The Low Down on Halo Top
**Disclaimer: Some of the flavours of Halo Top we tried are not yet offered in Canada.**
A lot has happened in the last few weeks, and it has taken me some time to process it all. I went on some awesome vacations, I've worked with some cool people, and then I got strep throat and everything got put on hold. Being sick this week has made me realize that sometimes you have to take a break and care for yourself, and as someone who's an advocate for mental health, I needed to take my own advice.
Or, the wise advice of one Mr. Matthew Broderick,
"Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while - you could miss it."
So, after spending the week on the couch, popping antibiotics and binge watching RuPaul's Drag Race, I truly believe that I had a pretty good excuse to consume my weight in ice cream. For those of you who have never had strep throat (me, until this week), it makes it very difficult for you to swallow regular foods. That is why a lot of doctors recommend eating popsicles or ice cream in order to provide you some sustenance and relief. Cue: Halo Top Creamery.
That isn't to say that we ate 8 pints of ice cream in one week.. even though I wish we had. We likely had even more than 8 pints since before I left for Hawaii, but that's besides the point. We tried 8 different flavours and wrote down what we thought about each one so that you didn't have to, or to at least help you narrow down which flavours to spend your hard earned $6 or $7 on.
1. CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIE DOUGH
Huge note to mention about ALL of the flavours, not just cookie dough, is that Halo Top recommends you let the ice cream thaw for a few minutes before eating it. We found that the first few bites were a bit icey, but that was before we took their advice. This one ended up being our favourite flavour by a landslide. Adrian and I ate the entire pint in under 10 minutes, even with three others to choose from. It's got chunks of cookie dough AND chocolate chips, and I actually really appreciated the fact that the chocolate was separate. As someone who doesn't normally like cookie dough (me) and someone who almost exclusively likes cookie dough (Adrian), 10/10 would recommend.
2. SEA SALT CARAMEL
This one is for the butterscotch lovers. It was yummy and extra creamy, but it tasted more like a sundae with butterscotch drizzle than sea salt caramel. It has swirls of caramel which were a nice texture, but we really wanted there to be that salt factor that we all know and love from salted caramel.
3. CANDY BAR
To us, candy bar tasted just like a Snickers. It's chocolate ice cream with swirls of chocolate and caramel, and scattered with crushed peanuts. We actually tried just the chocolate ice cream by itself and wondered if it may be peanut butter chocolate. If you like candy bars, you'll love this one.
4. CARAMEL MACCHIATO
If you don't like coffee, don't get this flavour. As coffee lovers, we enjoyed it because it tasted more like coffee than caramel. In fact, it tasted just like an Iced Cappuccino from Tim Hortons (shout out to all my Canadian iced capp lovers) or a shot of Bailey's Irish Cream. This one also had swirls of caramel, and would likely be good in an affogato type situation, i.e. ice cream in a cup of espresso.
5. OATMEAL COOKIE
True to it's name, this flavour tastes as though you're biting into an oatmeal cookie. There is no confusing this one. It's cinnamony, and if it didn't have nice big pieces of oats throughout, could potentially also be labeled as snickerdoodle. Either way, if you love oatmeal cookies, then this flavour is for you.
6. BIRTHDAY CAKE
I was actually kind of disappointed in this one. I was hoping the ice cream would taste like cake, or that there would be bites of cake in it, but alas, I was left cakeless. It's still super yummy, especially if you love funfetti cake, but it was just vanilla ice cream with sprinkles in it. Wah wah..
7. RED VELVET
The next two are actually not offered in Canada yet. I tried these while I was in Hawaii. If cookie dough wasn't my favourite, red velvet would be the runner up FOR SURE. This one tasted just like red velvet cake. It was the chocolatey, kind of.. well.. red flavour that one might expect from red velvet cake, but it had PIECES OF BROWNIE in it. I died. Brownies in ice cream (a la Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie) are killer and I have no self control around those flavours. This one was gone in 2 days which, if you ask me, shows major restraint on my part.
8. S'MORES
I still don't know what this one reminded me of (something other than s'mores obviously), but I really enjoyed it. At first I was put off by the graham cracker crumb texture that it had, but it grew on me. This one also has chocolate chips throughout, and my mum liked this one best out of the ones that she tried. It tasted faintly of marshmallow, with a whole lot of graham cracker.
Overall, Halo Top is a great alternative if you're looking to indulge. Is it healthy? No. Is it slightly more healthy than Haagen-Dazs or Dreyers? Sure. Just remember that everything should come in moderation. Would I eat 8 pints of Halo Top in one sitting to let you know what I thought of the flavours? Totally. SHOULD I eat 8 pints of Halo Top in one sitting to let you know what I thought of the flavours? Hell-to-the-no. It was a fun experiment for us to figure out which flavours we would repurchase and which ones were just not for us. So whenever you're craving something cold and creamy, it is definitely worth it to grab some Halo Top. Which flavour you choose is on you, but hopefully this helped narrow down the search. Or maybe you're like us and just want to try them all (Cue Pokemon theme song).
Thank you to Jessica in the comments for also reminding me that they do offer a dairy free, and certified gluten-free option (they use coconut milk!) for some of the flavours! Check out their website for more information on that.
What do you think of Halo Top? Are you all about the craze or just not that into it? And if you have any tips for preventing strep throat for the rest of my life, please leave them in the comments.
