NEW! Specially Selected Gingerbread Ice Cream (ALDI)

Earlier this week I reviewed ALDI's Specially Selected Mince Pie ice cream, and mentioned that I'd also picked up the gingerbread tub, so here's your second (and final) instalment in their Christmassy ice cream specials...

I don't know why, but gingerbread flavoured ice cream appealed to me much less than mince pie. I love gingerbread, but gingerbread flavoured foodstuffs have less appeal. Take M&S' teacakes (the toaster kind) for example; it took me a while to make the purchasing plunge -and now I stock up whenever I spot them reduced at the end of the day. ASDA are selling a frozen gingerbread cheesecake at the moment, yet that doesn't really appeal either. It's the one flavour I need convincing. Gingerbread Lattes? Absolutely! Lebkuchen? Addicted! Ice cream? Mmm, not so sure. After dillydallying for a while I decided to buy it anyway.

"Gingerbread flavour ice cream, swirled with toffee sauce, gingerbread biscuit pieces and fudge pieces."

This ice cream was noticeably firmer than the mince pie flavour, but was still easy to scoop straight from the freezer. I was pleased to spot so many fudge and biscuit pieces embedded within, even at the very top. The sauce was far less abundant, but could still be seen in subtle swirls.

There was no mistaking the flavour of this ice cream given the warming ginger that came through in every mouthful; offering the perfect juxtaposition against the creamy coolness. The heat wasn't unbearable either, but was bold enough to be true to it's namesake. As for the abundant gingery biscuit pieces, they reminded me of lebkuchen. As you know, I love the traditional German Christmas treat, but in this case the softness was a bit of an antilclimax as the additional texture (from something akin to a gingernut) would have been welcome. There were plenty of fudge cubes to mix up the consistency though, but they were more chewy and toffee like than expected, and I found that they stuck to my teeth. Gah ALDI, I don't have the patience to faff when eating my ice cream! The toffee sauce seemed to have gone AWOL in my tub too, and I really hope that it hadn't missed out entirely. Hopefully I'll find a pool of it at the bottom. 

It's fair to assume that this was my least favourite of ALDI's two festive ice creams, although admittedly it's still a pretty damn good, and not one I'll shun when selecting my nightly dessert.

7/10