Junk Food Nation, I’ve mentioned this before, but in my real non-blogger life, I’m an attorney – a trial attorney.  I know, I know: 1) ZZZZZZZZZZZ and 2) IT’S PEOPLE LIKE ME WHO ARE RUINING ‘MURICA. Yeah, yeah.

Anyways, yesterday I didn’t throw up a blog post review because I had a trial – a long one.  One that caused me to go into lockdown mode Tuesday evening, and caused me to be disconnected from the world all day yesterday.  A trial that made my eyes and head hurt so that when I came home, all I wanted to do was collapse on my living room floor.

We live in a world where social media keeps us constantly connected, so I wanted to list out everything I saw that I missed when I finally reconnected with the interweb-world around 11:00pm last night:

a) 10 tweets, 3 Facebook notifications: Yeah, I’m popular. #brag

b) 0 instagram likes: Not that popular. #weep

c) 5 LinkedIn messages: Who uses LinkedIn for anything useful?? No one that I know.

d) 46 personal emails: Good lord, stop copying me on group email chains

e) 5 of the 46 were LivingSocial promo emails: Five in one day, LivingSocial? Really? I UNDERSTAND YOU EXIST, I DON’T NEED AIR DUCT CLEANING.

f) 20 Junkfoodguy emails: People often email me as if I work for Frito-Lay. Trust me, I wish. But no, I don’t have any control over chip distribution.  You’ll have to drive 40 minutes out of town like I do.

g) 13 work emails: Crap. I need to respond to these.

h) 5 work phone missed calls: CRAP I NEED TO RESPOND TO THESE!

i) 13 app updates on my phone: Wait, when the hell did this happen?  LivingSocial updated too?? GIVE IT A REST, MAN.

j) 2 texts asking me how my trial is going, 1 asking why I didn’t post a review yesterday, 1 asking if I saw all the moves on NFL free agency, another 1 telling me how BS all the NFL free agency was, and 25 texts regarding American University beating Boston University to win the Patriot League. AUTOMATIC BID!

So yes, I’m back, Junk Food Nation.  Of course, I was too exhausted to tweet or even *gasp* eat any junk food last night, so today’s post is from my friend Nick who normally blogs over at OnSecondScoop.com, my resource for everything ice cream.  Take it away, Nick!

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Hello, Junk Food Nation! My name is Nick and I hail from a wonderful place of frozen desserts, also known as On Second Scoop. You may have heard of such a place from my master, Dubba, on The Nosh Show. Yes, it’s On Second SCOOP, not soup. Eric and I have discussed doing a guest post for a while now and well here I am. Seeing as I’m actually from Upstate, NY unlike Eric (Buffalo is Western, NY you tool!) – I bestow upon you a delicacy of my homeland: Stewart’s Shop Ice Cream.

I’ve elaborated over at On Second Scoop just what Stewart’s is and my childhood ties so I’ll save the copy and pasting. Long story short, they’re basically a chain of convenience stores that have their own dairy. A dairy I might add, that has won its fair share of awards at the World Dairy Expo (yes, that’s a thing). They have a wide variety of flavors but Eric suggested I review their Monkey Business flavor. I have a love hate relationship with banana flavored products so this shall be interesting.

Stewart’s description is pretty simple “Banana flavored ice cream with fudge chunks and a chocolate swirl”. So think of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey except replace the walnuts with a chocolate swirl. That sounds like a good trade to me. Kind of like when the Patriots traded an aging Drew Bledsoe to the Bills for their first round pick;]

Editor’s note: BOOOOOOOOOOOO.  Well, Bledsoe did ok.  But, BOOOOOOOOO.

Well that’s new. I’ve never seen “wonf” next to an ingredient before. According to Google, wonf stands for “with other natural flavors”. I was going to think of a clever phrase that acronym stood for but I’ve got nothing. Let’s just move on since there’s a bunch of other things I could dissect from this list you’d rather not read.

The ice cream itself looks more like a vanilla ice cream to the naked eye. If it wasn’t for the fresh peeled aroma coming off from the pint, I wouldn’t have guessed it was banana. You also have to love when you see all the components of an ice cream from the top layer. Hopefully the big chunk of fudge peeking out is a sign for things to come.

Like all Stewart’s pints, their quality is right on par with the likes of Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen-Dazs. This isn’t some mainstream ice cream and it shows in how dense the ice cream is and its creaminess. Living in Upstate, NY all my life and growing up on Stewart’s ice cream, it’s nice to see that the quality hasn’t diminished at all.

Now when it comes to banana flavored products, there’s a fine line between tasting artificial or natural. Thankfully, this one lends itself to the latter. Everyone has their preference when it comes to the ripeness factor. Personally, I like mine with a few brown spots. That said, this ice cream perfectly replicates that flavor. It’s hands down my new favorite banana base on the market. The banana flavor is strong but not overpoweringly so. Next up, you get the chocolate flavor from the swirl. Consistency wise, it’s the same as any old bottled chocolate syrup you can buy. When combined with the banana ice cream, you get a flavor reminiscent of a chocolate covered banana. Shocking, I know.

What really won me over are the copious amounts of fudge pieces. Unlike other companies *cough* Ben & Jerry’s *cough*, Stewart’s uses actual chewy pieces of fudge. The flavor of the fudge is richer than the chocolate swirl with a bit of dark chocolate qualities. It’s nice when you’re able to distinguish the various chocolate components in a pint rather than having them blend together. The fudge pieces develop a slight outer shell from being frozen but it adds to an amazing textural experience. You first get a tiny crunch then you’re met by their chewy center. It’s a wonder why I haven’t tried this flavor before because it’s damn good. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a banana ice cream this much before in my life to be honest. If you’re ever near a Stewart’s and a fan of bananas, don’t miss out on trying this flavor. If you don’t like bananas, Stewart’s is sure to have a flavor just for you.

PURCHASED AT: Stewart’s Shop

Cost: $2.99

I’d like to thank Eric for letting write a review for his site and to you guys for reading it. If you want to keep up to date with Dubba and I, be sure to like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter and Instagram as well as subscribe to our sundae projects over on Tumblr (and another Tumblr). And remember to keep on scooping!

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Thanks to Nick for his awesome post!  I’ll be back with a normal review tomorrow, Junk Food Nation.

Thoughts? Please comment below or hit me up on Twitter @junkfoodguy or LIKE my Facebook Page and message me there. I also have Google+!! Let’s hang out.

Sincerely,

Junk Food Guy