Best Ice Cream on a Stick: The Magnum Hits the US

The Magnum Classic

I’m lucky to have been able to live abroad, but I can be pretty begrudging about it.  I only planned to stay abroad for a year, and then ol’ Mr. English came along, and here I am.  Amidst all my adventure, I spend about 90% of my day missing American food.  Onion rings.  Blue cheese dressing.  A New York slice.  Shack Shack burgers.  Crab, in drawn butter.  Guacamole.  Lobster rolls.  Even Costco hotdogs.  Oh my gosh, I have to stop.

But there are a few things in the UK to which I have become extremely attached.  For those of you out here, I’m talking about Ben’s Cookies, Fox’s Glacier Fruits, This Water, and the now-defunct McDonald’s Indian-inspired veggie burger.  And THE MAGNUM.  The greatest ice cream bar ever.  According to my friend Paul Sonne’s article on the subject in the Wall Street Journal, it is the “world’s top individual frozen snack.”  How could it not be, with a name like Magnum?  Last year, Unilever hired Eva Longoria as the face of the product in Europe, and now Rachel Bilson in the States.  I’m sure you’ve seen the ads.

After we finished our MBA, my friends and I rented this little house in Portugal for a week, and every single day, at the beach, we would sit around deconstructing and devouring Magnum bars.  They’re similar to our Haagen-Dazs bars–the classic is vanilla ice cream in a hard chocolate shell.  But the ice cream is creamier–almost like gelato.  And the shell doesn’t crack and fall all over the place.  It’s thick, and it hugs the sides of the ice cream.  It’s just perfect.  When I saw the add that the caramel (vanilla ice cream and two layers of chocolate sandwiching a layer of caramel) had FINALLY come to America, I yelped.  And apparently, all the usual flavors, like white, dark, almond, classic, and double chocolate are also arriving stateside.  Now, as soon as I am back, there will be one less thing to miss.  And I’m pretty sure I can handle giving up the rest, just for one bite of that crab…

Rachel Bilson for Magnum commercial courtesy of cathace 2000 via YouTube