enjoys pasta and breads. Basically ALL THE CARBS. Me personally? I also loved my Mountain Dew, frou frou frozen coffee drinks and sweets. Nick doesn’t really care about sugary sweets, so this was my struggle more than anything. While Nick was able to find a lot of foods and alternatives to curb cravings, sweets was a really difficult one to break for me.

See for coffee, I changed to iced coffee with heavy whipping cream and 2 packets of splenda. Instead of Mountain Dew I would have a Coke Zero (which wasn’t the same, but it allowed me to have soda) but when it came to sweets, nothing really compared.  We kept trucking along with the keto way of living, but when I got a sugar craving it was bad. It was almost worse than my cigarette cravings when I was trying to quit (yup, ex smoker here too- 3 years without one)

Sorry if I’m rambling, but I do want people to understand why I decided to accept these samples and do this post. I know a lot of people struggle with weight and even if they aren’t choosing the Ketogenic lifestyle, it is a way to cut some sugar, calories and carbs out if they chose to. Halo Top is a wonderful alternative to some of the more sugary and calorie packed ice creams out there.

Let’s get into my thoughts on the 3 flavors I selected for this review. To recap (because of my rambling) I picked out Halo Top Ice Cream Mint Chip, Chocolate Mocha Chip & Birthday Cake.

First of all, before I break down flavors, for all 3 Halo Top Ice Cream flavors I picked up – the texture is not the same as normal ice cream. It’s not far off, but it’s not the super creamy, thick texture you are used to. It almost has a sorbet like texture. Thinner, more brittle (if that makes sense at all) so it might take a couple bites to get used to it.

Ok, on with the show.

Halo Top Ice Cream Mint Chip

Halo Top Ice Cream Mint Chip is a popular flavor. When Halo Top was discussed, I seemed to hear Mint Chip coming up a lot as one people should grab. So I grabbed it.

I have to say, I’m not really a fan of it. I don’t hate it, but something about it just wasn’t for me. The mint flavor was definitely there. As soon as I took a bite I was hit with a pepperminty taste, but I didn’t taste a lot of chocolate. I wanted that chocolate/mint balance with this and just simply didn’t get it.

Don’t get me wrong, in a desperate moment of cravings, I would eat Mint Chip. I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t love it.

Total Calories: 240 per pint

Halo Top Ice Cream Birthday Cake

Birthday Cake was one I was back and forth on. Do I want this… or a more fruity one like Lemon Cake? Well I went with Birthday Cake.

Birthday Cake tastes a lot like yellow cake batter with super sweet frosting. Super sweet. You basically have to REALLY love sweet cake and frosting to love Birthday Cake by Halo Top, and lucky for me… I love sweet frosting.

My only issue is the sprinkles, you can really taste them (well the coloring I guess?) and if you get too many sprinkles in a bite, it’s not the most pleasant. So as long as you watch your sprinkle distribution and love super sweet cake – this could be for you.

Total Calories: 280 per pint

Halo Top Ice Cream Chocolate Mocha Chip

My third and final taste testing of Halo Top Ice Cream brings us to Chocolate Mocha Chip. I thought this would be a home run. Two of my favorites in one spot: Chocolate and Mocha.

I will say of the 3, this is one I would buy again BUT I would like to try other flavors first. I got a little sweetness and chocolate flavor, but the coffee flavoring leaned more on the bitter side. It wasn’t super bitter, but it left that bitter coffee aftertaste for me which wasn’t all that pleasant. I had a real cup of coffee with me while eating this, and I would drink it just to counteract the bitterness.

Total Calories: 280 per pint

Halo Top Ice Cream Mint Chip, Chocolate Mocha Chip & Birthday Cake Overview

Anyone with a massive sweet tooth that’s tried going ketogenic or just on a diet in general knows the sugar craving struggle. While I wasn’t totally satisfied with the 3 flavors I picked out, they were still very edible and very much curbed my cravings. They are really good alternatives to traditional ice cream. Going in though, you have to keep in mind they are not the same as traditional ice cream, and because of that – they will have different flavorings and textures. You really have to go in with an open mind.

However, with my sugar cravings – something is better than nothing. This helped tremendously even if the flavors weren’t fully suited for me personally.

To find out if Halo Top is carried near you, check out the store locator on the Halo Top Website

Halo Top Ice Cream does feature (I believe) 17 flavors, so I still have more to try and I fully intend on doing so until I find the perfect flavors for me.

If you wish to learn more about the Ketogenic Diet (also simply known as Keto) I encourage you to check out Ashley of Who Ate My Psyche? as she takes us on her incredible journey of weight loss.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled blogging. This will be a rare type of post, but I appreciate those of you who followed along.

Oh, and for the record, I lost about 65 lbs so far on Keto and Nick lost an incredible 130 lbs.