Unilever - Magnum Chocolate Infinity, Double Raspberry ice cream bars - Mar. 23, 2017

Chocolate(s) of the Day: 

Unilever

Magnum Chocolate Infinity ice cream bars
Good - Good +
Weight: 3.38 fl. oz. (82 g.) / 10.14 fl. oz. (300 mL) in total box of 3 bars
Calories: 260 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $3.99 (estimate) for 1 box of 3 bars
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Magnum Double Raspberry ice cream bars
Good +
Weight: 3.04 fl. oz. (75 g.) / 9.12 fl. oz. (270 mL) in total box of 3 bars
Calories: 260 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $3.00 (sale) for 1 box of 3 bars
Purchased from: Safeway, Mountain View, CA

Welcome to Day #5 of Chocolate and Ice Cream Bar Theme Week.

Today we have a double feature with two different Magnum ice cream bars from the growing family of Magnum ice cream bars from Unilever.

Yesterday, Magnum's Dark Chocolate ice cream bar, and today the Magnum Chocolate Infinity and Magnum Double Raspberry ice cream bars.

First, thank you to the person who came up with the title "Chocolate Infinity." What a great concept.

At the core of these Infinity bars, was dark chocolate ice cream with a chocolate swirl that was covered in dark chocolate and cocoa bean nibs. It was very satisfying as ice cream bars go; the bar was creamy and smooth, with layers of smooth, rich chocolatey flavors, with a slight crunch from the tiny nib pieces.

The relatively new Magnum Double Raspberry ice cream bars were a bit more brash, in a good way—bursting with sweet, authentic raspberry and milk chocolate flavors from the first bite. Much as I like to avoid too much sugar, I really liked this bar.

The Double Raspberry bar had the concentrated flavor of a darker chocolate confection with raspberry jam, but with some ice cream to cool things down and balance the sugar a bit. If you like raspberries, this is the bar for you.

If you're interested in a combination of today's two different flavors, you might seek out the Magnum Chocolate Infinity and Raspberry ice cream bars featured last year (on March 2, 2016).

Unilever - Magnum Dark Chocolate ice cream bars - Mar. 22, 2017

Chocolate of the Day: 

Unilever
Magnum Dark ice cream bars
Good+
Weight: 3.38 fl. oz. (100 mL) / 10.14 fl. oz. (300 mL) in total box of 3 bars
Calories: 240 calories in 1 bar
Cost: $3.99 (estimate) for 1 box of 3 bars
Purchased from: Safeway, Palo Alto, CA

Welcome to Day #4 of Chocolate and Ice Cream Bar theme week.

This week the focus is on ice cream bars from larger companies. (Smaller production run ice cream bars and paletas from local artisans will have their own week later this year.)

Large or small, companies need to make bars that won't fall apart, and that also taste good. The chocolate coating on an ice cream bar needs to be not too hard or stiff, but not too soft either. Ice cream needs to stay creamy and flavorful and not become granular if temperatures fluctuate.

Unilever (Englewood Cliffs, NJ) now owns several large ice cream brands (including Magnum) in the U.S., and has experience with these challenges. Today's Magnum Dark Chocolate bar was one of the original member of an expanding family of Magnum ice cream bars.

One can almost see and taste the evolution of this line of ice cream bars. For example, at some point several years ago, someone must have been asking: How do you take a plain, standard vanilla ice cream bar vanilla bean ice cream dipped in chocolate and make it more appealing to higher-end consumers?

Today's bar, enveloped in a golden wrapper, uses quality vanilla and chocolate: 60% cacao Belgian Chocolate, and Rainforest Certified cocoa and vanilla—not something you'd see with less expensive bars. The chocolate tasted a bit better than most chocolatey coatings  out there and the vanilla ice cream did as well.

Natural flavors and coloring agents have improved. Now, if there was a way to magically get rid of some of the additives* that seem to be in most ice cream bars, that would be a true leap forward.

*Additives include mono and diglycerides, locust bean gum, guar gum, carrageenan, and PGPR (emulsifiers).