I bought this because it seemed to me a strange combo of flavors, and indeed it was. Fruity up front, with a long tail of dark maple syrup flavor–very strong–bringing up the rear.
I didn’t really like it. It seemed imbalanced, at first skipping lightly through the blueberry bushes tra-la, and then *boom* this primeval maple forest tree-sap all up in your grill.
But you know me. If there’s sugar in it, I’ll keep eating it. And you can’t just throw it out, right? Diet starts tomorrow, etc.
So I kept at it (Sylvain helped). Eventually, the blueberry-maple flavor combo grew on me.
One thing that helped flip my opinion: ice cream in Québec is made with real, full-on dairy products–none of this overinflated or “ice milk” stuff. It’s creamy and luxe and very nice, especially in the high heat and humidity we’ve been experiencing lately.
Also, as you can see from the package photo: no artificial flavors or colors, which make a big difference in eatability for me (as a super-smeller and therefore somewhat-super-taster, I can’t eat most things with artificial flavors. “Hazelnut” flavor gives me immediate headaches, and I’ll literally spit-take anything with saccharine or aspartame.)
So if this had been a chintzy U.S. ice cream-like substance with nasty chemical flavorizing, it would have been a big thumbs-down. But because the product was fresh and well-made, I gave it a second chance, and that made the difference.
If you’ve never heard of Irresistables, that’s because it’s a private brand made for the Québec supermarket chain Metro. Many Irresistables products are locally sourced or made with locally sourced ingredients, and they are moderately priced. I don’t know that I’ll ever buy their blueberry maple ice cream again, but I would be willing to try other items in their product line after experiencing this one.
SCORES
Product quality: high
Maple flavor: definitely there, kicks ya like a maple-y mule
Would do again? Don’t need to, but glad I did. Would recommend to the maple-curious.