Cream: What's All The Fuzz?

On our way home from James' volleyball camp at Stanford, we drove by University Avenue looking for a Starbuck's. Along the way, we saw this unusually long line of people that snaked its way to a place called, Cream. Well, I have never heard of this place before, but James, apparently, had. It is an ice cream place that served a scoop of ice cream between 2 cookies, with added toppings, if you wanted it.

I dropped off James a block from Starbuck's, then parked at one of the side streets. I thought we would just be waiting for James to return, but my wife got off the car and walked towards University. I figured she probably wanted to get a drink as well. Wrong !!! She was so intrigued by the queue that she fell in line at Cream. While she headed off, I stopped by Starbuck's to pick up James before proceeding to Cream.

Long line to Cream

There we were, standing along with the rest of the crowd, mostly teenagers, not knowing what to do or expect. We quickly took out our cellphones and went online to Cream's website. From their site, we got a quick education on the fine art of mixing and matching cookies and your favorite ice cream flavor. And if you had the craving for it, you can add select toppings as well. We also caught a glimpse of how the final product looked from people who came from the store and were walking towards our direction. You don't have to get a cookie ice cream sandwich if you don't want to. You can still have their ice cream the old fashion way -- in a waffle or cup.

As we moved closer to the store, there was this sign on the sidewalk that showed us the "steps" on how to go about ordering this product. After a while, this lady from the store came along and had cut-up samples of their cookies to try. My first observation was that the cookies I tried (peanut butter and white macadamia) were all crumbly. If this product was suppose to look like, smell like, and feel like an ice cream sandwich (which it was, except that it used cookies), I would think that the cookies would be a little bit chewy, instead of crumbly, so that the cookies could hold the ice cream in place after each bite. Crumbly cookies would, obviously, crumble easily, which may end up with you having less cookies to hold the ice cream with.

A Cream Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich

While we were waiting in line, the wife had asked James to run back to Starbuck's to get ice water. By the time he got back, we were next in line and just about to order. I forgot what they both got, but I had peanut butter cookies and rocky road ice cream. The server placed a scoop of ice cream in between 2 peanut butter cookies, pressed it slightly and angled it so the bottom portion of the cookies were touching each other. She then inserted it in a small paper wrapper. For 3 of these cookie-cum-ice cream, damage was just $8.97.

The serving size was just right, I thought. But again, the cookies were crumbly and did an injustice to the final product. I thought the cookies should have been chewy rather than crumbly, so it held the ice cream in place better. Texture-wise, chewy cookies would have been much better. To prove my point, go to your nearest grocery store, buy any ice cream sandwich, and tell me if the "thing" that held the ice cream together was chewy or not.

After devouring the ice cream sandwich, I asked myself what the fuzz and the hype was all about. Why the long lines? There are far better ice cream out there, and there are much better cookies, too. There wasn't anything special (or great) about this cookie-ice cream combo that people are going crazy about.

Is it worth waiting in line for? NO!!! A Klondike ice cream sandwich is much better. And there are no lines, too. But that's just me. Who knows? You might like it.