The Berry Best

Michelle Kim, Writer|October 2, 2017

The Champaign-Urbana area has an abundance of nice ice cream shops, and with the arrival of Red Bicycle and Oberweis (coming soon) in town, I decided to go on a quest to find the best strawberry ice cream as well as the best ice cream place in town.

According to a 228 student and 15 faculty member survey, Jarling’s Custard Cup was ranked the highest. I went to Red Bicycle the new ice cream place in town, Baskin-Robbins for its $1 Dollar Scoop Saturday’s, Cold Stone Creamery, El Oasis, and Jarling’s due to its popularity. As mentioned before, I got strawberry ice from each shop as a fair base for comparison, and the shops were judged on the following 6 criterias: how quickly the ice cream melts, the ice cream’s texture, the ice cream’s taste, variety of flavors available at that time, prices, and wait time.

Least to Most Melty:

  1. Red Bicycle and El Oasis (tie)
  2. Baskin-Robbins
  3. Cold Stone
  4. Jarling’s

 

Best to Worst Texture:

  1. Jarling’s
  2. Cold Stone
  3. El Oasis
  4. Baskin-Robbins
  5. Red Bicycle

 

Most to Least Tasty:

  1. El Oasis
  2. Cold Stone
  3. Jarling’s
  4. Baskin-Robbins
  5. Red Bicycle

 

Good to Limited Variety of Flavors:

  1. El Oasis
  2. Red Bicycle
  3. Jarling’s
  4. Cold Stone
  5. Baskin-Robbins (out of half of flavors)

 

Cheapest to Priciest:

  1. Baskin-Robbins ($1 Scoop Saturday’s)
  2. Jarling’s
  3. Cold Stone
  4. El Oasis
  5. Red Bicycle

 

Shortest to Longest Wait

  1. El Oasis
  2. Baskin-Robbins
  3. Red Bicycle
  4. Jarling’s
  5. Cold Stone

 

Here is a rundown of the results:

Cold Stone Creamery

– Longest Wait (no customers but have to catch worker’s attention in room) –

The ice cream is smooth and has a strong strawberry flavor.

 

 

 

Baskin-Robbins                   

*Cheapest Ice Cream*

– Limited Variety (out of half of flavors) –

The ice cream has a reliable grocery store flavor with nice chunks of strawberry.

 

 

Jarling’s Custard Cup

*Best Texture*

– Most Melty –

The ice cream is extremely smooth and pink but has a strong artificial strawberry flavor. The ice cream also melts at bullet speed.

 

 

Red Bicycle

*Least Melty *

– Worst Texture –

– Least Tasty –

– Most Expensive – 

The flavor of the ice cream is very subtle, tastes natural, and is not very creamy. The ice cream is crunchy but does not melt at all.

 

El Oasis 🏆 (OVERALL WINNER)

*Least Melty*

*Most Tasty *

*Variety of Flavors*

*Shortest Wait*

The ice cream has a delightful texture with the right amount of crunch and a good strawberry flavor. It also melts very slowly.