If you’re looking for the best protein ice cream, I think Archer Farms has all the top brands beat. It actually is closest to the real thing, and way better than Halo Top and Enlightened in my opinion. The best part? It’s way cheaper than the name brands – retailing at $3.69 a pint.
Archer Farms Protein Ice Cream Review
Target hopped on the healthier ice cream bandwagon and created its own lower calorie,
I have the biggest sweet tooth ever, so staying within my calories can be difficult some days if I am craving dessert. However, considering each pint is between 330-350 calories, I think this might be life-changing, and definitely will help me reach my weight loss target.
Nutrition – How do the macros in Archer Farms compare to Halo Top and Enlightened?
First, let me talk about the nutritional aspect of this ice cream. I’m not going to pretend like it’s completely healthy, but compared to regular ice cream or other desserts it definitely has way less calories, fat and sugar especially for the amount you can have. And actually it’s pretty on par with the more expensive brands Halo Top and Enlightened. I’m just going to compare Halo Top here, but Enlightened has a similar nutritional profile.
Halo Top Cookie Dough 
Archer Farms Cookie Dough
This is a comparison of the nutritional information of Archer Farms cookie dough flavor vs. Halo Top’s cookie dough. All comparisons are being made for the entire pint as it’s just easier for me to calculate it that way since the individual serving sizes are different for each brand (2/3 cup vs 1/2 cup).
Archer Farms has
However, it also contains slightly more fat (15 g per pint vs 12 g), slightly less protein (22g vs 24g) and less fiber ( 4g vs 12g).
This is just for this particular flavor, each flavor varies. Other Archer Farm’s flavors have a lot more sugar than the cookie dough and make it more similar to Halo Top.
Flavors
These are the current flavors I’ve tried, and what I’ll be reviewing below:
- Cookie Dough
- Mint Cookies and Cream
- Chocolate Peanut Butter
- Mocha Cold Brew Coffee
- Mini Donut
Additonal Flavors (Haven’t tried these)
- Chocolate Pecan Pie
- Maple Bourbon Pecan
I honestly thought all the flavors I tried were good, but I’ll go through individually and tell you my thoughts about each.
Cookie Dough
The cookie dough flavor surprised me – the vanilla ice cream had a sweet flavor, the cookie dough tasted like real cookie dough and was soft, not like the firm balls that are normally found in this flavor. It reminded me of eating cookie dough batter straight out of the bowl while it’s still soft and slightly sticky. There were also chunks of chocolate chips throughout the ice cream which added to the flavor.
What really makes this great is the texture and consistency isn’t really different than regular ice cream, it’s just a little less creamy and slightly firmer.
Mint Cookies and Cream
The mint cookies and cream flavor reminded me of the mint flavored Oreos – it had a minty flavor but also an oreo cream filling taste as well. It was really good. The texture of this one seemed maybe a little bit firmer than the others, but maybe it just needed to be left out a little longer.
Mocha Cold Brew Coffee
The Mocha flavor is coffee ice cream with huge chocolate shavings mixed in, which also have a stronger coffee taste. Overall it’s very sweet, and if you’re a fan of very sweet coffee drinks you’d probably like this. The texture was nice and soft, just like ice cream and the firm texture of the chocolate was a nice contrast.
Peanut Butter and Chocolate
The chocolate ice cream tasted like a
Mini Donut
This flavor I thought was pretty good, however, it didn’t really taste or remind me of a donut. I initially thought it would be like a cake batter flavor, but it’s not at all. It was very cinnamony tasting, and the “donut” pieces were hard. The cinnamon is a little overpowering at first, but it calms down the more you eat it (maybe because your tongue goes numb? LOL) I think if anything I would say it was more like a churro – which is still delicious. Or maybe even Cinnamon Toast Crunch! The texture was again was spot on like real ice cream, just a little less creamy.
My favorite flavors…
These are my favorites, ranked:
- Mocha Cold Brew Coffee
- Chocolate Peanut Butter
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
- Mint Cookies and Cream
- Mini Donut
I haven’t had two of the other flavors – Maple Bourbon Pecan and Chocolate Pecan pie – but they sound really good if you like that type of thing, and I’d recommend trying any of the flavors, really. It was hard to pick because I think they all are good.
If you’re looking for a healthier ice cream alternative, I’d give this brand a try for sure
Archer Farm’s definitely makes the most decent tasting protein ice cream I’ve had. It has the most similar consistency and flavor to real ice cream yet. I definitely recommend them to anyone, whether you’ve never had this type of ice cream before or are looking for a cheaper/better alternative to brands like Enlightened and Halo Top.
Having these types of lower calorie treats available will help me reach my weight loss target for Healthywage (if you don’t know what Healthywage is, read about it here!) I mean, I can actually indulge without going overboard on calories, fat and sugar so I won’t be as tempted to binge or crave the really bad for you stuff.
Leave a Reply