Review: Private Selection Cinnamon Chocolate Ice Cream

When I started this blog, it was my intent to focus only on brands that were available for mass purchases and not on specific store brands.  I've mostly stuck to that intent throughout the two years that this blog has been exposed to the world, but I figured that I could abandon that now with the subject of today's review.  Private Selection is the house brand from the Kroger family of stores and since there are over two thousand of these stores spread across the United States, a house brand at a store chain as big as this is essentially a name brand, so that means it qualifies for the blog!  These are also labeled as gourmet products, so how could I resist reviewing something so fancy?  Introduction to Private Selection aside, I picked up this pint of Private Selection Cinnamon Chocolate Ice Cream on sale at Kroger on sale for $0.99 and each of the four servings is 230 calories of store brand goodness.

The description on the front of this reads as "rich cinnamon chocolate ice cream with white chocolate flavored flakes and a cinnamon chocolate fudge ribbon."  I can confirm all those were there and this did smell of both chocolate and cinnamon, so from that perspective, this delivered.  The one bone that I do have to pick with that description is that when I typically read something described as a "ribbon", I'd expect it to be almost gooey and somewhat liquid like.  The fudge ribbon in this was more like a hard chocolate and was pretty much just additional flakes (that's what that big chunk of chocolate is in the picture above).  There's certainly nothing wrong with that because the more crunch there is in an ice cream combination, the better in my opinion.  Still, the overly analytical wordsmith in me has a bone to pick with that.  The actual flakes in the pint were well spread and at first glance, this kind of reminded me of a frozen glass of hot chocolate that was filled with tiny marshmallow pieces.

That comparison to a frozen cup of hot chocolate is apt in this instance because that is what this tasted like as I made my way through it, although the presence of cinnamon was one key difference.  The chocolate ice cream was rich and dense and the white chocolate flakes add a hint of sweetness and crunch to the heavy chocolate, as did the fudge "ribbon".  The cinnamon brought a little heat to the total package and honestly, it seemed out of place.  I love cinnamon when it is mixed with the right flavors, but with the rich and sweet varieties of chocolate in this, the cinnamon spice just seemed completely strange.  Don't get me wrong, it didn't ruin the taste of this, it was just an odd mix.

Buy It or Fly By It?  I know I would never put cinnamon in my hot chocolate for a reason and for that same reason, the cinnamon in this pint just does not belong and for that, I give it a FLY BY IT rating.  Cinnamon notwithstanding, this would have been a basic, but tasty product.  The addition of the cinnamon just made it too strange and unappealing from an overall perspective for me.  Not a great introduction to the blog for Private Selection, but there are so many varieties of their product that I have no doubt that I'll find one better.

FLY BY IT!!