Trader Joe's Soft Baked Drizzled Gingerbread Oat Bars: Despite the double-fisting polar bear on the packaging, each of these seasonal bars is individually wrapped. More similar to a soft baked cookie than a granola bar, they are moist and chewy, and while the icing feels unnecessary, it adds a festive touch. Spiced flavor contains molasses, ginger, and fig paste, along with your favorite wintery spices. A snack I would be happy to eat year round. 3.5/5.0
recommended traderjoes soft baked drizzled gingerbread oat bars 3.5
Cheeseboard Buffalo Milk Soft Serve Ice Cream: Regrettably, I ordered the swirl of chocolate and plain milk flavors, and while the texture was smooth and creamy, the chocolate had a generic taste that masked the more mild milk flavor. While it was higher quality, this ice cream did remind me a bit of the little cups of vanilla and chocolate ice cream you ate with a wooden spoon as a kid. Not bad per se, but not great either. 2.5/5.0
icecream cheeseboard buffalo milk soft serve ice cream 2.5 softserve
Uji Purple Potato Soft Serve: Returning to this small ice cream shop on Shattuck to sample additional soft serve flavors, I tried their seasonal purple potato ice cream, which came in a lovely shade of lavender. The ice cream had a rich milk flavor with only a hint of potato at the end. Given that the tofu, black sesame, and matcha flavors from Uji are all vastly superior (I've sampled all three flavors by now), I wouldn't recommend the purple potato ice cream, but it's decent. 3.0/5.0
icecream japanese berkeley uji purple potato soft serve 3.0 ujitime softserve
Uji Black sesame soft serve: The best sesame soft serve I've ever had was at a small tea shop at the Mitsuwa in Edgewater, NJ. Whenever I see black sesame ice cream on a menu, I will typically order it to see how it compares, and the one at Uji comes really close. Uji is a small Japanese sweets shop on Telegraph in Berkeley whose menu includes soft serve (matcha, tofu, black sesame), mochi ice cream, and taiyaki. I ordered a cone of black sesame soft serve which comes in a generous portion and can be optionally ordered ... (read more) 4.5/5.0
exceptional uji black sesame soft serve 4.5 ujitime
IKEA Soft Serve: Just like their furniture, IKEA's $1 soft serve is economical, minimalist, and good enough to get by. 3.0/5.0
icecream ikea soft serve 3.0 softserve
Morgenstern's Tour Pine'Our soft serve: One of my favorite chefs, Paul Liebrandt, recently collaborated with the LES ice cream shop Morgenstern's and introduced a series of special soft serve flavors over the course of a month. I sampled the last one, a swirl of strawberry hibiscus sorbet and sunchoke ice cream. The texture of the soft serve was excellent, and I especially loved the sharpness of the sorbet. The sunchoke ice cream was fine, but more of a neutral base for the sorbet. The entire dessert was topped with toasted hazel... (read more) 4.0/5.0
recommended frozen sorbet strawberry hibiscus sunchoke icecream morgensterns tour pine'our soft serve 4.0 softserve