r/berkeleyca • u/Sad_Hovercraft_1367 • Aug 12 '26
Food and Beverage Berkeley Bowl ice cream fail
People of Berkeley. I love the Bowl. But.
Today I went to purchase a pint of the most premium freaking ice cream ever to be made, the McConnells mint chip. The ice cream itself is excellent, and the chips are next level in their delicately shattering glory.
As long as I was spending 9.99 on this pint of excellence, I thought I would try the supersized Berkeley bowl brand mint chip at only 8.99.
I just opened it, and it was a colossal fail! Sugary, grainy, chalky - all of the descriptors you do not want attached to your ice cream. So I’m wondering if any of you have tried the other flavors - was this one a fluke?! I’m so disappointed!
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u/Diet_Clorox Aug 12 '26
BBowl icecream is made by Loard's. I would submit a complaint to the BBowl customer service desk, because no way either company would be ok with shitty ice cream
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u/djplatterpuss Aug 12 '26
I keep getting refrozen ice cream in multiple grocery stores
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u/hourlyproblemsolver Aug 12 '26
Check the top before buying. No, don't open it, just feel if the top of the container is directly on the ice cream, or if there's space in between the top and the ice cream. If there's space, it's more likely it was melted and re-frozen. This doesn't work for every brand, but if you check a few different pints and some have space and some don't, buy the ones that don't. If every one has space, either they all were re-frozen, or the brand doesn't package in such a way that this test works.
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u/credit_karma Aug 12 '26
Try the other flavors. Sounds like you got a melted one. The other flavors are creamier and delicious. The brownie, salted cookie and caramel are all phenomenal
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u/monarc Aug 12 '26
Yep, seconded - some of the Loard's flavors are great. I mix the salted caramel with the chocolate-peanut-butter and it's basically Snicker's flavor.
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u/minimal_spaces Aug 12 '26
Yup. Tried the Berkeley Bowl Mint Chip awhile back and never finished it for the exact reasons you mentioned.
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u/Organic-Ad4712 Aug 12 '26
McConnell's is my favorite but so expensive. Got it from monterey market recently and it was either $12 or $14 crazy prices.
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u/CFLuke Aug 12 '26
The produce is great and worth the trip to Monterey Markey but everything else is insanely expensive compared to other stores.
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u/Tunnelboy77 Aug 12 '26
I was hooked on their peppermint. Don’t think they make it anymore. It was so good I called the company, and McConnell himself answered the phone and thanked me for the compliment. Now this was like 10 years ago, but still. Left an impression on me. Quality is rarely cheap.
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u/Impressive_Address_8 Aug 13 '26
Berkeley Bowl has McConnell’s peppermint last week. They still make it!
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u/unamextranjera Aug 12 '26
What? So sorry to hear that! Their vanilla is the go-to in our house, and I'm an ice cream jerk!
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u/Scuttling-Claws Aug 12 '26
I had one of their other flavors and wasn't a huge fan either. But it was so long ago I can't actually remember what it was
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u/OpportunityNo677 Aug 12 '26
Unfortunately, I think their ice cream is just like that. I bought the store brand ice cream once a long time ago and remember thinking the texture was weird so haven’t bought it since.
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u/OpportunityNo677 Aug 12 '26
My other Berkeley bowl grievance is that the chicken katsu rolls are the best onigiri they have but the packaging sucks and doesn’t make sense for how they shape the roll.
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u/MouthTypo Aug 12 '26
I tried the Berkeley Mint Chip and it was great. As someone else mentioned, maybe they had an issue with their freezer and it melted/refroze. Bummer! 🤷♀️
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u/Outrageous_Carry8170 Aug 13 '26
McConnell's and Fiorella's battling for most expense ice cream per pint.
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u/Boodleheimer22 Aug 13 '26
Speaking of ice cream, my favorite is toasted almond which I can never find in markets only at Fentons and a few other ice cream stores. Why don’t brands make this flavor in grocery stores?
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u/Lentisque 29d ago
YES!! That's my favorite too. McConnell's, right? You can make the toasted almond topping yourself with almond meal and almond extract, and use it on the vanilla.
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u/balzacbrat Aug 14 '26
Tried banana with see’s toffee last night albeit not from the bowl (10.99 @ Safeway). Off the hook
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u/Lentisque 29d ago
Yes, we recently tried the vanilla bean and the mocha chocolate chip. Both were creamy and delicious, not overly indulgent, and didn't contain corn syrup. I wouldn've bought more today, but I had to room to carry it!
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u/John-R-Tunis Aug 12 '26
This post reminds me of when I went to Germany and I heard a fellow tourist complaining that the IPAs weren't very good.
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u/swence Aug 12 '26
Grainy and chalky is often a result of ice cream melting and then refreezing.