I think everyone has a “guilty pleasure”. Some of us have more than one.
“Copilot” defines guilty pleasures as.
‘Guilty pleasures are activities or indulgences we enjoy but feel slightly embarrassed or ashamed about, such as binge-watching TV, eating sweets, or playing video games.’
OK, here are a few of my guilty pleasures. Peanut butter M&M’s, Cold pizza for breakfast, “Big trouble in little China”, and Taco Bell. Yes, I know most of them are about food for me.
I was talking to my sister Jenny on the way home from work yesterday. (Yes, hands free) and she told me about one of her guilty pleasures, Dole Whip. She said this was a frozen, soft serve product that you could only find at Disneyland for decades, but now Dole had permission from Disney to go ahead and market it to the public, so now I could go out and buy. Dole Whip for myself. (She was very excited about this.)
What is Dole Whip?
Wikipedia says.
‘Dole Whip (also known as Dole Soft Serve) is a soft serve dairy-free frozen dessert created by Dole Food Company in 1983. Prior to 2023, when Dole Whip began to be sold at retailers, Dole Whip was served at Disney theme parks and Dole Soft Serve was sold elsewhere. The original pineapple flavor is the best known, and additional fruit flavors are sold.’
I must admit I really like pineapple, so now I’m intrigued. My sister told me that Dole Whip was originally available at stores in 4 packs and was becoming extremely expensive, but then they decided to market it in pint size containers, and that brought the price down where it was reasonable.
Now I’m sitting here in my office (Yes, they actually gave me an office) thinking “I need to get some of this stuff.” So, I jumped up, got in the car and headed off to Safeway.
Happily, in their ice cream section I found their selection of Dole Whip. They had pineapple, mango and guava. If you look online, they do have some other flavors available.
I picked up a pint of pineapple and a pint of mango and now I’m back in my office getting ready to try it out.
Another important aspect of Dole Whip is that it’s made with real fruit; it has no dairy products in it, and they don’t sweeten it with high fructose corn syrup.
Time for a taste test.
Keeping in mind that this product was originally developed as a soft serve product at Disneyland, getting a frozen pint out of the freezer section is not going to replicate the soft serve experience. However, I’m told that you can get soft serve Dole Whip at some of the frozen yogurt places in town. (Blue Spoon, for instance)
These two pints of Dole Whip came right out of the freezer section at Safeway and were hard as a rock but honestly, I just can’t wait. I’ve got my spoon, we’re going to try it right now.
Pineapple.
My first impression is that it’s more like sorbet than soft serve, but I think that’s because it’s frozen solid. The pineapple flavor is definitely there, including that slightly acidic after taste that you get when you’re eating fresh pineapple. I like it a lot and I’m definitely going to have some more, but first we need to try the other flavor.
Mango.
The first thing I notice about the mango flavor is that it’s creamier, less of a sorbet and a little more of an ice cream. Honestly, I’m not sure what a mango tastes like but I like this flavor and I would definitely do it again.
As much as I like pineapple, I think I like the Dole Whip mango flavor better.
I guess I’ll have to add that to my list of guilty pleasures.