Among the plethora of choices in the freezer aisle, choosing the right ice cream may just find its way not only to your stomach, but to your heart. That’s exactly what the unique food lookalike ice creams are doing for consumers across the world, as they resemble items ranging from produce to fast food items.
The increased traction on social media with these viral products has made it trickier to find them in stores, because it is not your average ice cream. Luckily, I was able to catch a restock at my local H-Mart Asian supermarket located at 2825 S Diamond Bar Blvd. and pick up a few of the “Propitious Fruit” ice cream line such as the mango, peach and the blue mountain priced at $4.99 for one and $10 for a box of 3. I also got a “Nice Me” burger frozen dessert ice cream for $4.99. Out of all of my selections, I was especially skeptical of the burger because the picture on the box depicted a realistic looking burger, and the ice cream was salted butter which is an interesting flavor and pairing overall.
For the Propitious Fruits, each one is individually packaged in a plastic dome which elevated the presentation of the dessert to look more gourmet, which reminds me of the packaging of the Erewhon $20 strawberry. The ice cream fruit was pretty generous in size, with each of them having a white chocolate coating that is airbrushed to imitate its actual fruit counterpart. I appreciated all of these small details that made the dessert look realistic, and it made the price feel more justified because it was created with care. However, it all came down to how the taste would compare to these qualities.
One of the ice creams I had originally seen all over social media with influencers attempting to get their hands on the sought after mango, it is also the most popular among the variety of fruit ice creams produced by this brand. All of the ice creams are on a stick, similar to an ice cream bar and are dairy-based desserts. The mango ice cream was the perfect amount of sweet, and I enjoyed how the mango flavor wasn’t too powerful and didn’t taste artificial but rather like the actual fruit. I enjoyed how the dessert was refreshing and as an avid mango lover and person with a sweet tooth, this ice cream definitely exceeded my expectations.
The peach ice cream was similar to the mango, except the flavor was really faint that it made it hard to distinguish. If I had my eyes closed, I would probably say the ice cream was vanilla because it didn’t taste like peach. It is really refreshing despite the lackluster flavor and it does still maintain the signature appearance standards in comparison to the other fruits with its pastel airbrushing details.
The one that intrigued me the most was the blue mountain, because of its non-fruit shape which made me question its flavor. The outside said it was milk flavored and was illustrated with blue mountainous packaging, so when I bit into it I expected a vanilla flavor, but I was instead met with a huge bite of peach jam. I found this really misleading because in the tiniest subtext on the label, it is easy to miss the fact it has jam inside. In all honesty, the jam complements the milk flavor well, but I wish I would’ve known of the filling beforehand or that it was made more apparent on the packaging that it is not just milk flavored.
Lastly, I tried the burger ice cream which was highly anticipated for me because i’ve never seen a fast food ice cream before. I really enjoyed the packaging, as it really felt like getting a burger in a takeout box. The actual burger was also in a paper wrapper that emulated the fast food experience. The burger has a sesame seed bun, a thin slice of yellow mochi to act as the cheese and an ice cream patty coated in cereal.
When I took the first bite, I was not met with ice cream but instead with a lot of cold bread. This was very unpleasant because the bread tasted artificial and stale, but after tasting the ice cream patty, it actually paired well with the bread. I felt pretty full after a few bites because there wasn’t a good ratio because there was too much bread compared to the ice cream, but the salted butter flavor was not too strong and wasn’t salty to me at all. Out of all the burger components, my favorite part was the mochi slice because it wasn’t too sweet, although I couldn’t figure out what flavor it was.
These viral ice creams have shown me both the pros and cons of social media marketing and trusting the internet with my food choices. Although the burger ice cream was the most unique of the four I tried, it was my least favorite. The fruit ice creams are definitely something I would buy again, with the mango one being a new favorite dessert. I would rate the fruit ice creams such as mango, peach and blue mountain a respective 5/5, 4/5 and 3/5 while the burger ice cream was a 3/5.
