A few weeks back, I was at the grocery checkout when I couldn’t help but notice the twelve tubs of an ice cream brand I’d never seen before—Halo Top—on the ramp. “Hey, you must like that stuff,” I said to the man ahead of me in line. “Oh, it’s for my girlfriend,” he explained. “She lives on Halo Top. Goes through tubs of it like water on a hot day. And it’s not even fattening.”
What? A frozen dairy dessert that tastes like ice cream? Ice cream that’s so delicious you can’t stop eating it without worrying about it landing on your ass? This was my kind of treat. Within seconds, I was dashing back to the freezer aisle to grab as many flavours of this new miracle drug as I could carry. By the time I arrived, the section had been picked over and already the selection was already pretty thin but I successfully snagged a few: Caramel Macchiato, Peanut Butter Swirl, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. All I needed now was a spoon.
Suffice to say, I’m a convert. A big one. My current Halo Top top pick is Mint Chip but I also discovered way more flavours I love in the U.S, including Strawberry, Black Cherry and Lemon Cake. Now that I’ve been turned on to Halo Top, I notice it on freezer shelves everywhere and like that phantom girlfriend, I can’t get enough. I’m a convert, an addict, and there’s no going back to my love-hate relationship with the creamy stuff. Ever.
Why We Love Halo Top
This is a low-cal healthy alternative to ice cream that tastes like the real thing without making you feel sick that you just downed a pint of creamy sugar, a real no-no in summer when I’m working out every morning. Just because I’m staying in shape though doesn’t mean I don’t want to treat myself. Halo Top is exactly what I’m craving. It’s lighter and more refreshing that traditional ice cream because it’s made with skim milk (how smart is that?) and a different type of sugar but it doesn’t have that insipid aftertaste of low-fat frozen alternatives. It really is a guilt-free way to get your indulge on.
Halo Top is protein-packed, low in carbs and sugar, less than 400 calories per pint (each pint lets you know exactly how many calories right up front), and the best and most important part is that it actually tastes delicious like ice cream should.
So what makes Halo Top so sweet? The ingredients list a sugar alcohol as well as organic cane sugar and organic stevia, a plant-derived sweetener. Erythritol is said to be about 70% as sweet as sucrose and a lot less calories per gram. Also, it turns out that sugar alcohols are absorbed slowly and incompletely, and produce a smaller change in blood sugar levels than other carbohydrates without causing cavities.
Also, the containers are small. Pint-sized. So you can work your way to the bottom without freaking out.
The best part, though, are the flavours, which just seem to keep on coming and do a bang-up job of living up to their names. They’re not just cute ideas. That means you can expect Birthday Cake to taste like birthday cake and Oatmeal Cookie to taste like oatmeal cookie.
The Halo Top Creamery Story
So how did this wonderful invention come to fly out of grocery freezers everywhere?
Los Angeles-based Halo Top Creamery was founded in 2011 by former lawyer turned ice cream aficionado, Justin Woolverton, while he was on a quest to find an ice cream he could enjoy without the guilt. Delivering premium ice cream people can actually feel good about eating, Halo Top is crafted with quality, delicious ingredients. Now Halo Top has found its way all over the world and is selling loads of flavours in Canada too.
In fact, they’re flying off shelves so fast that the website recommends you call to check that your favourite Halo Top flavor is in stock before making a trip to the store. That way, you can double check and save a trip in cases of restocking. I’m not surprised. It’s that good.
What are you waiting for? Get your spoon and get to the store!
You can find Halo Top in select Loblaws, Metro Ontario, Whole Foods, Save on Foods and CO-OP® stores, for starters. Price varies by retailer but sits around $7.99/pint.
Brazen Woman was not compensated for this post, but was provided with samples to try. We only feature products we love, however.
