Product Review: Dippin Dots Dot Monster Munch Ice Cream

I recently hosted a Dippin Dots ‘Dot Monster Munch’ House Party through http://houseparty.com/. I am not being paid to blog about my experience, nor was I asked to. I was asked to share via twitter and take one picture during the party for verification that we held the party and post it to the website. They ask for your word that you’ll share the goodies as intended and that’s about it. This is pretty typical of hosting a House Party and I was thrilled to get an awesome party pack with few conditions attached.

Included from House Party were:

Balloons- since it was a birthday party we didn’t use these but saved them back
Pin back buttons- we used these as table decorations
Signs and poster-Didn’t use them
Party hats- I broke one and gave up on trying to put another one together and just used the string around my almost 3 yo’s head
Trading cards- These explain the ice cream flavors and everyone had a good time reading them.
Coupons for free shipping on an order of Dippin Dots *****
Cups- Paper cups with decorated plastic outer
Color changing spoons-these were a huge hit! Being a ‘green-ish’ mom, I washed these plastic spoons and tried them again the next morning, they still work!

Dippin Dots shipment:

This included two bags of dry ice chunks and two 8-count boxes (one purple, one blue) of monster munch ice cream in varying flavors. There were 2 cups of each, I wish we could have just selected one or two flavors to try or mixed the boxes up, but the varieties held appeal for most everyone. Coming from DD, I assumed that it would be… well, dotty! But it was regular ice cream. If you do, in fact decide at some point to order from Dippin Dots, you can either order the multi-pack or whole boxes of a single flavor.

Special care: There were instructions included with our party pack as to how to handle the dry ice, although it was packed in such a way that you wouldn’t even need to touch it if you didn’t want to. In descending order, the levels were:box (which I cut down the side to access the lip of the cooler), cooler, bit of paper, the boxes of ice cream, then the dry ice inside bags. It was left on my porch and didn’t require a signature, so you’d have to know when it was delivered but the ice lasted a couple of days inside the re-flapped box in a garage in the summer, and the ice cream itself takes 24 hours to temper back to edible state, so there’s not much chance of it melting before you got to it.

Halloween party treats Dippin Dots

Green factor: Regular ice cream comes in a variety of different containers, so their ‘greenness’ is dependent upon which kind of container you buy. For specialty flavors, they often come in non-recyclable coated cardboard containers. Is this more green than regular ice cream? The boxes, paper, and plastic lids of the small ice cream containers are recyclable. The dry ice of course disintegrates, and the paper cups and outer plastic bags are iffy–if you have decent recycling, in your area, you might be able to recycle the bags or toss them in the bag recycling at the mega mart. So you’re left with the paper cups. Overall, not too bad for a pre-packaged and shipped product!

dippin dots ice cream

Review: So what’s this ice cream like? The flavors mimic other common ideas: banana, cookie dough, chocolate chunk, strawberry, etc. with a monster twist. Candy eyeballs anyone? It’s difficult in our area to find large containers of ANY flavor of ice cream. You’re limited to chocolate or vanilla. In order to serve an entire party a specialized flavor of ice cream, it would take several smaller containers that are around $4-5 each. While not every flavor in the boxes was a winner in our books, there were several that were very good and comparable to national brands in taste and texture, with the added ‘gross’ factor of flavors such as polar bear poop and monkey mess, you are sure to find something you really enjoy. Add in that they’re pre-portioned and easy to open and you’ve got a great solution for a creepy, yet satisfying party!