rev:text
| - "ARTISAN" ice cream IN THE AIRPORT... What a GREAT idea! Located in Terminal B of Phoenix Sky Harbor Internat'l Airport, by Gate B4, I was stoked to find this during a recent layover here. Practically stopped me in my tracks with a lil "WH-WHAT??? They've posted this claim as "North America's Top Ice Cream Shop" by Bon Appetit Magazine. Hey now! ALL of North America?!?! Really... I HAD to sample the goods with that kind of boast. Scoop master says ice cream is made locally in Phoenix, as is the baked goods, then transported in. NOTHING is made on site. Okay, freshness is now suspect. 17 flavors to choose from for scoops, sundaes, and cool drinks. Good variety to appease the masses! To my surprise, they even have ICE CREAM SANDWICHES!!! Well, I'm gettin' sumthin' now!
*ICE CREAM SANDWICH ($4.45): Only one option of cookie, CHOCOLATE CHIP, and scooper says they were made today, so I'm happy with proceeding. I chose SALTED BUTTER CARAMEL SWIRL Ice Cream cuz it sounds similar to one of my faves - salted caramel. Turns out the cookies were brick hard and it didn't have "today" freshness as claimed. Ice cream had a quick rate of decompensation so most of it dripped out or was squished out with initial bites. So I ate most of ice cream off the wax paper and then gnawed at the bricks after. As for the flavor, I have definitely had better salted caramel, elsewhere. I wouldn't call this anything similar to salted caramel, as a matter of fact. The focus is butter here, with a real rich kind of taste, like too much butter, with a fake vanilla sensation. Caramel syrup is just swirled in. This was a bit too sweet, too, and the flavor had a strikingly similar taste to Salt Lick Crunch from the Ice Cream Lab, a Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream Shop from Cali. Not impressed by any means. No way I could recommend this.
Bon Appetit Mag claim got my hopes up a lil too high. Probably one of the worst ice cream sandwiches I've ever had. Maybe the other Sweet Republic menu items were responsible for earning that claim??? Proceed with caution.
|