TJ’s Cold Brew Boba & Amazing Always Chewy Various Ice Creams
I went a bit overboard with ice creams today. Trader Joe’s finally stocked their Cold Brew Coffee & Boba ice cream pints, and Safeway had a variety of ice cream from Amazing Always Chewy – Tiger Boba, Ube Boba, and Matcha Mochi. I just had to try them all, so here we go.
The Types of Ice Cream
- Trader Joe’s – Cold Brew Coffee and Boba ice cream. Coconut non-dairy frozen dessert with tapioca pearls.
- Amazing Ice Cream Always Chewy – Ube boba ice cream. Ube ice cream with sweetened pearls.
- Amazing Ice Cream Always Chewy – Tiger Boba ice cream. A mix of Thai tea and milk flavor, with pearls.
- Amazing Ice Cream Always Chewy – Matcha Mochi ice cream. Sweetened matcha ice cream with mochi bits.
Nutrition – Each with a 2/3 Cup Serving
Above shows the nutrition to each of the ice creams, colored coded rather well. Each serving to all 4 of these is 2/3 of a cup. The Amazing Ice Cream brand also lists nutrition facts for the whole pint. Trader Joe’s coconut non-dairy cold brew boba ice cream contains fewer grams of fat and Calories overall, but how does that fare in terms of flavor? The Tiger Milk Boba contains the most Calories and carbohydrates and sugar, but does that mean that’s the sweetest one? The ube boba and matcha mochi ones contains the most grams of fat, so do those taste the richest?
Packaging and Looks
All 4 have standard ice cream pint packaging. The sizes are very similar, and each contains the protective plastic under the lid and above the actual ice cream. All colors of the ice cream matches with the packaging pint color. Looks pretty cool, huh? Now, let’s go into how they all taste!
Trader Joe’s Cold Brew Coffee and Boba Non-Dairy Ice Cream
This is the only non-diary one out of the 4 I tried today. It was creamy overall, and it had an amazing cold brew flavor. The ice cream itself was not overly sweet, and it does taste as advertised. The boba pearls were not hard, but rather soft and slightly chewy. Both the coconut based ice cream and the pearls go rather well together, but the pearls do not add much flavor. The pearls are rather plain, so I think I would have enjoyed this one more without the pearls since the texture is not overly amazing and the flavor is close to none. The pearls seem a bit unevenly distributed too, as I would get chunks of them at once and there are some spots without any pearls. Though the flavor is good, I’ve noticed the flavor gets more and more watered down the more bites I take. I love coffee though, so I would get this one again.
Amazing Ice Cream’s Tiger Boba Ice Cream
The Tiger Boba one has the most Calories out of the 4, but it was the fluffiest one out of the 4. The flavors were extremely subtle. I could definitely tell there was some Thai tea and milk tea flavors in there, but the flavors aren’t so pronounced. The 2 flavors are well incorporated as the tiger milk tea drink, and the 2 flavors do not fight each other in this pint. The pearls to this one didn’t have much flavor either, but it did feel more of an actual boba drink since the flavors to the whole thing wasn’t strong. Unfortunately, if looking at the nutrition facts, I’d expect a much stronger and bolder flavor from this one given the number of Calories it contains is the highest out of the 4.
Amazing Ice Cream’s Ube Boba Ice Cream
This one was the most flavorful out of the 4. The ube taste was there, but the boba overrides the ube flavor quite a bit. The pearls remind me of flavorful honey boba pearls, and that flavor took over this pint of ice cream. Ube flavor was there, if eaten from a separate bite from the pearls. I really like this one, but I feel that I need to strategize my bites in order to get the most out of the delicious flavors. The texture of this one was rather different too, as it was a bit messy to scoop out. It slid out rather easily, while a bit chalky too. The ice cream itself was smooth when eaten though. Trader Joe’s has an ube ice cream that I’ve tried several times in the past, but haven’t seen it lately. I prefer the TJ’s ube over this one because of the flavor. If I want pearls in the ice cream knowing the pearls taste good, this one is an excellent choice.
Amazing Ice Cream’s Matcha Mochi Ice Cream
This one does not have boba pearls in it compared to the other 3 ice creams today. It has mochi bits in side too, and I was so excited to dig into this one because I love matcha and I love mochi. With that said, I was very disappointed that this was my least favorite one out of the 4. The matcha flavor was overly sweetened, and I couldn’t really taste any natural matcha. The mochi “always chewy” bits were not so chewy. They were a bit chalky, making the ice cream pint as a whole a bit chalky. Those mochi bits took over the ice cream in such a bad way that I almost spat it out.
Overview / Final Comments
So I spent around $20 on ice cream pints today, and it was worth it overall. I love trying new ice creams and flavors. The most disappointing part of this was the matcha mochi ice cream because both the matcha flavor and the mochi was not good. The other ice creams were pretty good, but overall, I think I prefer the A-Chino boba popsicles. Most of those (and in many flavors!) are consistency creamy and the toppings inside those ice cream bars go so well with the whole popsicle. One of those boba ice cream popsicles contains fewer Calories than one serving of these 4 ice cream pints today. I would most likely buy the TJ’s non-dairy one and the ube one again, as I prefer my ice cream to have a bigger flavor, especially when a serving size is so small, I’d like to get the most flavor out of it without consuming more sugar than needed.
