As I was browsing the usual suspects at my local supermarket of choice, I noticed a new addition to the long line of freezers. A few of the rows normally taken by pints of Arctic Zero had been replaced with a few flavors from the most recent collaboration between Roba Dolce Gelato and Ocean Spray. Although Ocean Spray is normally associated with juice, it seems they’ve also broken into the ice cream industry by allowing Roba Dolce to use their patented Craisins as a mix-in. While most of their offerings were fruit-filled sorbets, one seemed to be worthy of a review. Roba Dolce combines their own dark chocolate, premium gelato with chocolate-covered Cherry Craisins dried cranberries to create this flavor. Coupled with the fact there was a half-off introductory promotion going on, I tossed a pint in my cart.
The joint effort resulted in a gelato that contained 180 calories per serving, which is slightly lower than most of the super-premium pints I normally review. After removing the top, the first layer shows no signs of any Craisins, but the velvety, dark chocolate gelato still looks great. After allowing the gelato to melt down a bit, I drug my spoon across the surface and took my first bite. The base was full of fruity, dark chocolate characteristics and would soon serve as great company to the Craisins to come. Despite the lower calories, the density didn’t really feel any different than other gelatos I’ve had in the past and was still plenty heavy enough to allow all the flavors to fully penetrate my taste buds.
Ocean Spray’s contributions, the chocolate covered Cherry Craisins, were involved in almost every other bite and worked especially well with the dark chocolate base. The outer coating was nearly as thick as the Craisins inside, which meant even more rich chocolate to accompany the dark chocolate gelato. Their slightly frozen texture meant that the exterior took a while to melt down, but once it did, the inside released a taste and texture that was reminiscent of a chocolate covered cherry (with a hint of cranberry of course). Although I’m not sure of the potential of these two companies in their future frozen endeavors, this was certainly a step in the right direction.
Where I Found It: Ingles Markets
Grade: B
