Category: Food
Type: Desert
As a diabetic I don’t find myself in ice cream shops very often; however, with today’s hot weather I made an exception at the prompting of a friend.
My first experience of Cold Stone, while not actively bad, defined it as not my cup of tea per se. The service was adequate, the staff was polite, and the prices were what I expected in a post-Starbucks world. The vibe in the shop, especially the naming of the items, was what I found the most off-putting. This sort of thing has always seemed like a pretty simple operation to me. Ice cream, toppings, container: mix in various combinations to please various tastes. Cold Stone seems to be over-reaching for a novel killer app, which in this case is folding the ingredients into each other with small spatulas on the counter and plopping the lump into a bowl or cone.
The item I purchased, the “Founders Favorite” is sweet cream ice cream, chocolate, caramel, and brownie pieces. Unfortunately, the flop & mix method turned everything but the brownie pieces into a neutral soup, so most of the component flavors were lost in the process. This is disappointing because the ice cream itself seemed to be of a good quality, and would have been complimented by the other distinct flavors, had they survived.
The trying too-hard attempt to elevate fast-food ice cream to the level of gourmet or connoisseur hangs plainly from the walls. this is undermined further by twitch-inducing item names like “Cookie Dough’nt You Want Some?” Don’t get me wrong, I’m a fan of the well-crafted pun, but there are limits; I don’t need my food to make me laugh.
In the long run I don’t see a particular need to go back, guess I’m just a simple guy when it comes to ice cream.
Rating: 2/10
