Baskin-Robbins offers a free scoop of new "healthy" ice cream to gym members
Baskin-Robbins new line of ice creams that it is unveiling in January, called BRight Choices, don't necessarily qualify as health foods, but rather that new category of foods that aren't as bad for you as they were before, if you eat the quantity suggested as a serving. This is the ice cream shop version of 100-calorie packs, probably designed with the audiences in New York and other places that now require chains to list calories on all their products.
When faced with a display case full of options that are listed at over 250+ calories per serving, the 90-calorie scoop of vanilla yogurt with 0 grams of fat seems like a pretty rational choice for a 2.5 ounce scoop, as does the 80 calorie strawberry sorbet. The 140-calorie raspberry chip and 130-calorie chocoloate are a little more dicey, but still something a lot of people could justify for an evening treat (be sure to ask if the cone count in the calories, because the BR press release is unclear).
On January 15, the chain will offer a free scoop as a taste test to anyone who can show a gym membership card. That's the part that irked me a little as a working mom. Can I present my two kids in their double stroller, which I push a mile to pick them up? Could I just present my post-partum belly and insist that I need a treat, but really can't afford too many calories?
On January 15, the chain will offer a free scoop as a taste test to anyone who can show a gym membership card. That's the part that irked me a little as a working mom. Can I present my two kids in their double stroller, which I push a mile to pick them up? Could I just present my post-partum belly and insist that I need a treat, but really can't afford too many calories?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
12-30-2008 @ 9:17PM
Antiliberal Tyrone said...
Baskin Robbins has a good product, glad to see them offer a healthy version.. and they don't mis politics with their ads like Ben & Jerrys...will not buy from them....all these people who try to shove their liberal politics down the publics throats are digusting and I'm boycotting this activity (Tina Fey, Oprah, David Letterman and a bunch others.....
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12-30-2008 @ 9:46PM
amanda said...
Why do have to turn ice cream into big deal it's just ice cream.
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12-30-2008 @ 11:07PM
Jennifer said...
If your going to BR for a cone who wants to be bothered eating something fat free and low calorie. If that was the case I'd stay home and have an apple. They all have a funky after taste and I'd much rather have the real thing than cancer causing sugar substitutes. YUCK.. oh well, good luck with that anyway.
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12-30-2008 @ 11:37PM
Brandi said...
I work at a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins combo and so got to try the new ice cream before it came out, and I will say that the strawberry sorbet, new chocolate, and new vanilla is actually better than the old stuff. But I will say that their new "low fat" milkshakes are a joke, but those still carry 500+ calories. So defiantly try a sample of the new stuff if you go.
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12-31-2008 @ 12:02AM
CityMInx said...
The issue isn't the number of calories, it's all the chemicals and unhealthy gunk they put in there to make it taste good. I'd rather have a small amount of regular, using real ingredients, than a whole scoop of chemicals.
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12-31-2008 @ 12:21AM
michelle said...
wITH or without a gym membership which is not fair to the rest of the community, I will not be trying anything or buying anything with sugar substitutes. They taste awful..did i read that in the article -does the new flavor sorbet have this or did someone just assume that fact? I want real sugar too. forget the substitute
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12-31-2008 @ 12:22AM
Deb said...
On the rare occasion I do treat myself to Baskin-Robbins I want the "good stuff". My favorite is Cocolate Moose Royale with a scoop of Pralines n' Cream.
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12-31-2008 @ 12:26AM
Benesorama said...
Hows about some organic ice cream, eh?
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12-31-2008 @ 2:41AM
michele said...
I think it's discrimination to require the customer to show a gym membership card in order to try the new ice cream. What if you can't afford a gym membership and work out on your own? What if you don't have the time to go to a gym? I work two jobs and have an autistic teen. Believe me, I never get out to a movie, let alone the gym. The gym membership requirement is pretty crappy, if you ask me.
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12-31-2008 @ 5:01AM
Lacy said...
Baskin-Robbins (or as my son calls it, Christopher Robins) is too expensive! We have a chain here called Marble Slab Creamery that mixes their wonderful, homemade ice creams on a fozen marble slab with a mix-in of your choice of fruits, nuts, candies, cookies, etc. on in a homemade cone or waffle bowl... it's less expensive than Baskin-Robbins, and 1000% better, too.
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12-31-2008 @ 5:03AM
Lacy said...
Sorry, I meant "frozen" instead of "fozen".
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12-31-2008 @ 11:50AM
Military Mom said...
Baskin Robbins tryed this before and it failed, when the consumer goes into a Franchise like BR they are looking for a confection. I would not step inside a BR because of the way that they treat their franchisee's. As a former employee of BR I saw first hand how the little mom and pops pay for these crazy ideas with their franchise fee's, increased cost of the traditional products. I also saw how the franchisee was required to bring in that failed product even if the store owner did not think that it would work in his or her area. After Baskin-Robbins was purchased by Allied Domec of London these practices got even worse. Please bring back Baskin and Robbins they knew how to treat franchisee's. I sleep better at night knowing that I am not craming these failing products down my franchisee's checkbook.
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