Chills 360 – Black Coconut

Dallas Rolled Ice Cream

Chills 360 is Dallas’ rendition of the ice cream craze that has been sweeping the nation in recent years- rolled ice cream.

For those who might not be as familiar with the trend, the basic concept is this. They take cream and whatever ingredients make up the base, and poor it on top of the ice pan that looks something like a miniature wok at Ghengis Kahn or some other Mongolian BBQ restaurant. The cream/ingredients are mixed, mashed, and matted down on the pan, turning it from a liquid into the creamy solid we’ve come to expect from most ice creams. Only it’s not done here. Then, the workers take this paint scraper like cooking utensil, and pry the ice cream from the pan, whilst pushing forward. It creates these ice cream rolls and after delicately placing them in their cup, the final toppings, garnishes, and sprinkles are added to complete the creation. It’s pretty nifty, with the only two downsides being:

1. Because the creations are made to order, there are no free samples of the ice creams. Drat! Fucking drat…
2. Also, because each creation is labor intensive, the price paid for each ounce of ice cream is usually far higher than you’d find at many other ice cream shops.

Black Coconut

Moving on to the actual flavor, let’s break this thing down. It’s a coconut base ice cream, with some charcoal, sharpie, or squid ink thrown in to make it black. Take some more coconut shavings and throw that in, perhaps along with a little pink sugar, because why the hell not? Finally finish it with a syringe of condensed milk to garnish the whole thing, and voila.

I’m gonna be real for a sec. The pink sprinkles were a terrible choice. You have this beautiful black and white motif going with black ice cream, and white toppings/sauces when usually it’s the other way around (vanilla with chocolate syrup and/or chocolate jimmies). The pink is just so out of place, I hate it. Furthermore, the sprinkles are honestly kind of grainy and take away from the awesome texture of the creation in general. It’s like when you have a perfectly waxed and buffed floor, and then someone forgets to wipe their shoes before coming in, and drags sand all over the floor. It’s an utter shame is what it is.

Secondly, the additional set of coconut shavings was rather unnecessary in my opinion. It may have added an extra texture profile, but at what cost. I feel like there was a decent chance of a flavor balance occurring between the sweetness from the condensed milk, and the sweet nutty base of the coconuts. With the shavings added as a garnish, it drowned out any chance of flavor cooperation. It ended up pretty much as coconut on coconut with a slight hint of an external sweetness.

Some of you may be thinking, “Wow… Was there anything good about it? This is the second rolled ice cream place you’ve been mean to in the past two months. It sounds like you’re just hating on all the rolled ice cream places! Like your review of Dahlicious.”

To which I’ll reply,”Perhaps it may sound like that, but I will say there are several rolled ice cream places that have blown me away, and believe me, we’ll get to those later.”

But to extend an olive branch to the fans and defenders of Chills 360, here are the positives that they managed to accomplish with this ice cream:

1. It’s actually surprisingly creamy. The worker how was crafting my creation in front of my eyes looked like a bit of a newbie, and it seemed as though he was leaving my cream on the pan for too long. I was super afraid it would be brittle, wouldn’t roll properly, and feel downright icy. This was not the case at all, I was pleasantly surprised at how wrong I was.
2. Condensed milk. This is a great sauce to add to the creation and a fantastic addition in general. If only there was more of it…
3. It’s pretty damn beautiful. And I’m not just talking about the end result. All the work that goes into making a single creation is laid out right in front of you, and you can see an extra level of beauty in the end result from witnessing its creation.

So what does all of this mean?

Black Coconut Conclusion

Truthfully, I’m not 100% sure. As far as taste goes, it has a strong coconut taste. So be prepared. I personally would like the flavor profile to be a little bit more complex with a stronger condensed milk presence, as that was actually a really good idea. As far as texture goes, I am a hater of the sprinkles, as it takes away from its actual quality creaminess. It sure does look cool though.

Would I recommend this to a person who’s going to Chills 360? Only if you are looking for a more unique rolled ice cream shot to add to your social media. Otherwise, I might recommend one of their other flavors.

Try it and tell me what you think!

This was a fairly interesting flavor, and if you’ve tried it and disagree with my assessment, feel free to let me know! Send me a message on my contact page, and tell me exactly how my analysis is incorrect, and I’ll take your words under consideration for future reference. I look forward to your critique!