Not being able to travel during the pandemic meant not being able to get my annual Milk Bar fix. But, thanks to their new Milk Bar Ice Cream pints, I could finally get their ice cream at home. So, how does it compare to their in-store soft serve? Let’s discuss.
Since 2017, I’ve been to Vegas at least once per year – well, at least through 2019. And one constant of my visits is getting a cup of Cereal Milk soft serve with hot fudge from Milk Bar Las Vegas at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas. I can’t explain it, for some reason their savory-sweet soft serve matches incredibly well with their dark, rich, chewy hot fudge. So, when they announced that they’d be selling pints, I got excited.
Where to Get Milk Bar Ice Cream Pints
Before I talk about the ice cream itself, let’s talk about where to get your Milk Bar Ice Cream pints. At the time of this writing, the pints are available exclusively at Whole Foods Markets nationwide. Availability, however, is spotty. My local Whole Foods stores often have only one or two of the flavors or, more often than not, none at all. And when the pints are available, they usually run about $6 each here on Oahu. That’s a little high, but cheaper than Ben & Jerry’s ($7) and Cool Haus (almost $8), among others.
Taste Test
Milk Bar released four different flavors in its pint program. The four flavors include Cereal Milk, Cornflake Chocolate Chip Marshmellow, Birthday Cake, and Crack Milk Bar Pie. Rant: When did the world become so PC that an iconic dessert, like Crack Pie, can’t be called that anymore? Anyway, of the four, we ended up buying and trying three of them.
Birthday Cake
While we’ve never had a Birthday Cake ice cream from Milk Bar, Mrs. Island Miler is a big fan of their Birthday Cake. So, naturally, we had to give this one a shot. Yellow in color, this ice cream really tastes like its namesake dessert – complete with crunchy, sugary clusters inside. If you’re a fan of Milk Bar’s Birthday Cake, chances are you’re going to like this ice cream.
Milk Bar Pie
The Milk Bar Pie ice cream was, unfortunately, the biggest disappointment of the bunch. While I do love the actual pie, the ice cream failed to conjure that flavor memory. In fact, the liquidy “pie filling” was far too sweet and tasted more like caramel syrup than the butter filling in the actual pie. The oatmeal clusters too were a fail, in my opinion. They were far too chewy for my liking. Hard pass.
Cereal Milk
As you might imagine, the Cereal Milk flavor was the one I wanted to try the most. Now, I must say, I really enjoyed my Cereal Milk pint. That said, it’s not exactly the same as the ice cream at the bar. For one, the flavor is a little lighter. But, that lack of cereal oomph is made up for by the addition of crunch cornflake clusters throughout the ice cream. So, while not exactly the same, I do like the pint version just as much as I like the soft serve version.
After trying the Cereal Milk on its own, I ended up making some Milk Bar hot fudge to go along with it. And, surprisingly, the recipe Christina Tosi published online is really close to what you can get in-store!
Final Thoughts
I know what many of you are thinking – we’re all traveling already, so why not just go? Well, My work schedule is CRAZY this year, and so, I planned all my travel for later in the year. In fact, I do have a trip to Vegas planned for next month, along with a trip to Maui in November. But with case rates going the way they are, I’m getting nervous that I may have to cancel those Vegas plans. But, with most of August still ahead of us, we’ve got time to wait things out and see what happens. In the meantime, I can continue to get my cereal milk ice cream fix from my local Whole Foods.
I can’t understand the attraction of the Milk Bar ice creams, which all taste horribly artificial. They have somehow turned very low quality junk food ingredients into a fashionable product.
To me, the cereal milk does taste like actual cornflakes and milk, which, paired with hot fudge, is pretty fantastic!