Review#93: Look – Baskin Robbins 「ルック : サーティワンアイスクリーム」

25Jan11

Those of you who can read the katakana, and don’t know about it – Baskin Robbins in Japan is called “31”. In the US, or at least where I live, everyone calls it “Baskin Robbins”, but yeah. The 31 is part of the name in the US, but it’s just not said.

It’s taken me a long time to get to this Look chocolate (and before I even finished the two I bought, I already bought another one!!!). This was the first Look chocolate that I saw online, and the reason why I wanted to try it. It just looked so delicious. Mixing ice cream (BR Brand too!) with chocolate sounds like heaven.

Are you the type of person who saves the best for last or eats the best first? I think, I’m the former. So, when I was trying to decide which Look to open first, I had to decide which looked “better”. In the end, I guess I decided the Baskin Robbins one. Of course, it wasn’t entirely my decision, it was a bit biased. On my part, I thought that, indeed, the parfaits looked delicious, but the Basin Robbins sounded better in terms of the taste within the chocolate, not just as the actual dessert (If that makes any sense of course). It was a little biased, however, because I looked at reviews and people deemed the Baskin Robbins better than the Parfait A La Mode.

Taste:
Just like with the last Look, there are four flavors : Strawberry Cheesecake, Jamoca Coffee, Orange Sherbert and Vanilla.

Strawberry Cheesecake 「ストロベリーチーズケーキ」
Another Strawberry Cheesecake flavor huh. Gee. Coincidence much?

Upon cutting the first piece, I realized something. That this chocolate doesn’t have the liquidy goop that the last Look Chocolate did. Since the Parfait was my first one, I thought all the Looks had insides like that, but I guess not.

The smell is of chocolate and faintly strawberry (but of course, my smelling abilities suck). The taste is pretty good. The chocolate is bitter, and the strawberry is a little sweet, but mostly tart. I really love the texture of Look chocolates, it just kind of melts in your mouth. This piece isn’t that good though, only because well, I wouldn’t exactly call this strawberry cheesecake though, if you know what I mean. It’s still good though, but not for what it’s meant to be.

Jamocha Coffee 「ジャモカコーヒー」
I’m a little bit confused. The katakana and the English read “Jamoca” but I’m pretty sure that’s not the way to spell it. Well, I don’t know. I googled it, and I guess that’s how BR spells that specific flavor. I really love coffee, so I’m looking forward to this. I can strongly smell the coffee scent, promising.

Mmm, it’s slightly bitter, but there are some sweet elements to it. It’s definitely bitter in the way coffee is (not like dark chocolate), but it’s not like it’s black coffee. Coffee with a little bit of creamer and sugar I suppose. Of course, I have to say this tastes good and it is a good representation, I suppose. The coffee part, yes, but I’m not too sure about the Jamoca part seeing as I haven’t tried Jamoca coffee before.

Orange Sherbert 「オレンジシャーベット」
I don’t think I’ve ever had a “favorite” flavor of ice cream. Certainly I liked things like Brownie Fudge, and Green Tea, and Strawberry Cheesecake and French Vanilla. But not one specific flavor I adored. I do, however, remember that I always loved sherbets. Especially rainbow sherberts. I don’t know, I suppose my “favorite” was fruit flavors. But not exactly.

Anyways, back to the topic on hand. I don’t really smell anything, except the chocolate. Actually, I’m wondering now whether the chocolate they use is dark chocolate or milk chocolate. It tastes like dark chocolate. Oh my goodness! I love it. It’s tart, and totally tastes like Orange Sherbert. It completely captures the essence of the ice cream, and makes it taste good as a chocolate. This piece is seriously to die for, at least for me. I really love the tangy/tartness of the orange and then the darkness of the chocolate provides a stark contrast. Very delicious!!!

Vanilla「バニラ」
I’m not expecting much with these, seeing as it’s an “original flavor” and it can’t really top something as awesome as the orange sherbert. What I mean, is, that it might be good, but it won’t be very “pizazz-y” or “amazing”.

Again, I can only smell the chocolate. The taste is, just as predicted. A little bit plain. It’s good, but plain. The vanilla is sweet, I think maybe a little much because I can’t even taste the darkness of the chocolate. It doesn’t really taste like French vanilla or anything, or even Vanilla beans. Just…regular vanilla.

Nutritional Facts:
Net Wt: 1.48oz (42g)
Serving Size: 4 pieces (14g)
Servings: 3
Calories: 75
Total Fat: 4.5g
Sat Fat: 1g
Cholesterol: 0g
Sodium: 10mg
Total Carbo: 8g
Sugars: 8g
Protein: 1g

Cost:
I bought this at the market for $2.68. You can get it for $2.69 at napaJapan (but it is currently unavailable).

Read reviews by Japanese Snack Reviews and Stephen Loves Candy.

I really like the Orange Sherbert and Jamoca (is pretty good too), but since the other two aren’t so great this only gets –

(I would hypothetically buy it again, I suppose)

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