Picked up one of these at the 7-11 this afternoon, and my mind is blown. This was amazing! Creamy rich ice cream dipped into layers of chocolate and caramel. The last ice cream bar I had that was this decadent was a Dove Bar when I was in college, and at a US$ 5 back then in the 80’s it was a rare treat for me.
This one was smaller than a Dove Bar. But it’s here, and I won’t sweat the cost (whatever it was, it was WORTH IT!)
Over in Family Mart, I have been enjoying Pols ice cream - another brand from Latvia like the one above. Latvian ice cream wars in the convenience stores of Taiwan? I don’t get it, but I don’t mind
There was a Dove Bar cart parked on the sidewalk in the evenings outside my building. No way I could justify a luxury back then, and I walked by it at least once a day. One bite into this ice cream bar instantly took me back to those days. Weird/cool time machine experience for me
Oops. My wife spent a good thirty minutes today figuring out how to pay a property tax bill online, to make sure I wouldn’t have to go to a 7-11 in our time of plague. Oh well. Now I’m going anyway.
Finding slivers of joy in an otherwise grim spring of 2021 (continued)
I could not pass up the chance today to follow up on @Celeborn 's recommendations to try one of these “Pols” bars, which I found buried in the back of my local Family Mart ice cream freezer.
This Latvian rival is a far less assuming product than the Ekselence bar reviewed above, with simpler packaging and no claim to being “Est 1928.” What you get is straightforward classic goodness: vanilla with a chocolate layer, something like a good Meiji ice cream bar (the ones from Japan, not the second rate product made in Tainan currently sold at 7-11), Pols did not make me scream out loud but I would still rate this a solid product, something I’d be happy to try again.
I would say that the Ekselence chocolate caramel concoction discussed above is like an uber Haagen Dazs bar, maybe the supreme ideal type of a Haagen Dazs bar. Given its power, though, I would not eat piles of these guys. One just about killed me!
The Pol bar I tried today is nothing like Haagen Dazs. It’s more like everyday ice cream, done simply and well.
I had an Ekcelense yesterday. It tasted phenomenally good. A good balance of chocolate and caramel. The only “bad” thing I can say about it is, that it’s a bit too sweet. But I can strongly recommend trying it.
I keep meaning to look, but every time I’ve walked by a 7-11 lately I’ve seen a gathered QR-crowd and haven’t bothered. Maybe I should head out late tonight.
Damn you / praise you @Celeborn (secondary praise to hype guy @afterspivak). These ice cream bars (supposedly) of the gods have occupied a silly amount of my mental real estate over the past week.
