Despite Reddi-wip’s furious smear advertising campaign touting the advantages of real cream, Cool Whip remains untouchable, eaten by 66 million more Americans than its canned counterpart.
The reasons are pretty simple: You can freeze Cool Whip and eat it like ice cream, you can blend it into no-bake desserts easier than Reddi-wip, and you can leave it on your angel food cake outside during a hurricane and it’ll stay put.
Despite that indestructible texture reputation, the new Cheesecake Cool Whip isn’t any thicker or creamier than the original version. While the packaging art would have us skip June, July, and August to pumpkin season, the allusion to cream cheese frosting is a poor one, mostly because trying to use Cool Whip as frosting is like trying to use tomato juice for pizza sauce —- it’s just not thick enough.
Eaten directly out of the tub (which is completely acceptable if you ask me) the Cheesecake Cool Whip has a distinct taste from the original variety. There’s a cheesecake vibe upon first lick, but it’s faint, giving way to a French Vanilla-type sweetness. The deeper, nuanced cream taste of actual whipped cream is obviously absent, but what’s really missing is the richness of a real cream element, which would otherwise bring out the cheesecake flavor.
It also tastes less like cheesecake when eaten with common whipped cream accouterments. The ever reliable blueberry —- plump, sweet, slightly tart -— all but mutes the cheesecake flavor.
Even trying to cheesecake-ify yogurt is somewhat hit or miss. I tried it with strawberry yogurt, and while I did notice a cheesecake flavor, I had to add a lot of it — like 50 or 75 calories worth — to get a consistent tang. It would’ve been easier to just buy a container of Dannon Strawberry Cheesecake Greek Yogurt
Seeing that it’s 2017 and we still haven’t gotten a cheesecake Oreo or cheesecake Pop-Tart, I appreciate Kraft’s effort. That said, Cool Whip, which is mostly just water and hydrogenated oil, might not be the best medium for the flavor.
(Nutrition Facts – 2 Tbsp – 25 calories, 15 calories from fat, 1.5 grams of fat, 1.5 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 0 milligrams of cholesterol, 0 milligrams of sodium, 2 grams of carbohydrates, 0 gram of dietary fiber, 2 grams of sugar, and 0 grams of protein..)
Purchased Price: $1.78
Size: 8 oz. tub
Purchased at: Walmart
Rating: 5 out of 10
Pros: Recognizable cheesecake flavor when eaten alone. Adds a slight cheesecake taste when mixed with yogurt. Eating Cool Whip like ice cream.
Cons: Cheesecake flavor isn’t strong enough to stand out with other ingredients. Not thick or sweet enough to use as frosting. Lacks cheesecake richness. Eating soggy angel food cake.
