Credit: Liv Averett / Target
Copy this link to share with your friends!
https://sporked.com/article/protein-pints-ice-cream-review/
Have you ever wished you could eat a pint of ice cream as your pre-workout snack? Well, I suppose you could, but you won’t get them gains, you’ll probably just get indigestion. But now high protein ice cream exists, including a new line from a brand called Protein Pints. And get gains you will: This is not low fat, low cal ice cream, but it is low sugar (around 80% less sugar than regular ice cream), low carb (as long as you subtract fiber and allulose from the total carb count), and, as we established, high protein at 30g a pint.
You could probably tell by looking at me, but I don’t hit the gym much. I do eat a lot of ice cream, though! So while I can’t tell you whether Protein Pints ice cream will sufficiently fuel your fitness journey, I can tell you whether it tastes good. So let’s do that!
- Protein Pints Cookie Dough
-
Pros: This pint has 30 grams of protein, 480 calories, and a whopping 30 grams of fat. As I said, this is not low fat or low cal ice cream—you simply have to make peace with that. This has teeeeny tiny bits of cookie dough and a decent smattering of dark chocolaty shards. Both of those elements are good, but the real victory is the vanilla ice cream base, which is very creamy. It has just a little bit of a protein powder flavor, but as you eat you definitely stop noticing it. And it’s really not bad to begin with, especially if you enjoy vanilla protein shakes. This ice cream is also gluten free, free of artificial sweeteners, and low sugar—there’s only 5g sugar per serving (it’s sweetened with allulose instead). I can’t say this is the best protein ice cream because we haven’t tried other brands yet, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t up there among the best.
Cons: I don’t want to harp too much on fat and cals, but it’s worth pointing out that this is the most caloric and highest fat of all the Protein Pints flavors. If you’re also keeping an eye on that, you might want to pick up a less indulgent flavor, like Chocolate or Strawberry.
- Protein Pints Mint Chip
-
Pros: Like all good mint chip ice cream, this tastes refreshing and minty without tasting like toothpaste. There are little shards of dark chocolate in the mix. This Protein Pints flavor has the same benefits as the others—high protein, low sugar. Great! And, again, it actually tastes like ice cream. It’s creamy and rich. And it really barely tastes like the alternative sweeteners.
Cons: It’s a pretty weird color—it’s a tad swampy. It’s also just a tad grainier than the other flavors, but nothing you can’t get past, especially if you love mint chip ice cream. The chocolate distribution isn’t bad, but I’d always take more.
- Protein Pints Strawberry
-
Pros: This tastes like a cross between a very good strawberry protein shake and a strawberry milkshake. That’s not bad! There’s a definite protein quality to it, but, again, you don’t really notice it as you continue to eat. This pint has 30g protein, 4g sugar, and a somewhat more reasonable 18g of fat per pint. And while the nutrition label says it has 17g carbs per serving, their protein-carb math reduces net carbs to 6g.
Cons: This has a little bit of that stretchy, guar gum kind of texture, but nothing too disturbing. I also reeeeeeally love when strawberry ice cream contains actual bits of strawberry and you won’t find any of that in here (too much sugar, probably). If you’re hooked on little tangy bits of fruit and crunchy little seeds in your strawberry ice cream, this might come off as a bit too fakey.
- Protein Pints Peanut Butter Chip
-
Pros: This one surprised us all. This is genuinely good peanut butter ice cream scattered with the same dark chocolate shards that are in the other “chip” pints. This one has 30g protein, 420 calories, and 24g of fat—not exactly health food, but a damn good peanut butter ice cream all the same.
Cons: Like the mint chip, this one also has a bit of grittiness that other flavors just don’t have. BUT it sort of makes sense in the context of a peanut butter ice cream since peanut butter is, in fact, a bit grainy.
- Protein Pints Chocolate
-
Pros: This is creamy and fluffy and just tastes like a good chocolate ice cream. It doesn’t taste like alternative sweeteners. It’s not at all grainy, but it contains 30g protein all the same. I really don’t think most people could tell this apart from regular chocolate ice cream.
Cons: I mean, it’s plain chocolate ice cream. If you’re a mix-ins hound, this isn’t going to wow you, but if you want to eat ice cream in lieu of your usual chocolate protein shake this summer, this high protein ice cream is definitely worth trying.
Copy this link to share with your friends!
https://sporked.com/article/protein-pints-ice-cream-review/
About the Author
Gwynedd Stuart, Sporked’s managing editor, is an L.A.-based writer and editor who spends way, way too much time at the grocery store. She’s never met an Old El Paso taco or mozzarella stick she didn’t like.
Thoughts? Questions? Complete disagreement? Leave a comment!