Hamada-ya inside Mitsuwa - Irvine, CA : Green Tea Ice Cream

Green Tea Ice-Cream

If you've walked inside the Mitsuwa in Irvine, you've passed the Hamada-ya bakery along the side. I'm not too interested in the bread, but they do have green tea ice-cream. And on these warm summer days, it sure hits the spot.

Green Tea Ice-Cream with Graham Crackers

They put what appears to be graham crackers on the bottom. Surprising or not surprisingly, it goes pretty well. Kind of like a cone, except it's like Cinnamon Toast Crunch without the cinnamon. Nom nom nom.

Hamada-ya inside Mitsuwa Irvine
14230 Culver Drive
Irvine, CA 92604
(949)551-1778

Yogurtland - Hello Kitty Miami cup

Tuxedo Sam spoon

Yogurtland has the new Sanrio Miami cup with Tuxedo Sam as the spoon. There is Hollywood, San Francisco, and on August 21, Honolulu.

Yogurtland Miami cup

Tried one of their newer flavors...Salted Caramel Pecan. The other two were the usual Peanut Butter and Double Cookies & Cream. I liked the Salted Caramel Pecan. Salty and sweet....good combo. Similar to salted caramel ice-cream that I've had at other stores...but much subtler flavors here which I like better. I didn't see the new Strawberry Lemonade Sorbet or else I would've tried it too. Me likes frozen yogurt treats. Nom nom nom.

http://www.yogurt-land.com/

N'ice Cream - Costa Mesa, CA : 3 Scoops

N'ice Cream is organic gelato/sorbet freshly made very morning. Woot! I love Nice Cream. The only location I've been to is the Costa Mesa location.

N'ice Cream stand in Costa Mesa

At the Costa Mesa store, it's actually a part of the OC Mart Mix. There are a variety of unique shops. The ice-cream stand is just behind these bright blue walls.

3 Scoops = 3 Flavors

The 3 scoops above have 3 flavors. The bottom most white colored scoop that you can't really see is mint chocolate chip. Yum, my favorite flavor. The middle scoop with the chips in it is hazelnut chip. Tastes kind of like a Ferrero Rocher...goood. The top plain looking scoop is salted caramel. This one was a bit too salty sweet for me. I've had the one at Sweet Republic in Arizona and that one is so much better. The salted caramel flavors are too strong here...not subtle at all, so not to my liking. All the ice-cream is a tad sweet for my taste, but the texture was perfect. The right amount of softness to be called a gelato. Thumbs up! (Especially if you have a sweet tooth.)

N'ice Cream

http://www.ilovenicecream.com/ 

3313 Hyland Ave. #B5

Costa Mesa, CA 92626

Mochilato - Irvine, CA

A nice warm day is the best time to have some ice-cream. Mochilato is basically a combination of mochi (glutinous rice desert) and gelato. I don't care much for mochi. I've had mochi ice-cream which is very good, but I prefer plain ice-cream...or in this case gelato. Good gelato is hard to come by here in the United States so I wanted to give it a try.

Raspberry

The raspberry was very fruity, pretty much like a sorbet. Not exactly creamy or chewy like a gelato should be.

Stracciatella

Stracciatella was also just ok. Both flavors were nothing impressive. They did not taste like gelato at all. Seems like it's been in the freezer a while and just tastes like plain ice-cream. Nothing special. Not worth it to me. Perhaps their mochi ice-creams are what you should get. For me, if you can't get the ice-cream right, then it's not worth it. Thumbs down for me in regards to flavor, texture, and price.

Mochilato

http://www.yelp.com/biz/mochilato-irvine

14310 Culver Drive

Irvine, CA 92604

949-559-1116

Ikea Soft Serve : Not too bad and only for $1

I love ice-cream, and whenever I stop by Ikea, I grab a $1 soft serve cone. Yup, just $1...no tax no nothing extra. It's been that way for years now...and most recently (like last week) I stopped by Ikea and sure enough it's still $1 and it still tastes the same.

Ikea Soft Serve

Vanilla. Ok, so there are no choices in flavor and there is but only vanilla. Still...it's quite tasty. And where else can you get decent tasting soft serve for $1 these days? Not since the ice-cream trucks that drove around when I was a kid. I'd only picked up an ice-cream bar from one of those trucks about 5 years ago...and they were incredibly expensive! So the Ikea soft serve ice-cream...ever dependable....and not too shabby either. =)

Dippin' Dots

If you love ice-cream like I do, then maybe you'll want to try some Dippin' Dots. It's basically ice-cream made into tiny little balls. It's flash frozen, kept at a colder temperature, and has less air than regular ice-cream. So even though it's tiny, it doesn't melt as fast and is really hard.

Mint Chip

I got my hands on my usual favorite flavor of Mint Chocolate Chip. (I seem to like the mint and chocolate combo.) I like that it's so cold and because it's so cold and hard I have to chew it a bit. Melting it in your mouth seems to take longer so I just chew. Towards the end, the rest of the balls will melt slightly and then it's kind of like regular ice-cream. It's a harder consistency than regular ice-cream but it's different and I like something a little different now and again.

http://www.dippindots.com/home.html

Yogurtland - Tasting Another 4 Flavors

It is getting warm again....so more ice-cream...well frozen yogurt actually. This time I got 1 flavor that I liked before and tried 3 more that I haven't tried before.

Four Flavors here

The topmost is Peanut Butter Cookie (I got this one last time and liked it), then it's kind of indistinguishable. The one clockwise below Peanut Butter Cookie is New York Cheesecake (it's slightly yellower and just a little of it), the bottom-most (whiter and more of it) one is Pecans & Pralines, and the pink one is Dragon Passion Tart. You can taste the peanut butter in Peanut Butter Cookie...but I haven't tried just plain Peanut Butter so don't know the difference. The New York Cheesecake was not bad...similar to the cheesecake taste...I think the tart in yogurt helps bring out the tart in cheesecake flavor. The Pecans & Pralines might be one of my newer favorites...I can taste the nuttiness in this one...and not too sweet for me. I seem to like nuttier flavors. The Dragon Passion Tart consists of dragon fruit, passion fruit, and strawberry. I liked this one too! It's very fruity, kind of tropical type of feel to it....so if you want something fruity, this is quite good to me. All in all, I liked all these flavors I tried, nothing that stood out as too sweet or salty or whatnot. Yummy choices mmm...nom nom nom.

Yogurtland
http://www.yogurt-land.com/

Yogurtland - 4 Flavors

It is so warm out and having something cold seems like key during the day. Ice-cream! Well not exactly if you go to Yogurtland. There's practically no fat in your frozen yogurt ice-cream...excluding toppings of course.

Sanrio Characters Cup w/ Hello Kitty spoon

Apparently Yogurtland got a Sanrio license and now have Hello Kitty, Keroppi, Chococat, and My Melody on their cups. They also have Hello Kitty (red) and Chococat (blue) spoons. Neato! Some of us think this stuff is cute...there is no age limit on when to stop liking Sanrio and other cute items. Cool, now I can use these cups to grow seeds in my garden and it'll be colorful and cheery...hee hee hee. (Insert cheesy smile and V sign followed by "Yatta")  =)

Four Flavors

Okay, now back to the food. I chose 2 flavors I liked and 2 that I haven't tried. Starting clockwise from the bottom is Peanut Butter Cookie (whitish), Caramel Almond Bar, Taro, and Double Cookies & Cream. The two flavors I normally like are Cookies & Cream and Taro. I normally get the Chocolate Mint Cookies since the mint chocolate type is my favorite, but on that day they didn't have any. #!%$!*&#@! Remember, the yogurt is a bit sour so it affects the taste of the final product. Anyway, the taro doesn't really taste like taro ice-cream so if you're looking for that, don't get this...but it is an alternative...something a little bit sour and sweet. Cookies and cream is not really sour...it's like blended Oreo cookies and some ice-cream...just not as sweet...very light flavor. The new flavor, Caramel Almond Bar, was not enjoyable to me. It was salty and sweet and I think too much on the salt and sugar for my taste. I didn't taste the almond or chocolate or caramel really. I just remember it being really salty and sweet. (Ok, I've said it twice now.) So not for my taste buds I guess. The Peanut Butter Cookie wasn't bad...I could taste the peanut butter cookie in it....so not too bad in my opinion.

There are many Yogurtland locations throughout. So if you want a low fat icy cold treat with a wide variety of flavors to try, stop by one of their stores...or any other frozen yogurt shop (as there are soo many now).

Yogurtland
http://www.yogurt-land.com/

Sweet Republic Artisan Ice Cream - Scottsdale, AZ

One of my favorite foods to eat is ice cream. Whether it be in the hot summer months or freezing cold 30 degree winters, I would still have some ice cream. So when I saw this article about the Top 10 Ice Cream Shops around the US, I had to try one of these places. Sweet Republic was the most easily accessible to me located in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Salted Butter Caramel

The article said the must try flavor was Salted Butter Caramel. That sounds weird right? But it's soo good. It's the perfect blend of salty and sweet. It's overall still sweet with a bit of saltiness...and the caramel is just so caramel-y. The ice cream is soft and is the perfect consistency (to me). It definitely is a must try...especially if you like caramel! This is one of their regular flavors so it will always be there.

Purple Yam and Real Mint Chip

The purple scoop is Purple Yam ice-cream and the green scoop beneath is Real Mint Chip. The purple yam is sweet...but doesn't taste like a regular yam or potato or taro or any other type of root vegetable. It has it's own flavor and they made it very delicious. You can sample the flavor before you buy it...but this flavor is not normally there. The Real Mint Chip is naturally green from the mint leaves they use. No artificial coloring here! They also shave the chocolate so all the flavors melt in your mouth. This is also one of their regular flavors and it's delicious too. Everything I've had here is delicious.

Sweet Republic makes their ice-creams in small batches and every single thing is handmade. They use local and the freshest ingredients possible. The waffle bowls were delicious too. Yes that's made from scratch too. They have regular flavors and other ones that are available when the ingredients are in season...so you can always try something a little different. I think the ingredients they use and the small batches made every day make a big difference in the quality of their ice cream. They do sell some of their most popular flavors at the local Whole Foods. I've bought some at Whole Foods instead of going to the store and the flavors are still delicious. The only thing is that the ice cream is a bit harder in your freezer...not sure what temperature they keep their ice cream at but that temperature makes everything perfect. So if you're in Scottsdale and love a good ice cream I highly recommend Sweet Republic.

Sweet Republic Ice Cream

http://www.sweetrepublic.com/home.html

9160 East Shea Boulevard

Scottsdale, AZ 85260

480-248-6979