Zebra Ice from DHDL: More than just a water ice cream?

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“The Lion’s Den”
Self Freezing Fruit Puree: Does Zebra Ice from DHDL Pass the Taste Test?

Milk or water ice? Stracciatella or lemon sorbet? Important questions for small and large foodies. A founder wants to sweeten the summer for investors in “The Lion’s Den” with a vegan fruit ice cream for the fridge. The star has tasted Zebra Ice before.

It’s not only legendary among children of the 1980s and 90s. Even today, little sweet tooths in particular still love to suck on the flutschfinger, the godfather of ice cream. It should taste like lime, raspberry and orange. Basically it doesn’t matter. The main thing is ice cream. The main thing is sweet. The main thing is sticky. Twelve grams of sugar stuck in the frozen index finger. Is that a lot or a little? A question that the parents of the little rascals ask themselves. Is that healthier? Ramtin Randjbar-Moshtaghin answered that with a resounding ‘yes’. The 37-year-old wants to take ice-cold sweets to a new level. And without a raised index finger. In the final show of the current season of “Die Höhle der Löwen” he is looking for an investor for his vegan Zebra Ice.

And because three tongues taste better than one, I tested the Zebra Ice with my two boys (five and a half and almost eight years old). In Zebra Ice you can find out how the licking competition turned out, who had the finger in front in terms of taste and why the Zebra Ice should not be sucked in large quantities star-Check.

Zebra Ice from DHDL: What’s in it?

In part one of our test, we let Zebra Ice compete against the Flutschfinger in a direct duel. In addition, we looked at the nutritional values ​​of the fruit and water ice cream test winner from Stiftung Warentest 2022. Above all, we wanted to find out how the cult water ice cream, the fruit sorbet from Lower Saxony and the raspberry ice cream from the organic market differ in terms of content.

The first thing that catches the eye in this ice-cold three-way battle is the opponent’s list of ingredients. Ramtin Randjbar-Moshtaghin creates his two flavors of Zebra Ice, each with just three ingredients. There are 13 ingredients in the flutschfinger, including coloring agents, stabilizers and unspecified aromas. In addition to grape juice concentrate, Zebra Ice only contains guava and strawberry puree (Guava & Strawberry) as well as mango puree and passion fruit juice (Mango & Passionfruit). The organic market ice cream contains raspberry puree, apple juice concentrate and water. Because it’s sold frozen, you can’t do without a stabilizer. So on paper a clear point to the Zebra Ice.

When it comes to the amount of sugar, there is no clear winner at first glance. A flutschfinger should contain an average of twelve grams of it. At Zebra Ice “Guava & Strawberry” also contain twelve grams of sugar. the sort “Mango & Passionfruit” gets by with significantly less per serving. The product from the organic market has a sugar content of just under ten grams per popsicle. While industrial sugar is at least partly processed in Flutschfinger, the sweetness of Zebra Ice and Alnatura’s raspberry ice cream comes from fructose alone. Of course, the teeth don’t care. Sugar is sugar. So it remains a draw.

The first impression

There’s not too much to report here. The five sticks are packed in a lightly coated paper bag. A sixth zebra ice stick would probably have found room in it. But that’s only marginally. The 225 milliliter package content is divided into five ice sticks of 45 milliliters each. So far, so unspectacular. What is already noticeable in the outer packaging is also annoying on the individually packaged sticks themselves. The founder obviously thinks bigger, but somehow crooked and not consistent. “Fruit ice cream for self-freezing” I read there. And right below: Vegan, Gluten Free, Additive Free. “Zebra Ice with real fruit”, “freeze it!” The whole thing is “ice-cold enjoyment to make yourself”. An unnecessary mix of German and English marketing language. At least we think so. But back to the topic.

The fruit puree and juice mix filled into the sticks feels rather thin on the outside, i.e. like juice. The manufacturer specifies the shelf life (with unopened packaging) as just under a year. Neither I nor my boys wanted to wait that long. So off to the freezer! After twelve hours, the Zebra Ice should be ready. Nice: Zebra Ice can also be drunk pure and refine porridge or quark dishes with its fruity note. How does that taste?

The taste test

First we try Zebra Ice pure, exactly as it should be offered in the supermarket. The smell test is convincing. Clear notes of strawberry flow out of the pack. However, the guava and the concentrate of grape juice falsify their freshness a little. We first mix three tablespoons of natural yoghurt with a teaspoon of the puree, which resembles a somewhat thick fruit sauce. The color tends towards red-brown. However, a teaspoon is far from enough to give the yoghurt a strawberry touch. The whole thing tastes better with three spoons. Not too sweet and yet fruity. Interim conclusion: The strawberry-guava variant is too sweet for us on its own. In combination with natural yoghurt, we find the fruity sauce delicious.

And now: drum roll… let’s get the ice cream out of the freezer. After one night it is completely frozen as promised. Here, too, we try the strawberry and guava ice cream first. The fact that the ice cream stick can be pushed out of the bag after just a few seconds with a little pressure at the bottom end is the first plus point. Because that’s not always the case. The fruit ice cream is frozen, but not extremely hard, which is probably due to the low water content, among other things. Dad likes the taste a little better than when it’s thick. Unfortunately, the fresh note of the strawberries is also missing here. Guava and grape juice prevent the final taste explosion.

And what do the boys say?

After just a few moments, both of them taste the fact that it is strawberry ice cream. I had previously covered the imprint. The Zebra Ice (guava & strawberry) doesn’t tip them out of their slippers. At least one of them wants a second helping straight away. Certainly not the worst sign. With the other, the evaluation thumb spontaneously points to the side. Irrespective of the already subjective taste judgment, the Zebra Ice Stick is a bit too wide for small mouths. We would prefer it to be narrower and a little longer.

To make it short: The Mango & Passion Fruit variety is also very sweet on its own, although the sugar content is significantly lower. The sauce is a bit thicker and more concentrated. We like the color better than the strawberry version. There is also nothing to complain about in terms of taste. Fans of mango and passion fruit should be able to click their tongues. As far as the fruity note is concerned, the tropical variant of Zebra Ice has the edge in our opinion.

The conclusion

Ramtin Randjbar-Moshtaghin didn’t reinvent the sherbet. But the 37-year-old did take it to a more sustainable level. It arrives in the shops without the CO2 and energy-guzzling continuous deep-freezing, because Zebra Ice should end up on the supermarket shelves unfrozen. And the taste of the Zebra Ice doesn’t have to hide either. And that is mainly due to the few ingredients obtained exclusively from fruit. If you look at the bare numbers in the lines of sugar and calories, Zebra Ice is almost on par with the legendary flutschfinger from Eisriese Langnese. That’s not bad. But it should not go unmentioned here. Zebra Ice is a delicious snack for in between when the ice cream man isn’t at the start and the way to the nearest ice cream parlor is too far.

For a slim ten percent stake in Randjbar-Moshtaghin’s company the investors should make 100,000 euros loose in the current episode of “Die Höhle der Löwen”. Can the founder seduce the five lions with his fruity ice cream? You can find out whether a deal comes about tonight in the last episode of the current season from 8:15 p.m. on Vox.

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