Stop 2: The Scooper Bowl - June 10, 2009

Andrea, Rich and I arrived at the Scooper Bowl in City Hall Plaza around 5pm. It was perfect weather - cool and cloudy, which kept crowds away. There were people milling about, but no lines. For $8 we each got all you can eat ice cream from about 10 different places. Here's the scoop on what I had:

Baskin-Robbins:
- Premium Churned Light Raspberry Chip - This was definitely not the best raspberry chip I've ever had. In fact it was one of the worst with little raspberry flavor, few chips, and fairly mild tasting chocolate. 3/10
- Rock n' Pop Swirl - I couldn't resist trying some of this neon green colored ice cream that was infused with multi-colored pop rocks. It tasted as I expected - gross. 1/10

Ben & Jerry's:
- Oatmeal Cookie Chunk - I tasted some of Rich's dish and it was amazing. Exactly like eating a very rich oatmeal cookie. 8/10
- Chocolate Macadamia - This was a vanilla/chocolate swirl ice cream with chocolate-covered macadamia nuts. It was pretty good, but the base wasn't as creamy as other flavors. 6/10
-Goodbye Yellow Brickle Road - This consisted of chocolate ice cream, peanut butter cookie dough, brickle candy pieces, and white chocolate chunks. The components were all quite big so I only was able to eat one thing at a time. The combination was kind of weird too. It was okay, but not my favorite. I think Elton John would have preferred the oatmeal cookie. 6/10

Brigham's Ice Cream:
-Confetti & Cream - I just had a few spoonfuls of this. It consisted of a vanilla base with multi-colored sugar candies and tasted quite sweet, as expected. It wasn't too bad. It could have been grosser. 5/10
-Cookies n' Cream - I had a few spoonfuls of Rich's ice cream. It had a very creamy base and a lot of cookies pieces. Pretty good. 7/10

Edy's:
-Take the Cake - I had a few spoonfuls of this and it tasted like cake frosting mixed into ice cream. I think it was a cake batter base. Out of all the rainbow-colored, sugary ice creams I tried, this was the best. It wasn't overwhelmingly sweet. 6/10
-Orange Sherbet - This was one of my favorites from the event. Very creamy and not too sugary so you didn't get a gross aftertaste. 8/10

Garelick Farms/Giffords:
-Maine Lobster Tracks - I thought this would be moose tracks with a different name, however it was different. It was a vanilla base with chocolate ripples that tasted like cadbury chocolate flakes. That was an improvement on the usual chocolate fudge swirls. Instead of peanut butter cups it had bright red caramel cups. I think I prefer the peanut butter cups, but the red color was a nice touch. 7/10

Haagen-Dazs:
Bailey's Irish Cream - As expected, this was nice and creamy with a rich flavor. 8/10

HP Hood:
Strawberry Banana Frozen Yogurt - This had realistic strawberry and banana flavors and wasn't too sweet. It was also fairly creamy. I was impressed. 7/10
Cookie Dough Delight - I tried a few spoonfuls of Rich's ice cream. We both agreed that the cookie dough had a nice flavor, but that the vanilla base was a little icy and not very flavorful. 6/10

Spasso:
Hazelnut gelato - It was creamy, as gelato should be, and the strength of the hazelnut flavor was good, but it has a chalky taste. 4/10