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:
Red Bicycle and El Oasis (tie)
Baskin-Robbins
Cold Stone
Jarling’s
Best to Worst Texture:
Jarling’s
Cold Stone
El Oasis
Baskin-Robbins
Red Bicycle
Most to Least Tasty:
El Oasis
Cold Stone
Jarling’s
Baskin-Robbins
Red Bicycle
Good to Limited Variety of Flavors:
El Oasis
Red Bicycle
Jarling’s
Cold Stone
Baskin-Robbins (out of half of flavors)
Cheapest to Priciest:
Baskin-Robbins ($1 Scoop Saturday’s)
Jarling’s
Cold Stone
El Oasis
Red Bicycle
Shortest to Longest Wait
El Oasis
Baskin-Robbins
Red Bicycle
Jarling’s
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.