Sometimes Foodie: Aldi's Take on Ben & Jerry's Phish Food (Only $2.00!)

Turtley Awesome Ice Cream Pint - Aldi $1.99 ($1.79 on sale!)

Living with a food blogger isn't as glamorous as it may seem. First of all, my home is a dieters worst nightmare. I have candy and snacks in pretty much every room of the house. (Except the bathrooms because that's gross. They have food scented bath products and soaps instead #foodieforlife.) I have a freezer full of junk food and ice cream, and a pantry packed with limited edition cookies and chips. Which leads me to the other problem, which has plagued everyone I've ever lived with, "Is this safe to eat?"

I get the frustration, you see something yummy and you want to eat it. That's what any sane person would do, but we food bloggers are ~~insane~~ different. We need to photograph, write up, and post on social media. It's just what we do...when we have time to do it.

So, the story is: I've had these Aldi pints in the fridge for a while, I didn't have much time to blog, and my family had been anxious to eat them..so this got eaten, a little bit. Normally I'm adamant about the food items I photograph being brand new and untouched, but we're just going to have to roll with it...

Again, we have so ugly packaging. It's not all that different from the others, and I've already said everything I have to say about it's looks, so let's get right into how this tastes.

The base is classic chocolate ice cream, with white marshmallow swirls, and little caramel-filled chocolates. Sound familiar? Well as far as I can tell, this is off-branded version of Phish Food. It's not a complete copy, since Phish Food has caramel swirls and plain 'ol fudge-fish, but it's the closest dupe I could find.

Now, this was not my family's first pint, we already had one of these in the freezer. TO combat the whole "safe to eat" issue, I'll occasional buy two items, one they can eat now for that instant gratification, and another for me to review at my leisure. Well, that plan kind of backfired. One was polished off during some Parks and Recs Netflix marathon-ing, and the other was mistaken for the first and well...

This is all that's left. On the bright side, this tells you how good it is.

The chocolate ice cream is fairly rich and slightly bitter, with an almost chocolate-syrup-like flavoring to it, the marshmallow swirls add sweetness and some fluffy texture, and the caramel "turtles" (That kinda looks like little turtle shells) are crunchy with a coffee-caramel flavored center. The most surprising component was the caramel, the burnt sugar and coffee notes appeal to a more grown up palette and keep this from being too cloying, and the added crunchy of the chilly chocolate helped to keep things interesting.

As a teen, I loved Phish Food, and would buy a pint of it every now and again from 7-Eleven to enjoy at a sleep over, and I gotta say, this one isn't quite the same. The other flavors are near spot-on dupes, but the fact that the caramel in contained in the tiny chocolate turtles does change this one up a bit. I don't think that's a bad thing, I'd pay $2.00 for this over the $5.00 real-deal, but if you're a big fan looking to replace your favorite on a budget, this one might leave you cold.

Personally, I liked this flavor a lot, it wouldn't break my top three Aldi pints, but I certainly wouldn't kick it out of my freezer. On the other hand, my boyfriend's daughter has been on a chocolate ice cream kick and she really enjoyed this one. She'll be pretty sad when this one leaves the shelves, so if you like chocolate ice creams, you owe it to yourself to check out this cost effective little pint before it's gone!