Happy National Strawberry Day! Strawberries are a low-calorie, low-fat, cholesterol-free food that are packed vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants.

Today we’re eating ice cream, though.

Halo Top Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream

Hey, at least it’s the LOWER calorie kind. One of my favorite ways to say “to Hell with my diet!” is to f*ck up an entire cheesecake, but Halo Top is offering a little bit of a compromise with its first cheesecake flavor.

Halo Top’s low-calorie, high-protein ice cream is not without its staunch critics, but there are many, many more advocates. In 2017 it became America’s best-selling ice cream as millions of Americans look in the mirror each and every day and think: “Oh man, where did THAT come from?”,  as they poke at parts of their bodies that didn’t exist previously. I don’t know what the 2018-2019 data looks like, but their incredible presence in most retail outlets is extremely telling.

Halo Top Strawberry Cheesecake is one of the heftier pints at 360 calories, packing a strawberry flavored ice cream base with cheesecake pieces (yep, that’ll do it!), as well as a graham swirl. It follows recent fruity dessert flavors like Blueberry Crumble and Peaches & Cream.

The base is listed as a strawberry one, with strawberries trailing only skim milk and eggs on the ingredient list. But you’ll notice right away that it isn’t pink like the original Strawberry Halo Top, and it actually doesn’t taste as fruity. It’s far from bad news, though, because I do taste an added tangy, cheesy component throughout the base that is pushing towards cheesecake without a complete stretch of the imagination. It’s pretty enjoyable in fact.

I periodically picked up on small bursts of strawberry, though I might suggest slicing up some real strawberries for maximum effect.

My pint was blessed with a good amount of mix-ins between graham swirl and cheesecake pieces, however the graham swirl definitely got a lot more play throughout mine.

The graham swirl takes the form of little, crisp shards of a binded graham concoction. It is both cinnamon and graham heavy, and its added spice brings good contrast against the sweet, cheesy base.

The cheesecake pieces are small and infrequent, but they are more or less the real deal. I must say I craved more of them, while also fully recognizing that my ideal amount would create the first ever 1,000 calorie Halo Top.

All in all, I must say that I enjoyed my low-calorie, vitamin-packed, antioxidant-rich strawberries tonight… mainly because they tasted a little like cheesecake.

But if it doesn’t give me a six pack within 24 hours, I’m marching my tubby ass straight to The Cheesecake Factory.

Burning Questions:

1. Do you really think you could march? I can waddle.
2. What are the macros? 20P/68C/12F per pint.
3. What ARE macros? Beats me!

Place of Purchase: Sent to me by Halo Top; Also available at Walmart.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

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