Cold Stone Creamery: Treasure or Trouble

On a hot summer day I decided to treat myself with a cold frosty frozen treat. Having heard so many good things about Cold Stone Creamery I decided to try a shake from their. I waited patiently on queue in the busy ice cream store for fifteen minutes. I used the time to examine the server’s techniques in making the complex ice cream requests as well as examined the seemingly unlimited ‘mix-ins’ to choose.

Cold Stone Creamery is a unique novelty. They don’t just have toppings they have mix-ins. These delicious delights are folded into the ice cream. There are many more choices than just sprinkles. Some of the more unique mix-ins are cake and pie filling. Sounds delicious. And it is. But at what price?

A recent look at the nutritional content on the Cold Stone Creamery website revealed the dismaying truth. The ice cream alone often contains nearly 400 calories. Then the mix-ins average about 150 calories a piece. Many people request more than one mix in.

Some of the calorie content on their website is very deceptive. One serving of yellow cake is 80 calories. Sounds good right? The problem is one serving is only one piece of cake. No one ever has one small cube of cake added to their ice cream. They add five or six. Those calories add up fast.

The shakes are no better. In fact, they are far worse. A small, or like it as Cold Stone Creamery call it, can have nearly 1000 calories. The large, or love it, 1500 calories. By the way, the small looks like a childrens cup.

The next time you’re looking for an afternoon treat on a hot summer day think before you buy. Your delicious treat may be doing a lot more harm than good.