It’s not every day your childhood arrives at your door in the form of ice cream, but it happened to me recently.
It all started when I got an email from a company representing a brand called Serendipity. It had signed a deal to make some ice cream based on classic pop culture properties, among them, a Rocky Road from The Goonies. The Goonies is a movie I, like you, watched a lot growing up and means a lot to me and my family. So, upon getting this email, I immediately went to the Serendipity website and sent my brother Dennis two pints. Dennis is the biggest Goonies fan I know so whenever there’s something Goonies-related in my life, I usually buy it for him. (So much so, he’s told me to stop — but he wasn’t gonna say no to ice cream. Plus it was his birthday!)
I thought that would be the extent of it. I didn’t need to write about it. It was ice cream. I write about movies. But when the PR team circled back I had a thought. “Could I, should I, get a pint myself and write about it?” Sloth and Chunk talking about ice cream in The Goonies is one of my favourite scenes in the film and Rocky Road is obviously the standout, iconic flavour (and this was officially licensed). How would I live with myself if I didn’t put The Goonies inside me? (Hold for laughter.)
So after getting my editor to agree to this dumb idea you are currently reading I asked for a pint. It came a few days later, packaged beautifully, and still ice cold.
It didn’t come with any of One-Eyed Willy’s rich stuff like you see in the staged photo above but once I cracked open the top and dipped my spoon in, “rich” is actually the first word that came to mind. The chocolate flavour was exactly that. So rich, in fact, it was almost overpowering, probably because I was only getting the chocolate from the top in that first spoonful. On the second spoonful, I got some of the almonds, which add a nice crunch and balance to the intense chocolate. Then, you see them. The marshmallows.
Now, normally, I’m not a huge marshmallow fan. But for Sloth and Chunk? I’d do anything. Their stark white colour beamed in contrast to the deep brown chocolate and so it was easy to see and dig them out, which I did. The light fluffiness, combined with the crunch from the almonds, and the dense chocolate all made for a perfectly composed bite. Not too rich, not too creamy, but all of that in more, in one delicious spoonful.
I then asked my wife, Jayne, if she would take a taste and give me her thoughts. “Very chocolatey,” was the first thing she said. “Very marshmallow-y as well,” she added. She said she’s not usually a Rocky Road fan but she liked it. She really liked it. “I could [eat] the fuck out of this,” she said. I love her.
Her one complaint was she wanted more almonds to balance the textures and the richness. It was a valid concern and something, I assumed, would happen if we continued to dig in. But after finishing about a third of the pint we realised that was enough ice cream for the night and, somehow, we were able to put the top back on.
In conclusion, “The Goonies’ Sloth & Chunk Rocky Rooooaad?” ice cream from Serendipity is good. It also lives up to its names in two ways. First, of course, are the characters from the movie — but also it’s chunky and you could turn into a sloth by sitting there and eating it forever. It’s the kind of good that makes you know you should stop, but it’s very hard to do.
Editor’s Note: Sadly, this particular ice cream isn’t available in Australia yet — but stay tuned for more news.