Baskin-Robbins Mandarin Chocolate.

[Bostonbob3]

Has anybody seen this flavor at a BR store lately? It's my fav of all time (store-bought, anyway), and they used to feature it every once in a while. But I haven't seen it in ages.

[Bob W]

How did I miss this thread? This is my all-time favorite BR flavor. But, for anyone in the Boston area, get thee to Toscanini's near MIT -- their orange chocolate is off the charts.

[roselinck]

I talk about this flavor all the time! I was talking about it tonight. No one else seems to ever remember it. I bought it often in the 1970's. It was an interesting flavor...tangy, sherberty, yet kinda like ice cream. i dunno. Really good!

[PythagoreanTheorem]

EEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWW. Artificial, disgusing, weird looking, and GROSS. It disgustes me how people like this crud. Bubble gum flavored ice cream? Rainbow Sherbert? I mean, what's RAINBOW? Cotton Candy? It's obviosly fake, since cotton candy is pure sugar, and sugar ice cream sounds pretty unappetizing. Even though that's practically all it is. Also, Vanilla Ice cream is supposed to have small black dots in i, and yours is just white. I used to think the Baskin Robbins logo was kinda cute, until you changed it! And most of your workers arent very friendly, once they charged me for a taste. Please try to make your ice cream less artificial, it's probably the reason why most americans are overweight or unhealthy.

[The Engineer]

Maybe they strained the tahitian vanilla out of the scalded milk, egg and cream mixture with a fine chinois before churning. Kidding.

[JK Grence the Cosmic Jester]

Um... BR doesn't offer cotton candy ice cream. They do have bubblegum ice cream, but I don't think most people over the age of 10 would think of asking for a scoop. Thrifty does make cotton candy flavor ice cream, and it is scary-bright neon pink, purple, and blue.

Since you asked... rainbow sherbet is a swirl of three different sherbet flavors. Raspberry/orange/lime is pretty traditional, but Baskin-Robbins does raspberry/orange/pineapple.

If you think that vanilla ice cream is supposed to have black dots in it, then you've fallen prey to the Breyer's marketing machine. Homemade vanilla ice cream may have dark specks from the use of real vanilla beans. If a mass-market ice cream has speck of vanilla bean, they're ground up bits of spent vanilla beans, not the vanilla itself.

[bulavinaka]

It's all good - literally. I mean - c'mon '- when you're a kid, ice cream is ice cream for most. Why stomp on peoples' memories as a child? Yes, alot of folks' tastes become more discriminating and their selections become more educated, but for instance, I've had many great vanilla ice creams/gelatos from high-end parlors/restos that have no vanilla seeds in them. If I were charged for a taste at a BR, I'd be contacting their corporate office.

[HollyDolly]

They opened up in Schertz both a BR and a Mable Slab Creamery,and I haven't been to either yet.
I have liked some of the flavours they have.I usually buy just the Blue Bell or H.E.B.Grocerystore pint size of icecream if I want some.
I like LifeSaver's sherbert.They have cherry,raspberry watermelon,and another flavour all in one container and also a container of tropical flavours like banana and mango,etc.

I think in the old days people when they made home made vanilla icecream,they used real vanilla extract,rather than the real bean,as they might have been considered expensive.

[likesweets]

My Mom who is now in Heaven used to love it so much that we couldn't buy it often enough. Unfortunately one day we showed up to get our fill and they said they weren't making it anymore. We tried to find a replacement flavor to suit her tastes but nothing quite ever took the place of mandarin chocolate sherbet. Perhaps they'll bring it back one day.

[ChowFun_derek]

Just a reminder...you can call Baskin Robbins Customer Service and keep requesting it...maybe with enough requests they will return it to the flavor lineup...here's the #

800-859-5339.

[aynrandgirl]

I haven't seen Chocolate Mousse Royale (my favorite) lately, either. It seems to randomly come and go.

[cyclometric]

I used to love that BR flavor, as well, but have always been happy with my quick at-home version. I just sprinkle a generous couple of tablespoons of unsweetened cocoa over a couple of scoops of store-bought orange sherbet, and mix well. Mmmm... It's got that same bitter-chocolate/orange taste that the original had. Enjoy!

[aynrandgirl]

As much as I like orange, here's nothing remotely orange flavored about Chocolate Mousse Royale.

[mgershenson]

LOL, that was the only ice cream I ever (and still do) crave, but I haven't seen it in 30 years! Every time summer rolls around I wonder whether they're ever going to bring it back. Nice to see I'm not alone....

[Taralli]

My absolute, all-time favorite too! I still look for it each time I pass a BR store. Why don't you call their 800 number & find out if they'd start making it again?

[toodie jane]

just to note that a local ice cream parlor started out as a BR store, but he went independant and brought in Double Rainbow and another brand from Oregon. When I asked why, he said BR was putting too many chemical ingredients in the ice cream and he couldn't in all good conscience sell it to his long-time customers anymore.

[heidipie]

Mandarin Chocolate Sherbet was a childhood obsession of mine too. It wasn't listed anywhere on the Baskin-Robbins website, but if anybody is motivated, their customer service number is 800-859-5339.

[Bostonbob3]

It's actually good to know they had it as recently as 2003. Maybe that means it hasn't gone the way of the dinosaur.

[NeNePie]

My Dad and I would go to Baskin Robbins for Mandarin Chocolate almost every week (when they had it). That was in the late sixties/early seventies. My sister still tells me the story of how I at six or seven came home with Mandarin Chocolate all over my face, and it looked like I had a mustache and beard.

[kittyfood]

I remember that one too, probably from the 1970s -- don't remember having seen it in ages, but I don't get to BR that often (and when I do, I generally get the peanut butter & chocolate which has, fortunately for my taste, remained on the regular menu). But I loved the chocolate/orange combination, and I believe it was the first I'd ever heard of combining those types of flavors. Now, of course, we are used to finding all sorts of fruit flavors mixed with chocolate.

I just googled for a recipe and found quite a few, not exactly like the original, but possibly promising, including:

http://www.lanierbb.com/recipes/data/3181.html

http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recs/370/Chocolate_Orange_Ice_Cream377.shtml

http://www.fatfree.com/recipes/frozen...

Sarah C

[Humbucker]

I LOVE Baskin Robbins peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. I wish some other scoop shop or company offerred it because I haven't been to Baskin Robbins in years. They seem like a place that would use lots of HFCS and artifical ingredients.

[latimbear]

Actually, I DID have a recipe for a Chocolate Orange Sherbet that I no longer have. It tasted ALMOST IDENTICAL to the Mandarin Chocolate Sherbet that lead me here. It came with a refrigerator that I bought in the 80's that had all of the bell-and-whistles including a built-in ice cream maker complete with recipes. The recipe had cocoa, undiluted frozen orange juice, milk and nothing scary. It was even the near black color of the BR sherbet.

I wish I could find that recipe now....

[jfood]

I can't eat BR since it traumatized my teeage years. Every friday we went to BR growing up and it was horrible in the '70's. One night we had a big argument on how good it was and I asked someone to leave a scoop in a cup overnight. The following morning it still had it's shape, barely melted. Haven't eaten again since 1978.

There is a God though and moved to a town in CT over ten years ago that has one ice cream shop, you gussed it, BR. Hundreds of visits later with kids and as coach of numerous soccer teams and still can't eat it. My wife tries constatntly to convince me to try and I smile at her and decline. I just can't do it.

I trust the Posters so far in this thread so I ask, Has It Changed?

[The Engineer]

eww... that explains the consistency I remember! Rocky Road was like a sweet chair cushion, complete with pocket detritus. I have been recently, and the ice cream's consistency is more like ice cream these days. :)

[Chowpatty]

That was my absolute favorite flavor as a kid! I would love to have it again but I haven't seen it in years -- had no idea it was around in 2003.

[Das Ubergeek]

It was last around in 2003 -- we bought so much of it that the Woodland Hills store stocked it just for us!

[Bostonbob3]

Do you have any left? I'm getting the ice cream DTs.

[Das Ubergeek]

I don't, unfortunately... it never lasted long!

[Debbie W]

Have you seen any Swensen's Swiss Orange Chip around the SFV? I would be forever in your debt!

[Das Ubergeek]

I'm sorry but Swensen's is long closed, in the U.S. anyway... I haven't seen Swensen's anything in a few years, and I miss it.

[ChowFun_derek]

As of July of 2006 at least, it was up and running on Russian Hill in S.F.

http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/pr...

[Gary Soup]

The original Swensen's at Union and Hyde is independently owned (by the store's former manager) and still going. It has no connection to the chain (owned by a Canadian holding company) which is big in South America, the Middle East, and especially Asia (90+ branches in Thailand!)

[Steve Green]

I believe there are a few franchise locations floating around. There's a March Yelp review of one in Pleasanton, anyway--sort of a combo Vietnamese/diner place. There used to be a Swensen's in the Stardust in Las Vegas--but I can say with absolute certainty that it's gone, as the Stardust was imploded back in March. I fondly remember that ice cream from my childhood, especially a long-vanished flavor called Taffy Apple.

[bulavinaka]

The last I saw a Swensen's in the Westside was the mid-80's. Swensen's is still relatively popular in Asia - at least Singapore and Malaysia...

[Funwithfood]

Mmmm, that flavor sounds right up my alley....I'll take a look next time I'm in.

P.S. Baskin-Robbins recently changed their logo & signage, not a good change.