Wink Frozen Desserts has gone out of business. If you’re looking for dairy-free, low calorie ice cream, then you might like one of these options: Enlightened Dairy-Free Ice Cream, O’My 2g Sugar Gelato, Halo Top Dairy-Free Frozen Desserts, Snow Monkey Superfood Ice Treat, or So Delicious Frozen Mousse.
Just prior to trialing it, I read many mixed reviews online about Wink Frozen Desserts. As I soon discovered, the varying opinions were for good reason. Which is why I’ve opted to skip a star rating on this review from us. Instead, I’ll provide enough details about Wink Frozen Desserts to help you decide if these pints might be right for you. And you can read the star ratings and reviews below from dozens of people who have purchased Wink.
Wink Frozen Desserts are extremely light. They range from just 25 to 75 calories per serving. They also have as little as 0 grams of sugars, 2 grams of protein, and 1 gram of fiber in each 1/2 cup. Select flavors have up to 4 grams of sugars and 4 grams of fat.
So what is in them? One sample ingredient label contains the following: water, pea protein, vegetable glycerin, organic agave inulin, organic flavors, organic tapioca, monk fruit, baking soda, xanthan gum, organic stevia, guar gum.
As you might suspect from reading this profile, Wink Frozen Desserts don’t taste like your typical ice cream. With no top allergens, added sugars and fat, they have an overall vibe that is notably off from the norm.
The consistency of Wink Frozen Desserts is closer to a sorbet than an ice cream. It’s scoopable, but a bit icy. As it melts, it does appear thicker, but then it has a slightly gelatinous mouth feel. If given the choice, we preferred it straight from the freezer, fully chilled with that slight icy edge. The picture below does a fantastic job of showing the different textures.
The flavor names on Wink Frozen Desserts imply a potential flavor rush, but the taste of each is actually very mild. For most of the pints, our tasters didn’t even come close to guessing the flavor. As you can see from the ingredient list above, they rely heavily on “organic flavors”, rather than flavorful ingredients that may add to the calorie or sugar count. Honestly, I’ve never seen “flavors” so high up on an ingredient list!
Since Wink Frozen Desserts are less full-bodied than most, and are sweetened exclusively with sugar-free, natural sweeteners, they do have a different underlying influence. For those who are stevia “super-tasters” like me, you may find the stevia and monk fruit combination off-putting. However, if you follow a sugar-free diet or use sugar-free sweeteners often, then the flavors might hit your taste buds just right.
We sampled bites of each flavor and our hands down favorite was the Caramel Candy Apple. We didn’t taste the apple, but the warmer caramel notes helped to mellow the stevia sharpness. Our second choice was the Black Cherry Cacao Nib. Yes, of course we picked two of the higher calorie ones! The base was mild, but did have a cherry influence that we could detect. And the generous smattering of cacao nibs were a nice surprise. But still, these pints are very unique, and didn’t fall in the ranks of ice creams we would purchase again.
What to Do with Leftover Wink Frozen Desserts
This is an update to help avoid waste of these pricey pints. If you aren’t a fan, try blending them into smoothies. Use a frozen banana and some peanut, nut, or seed butter to mellow the flavor and increase the richness without adding sugars (aside from naturally occurring ones).
The photos were provided by Wink Frozen Desserts. Unlike many other products, their photos are quite accurate. What you see is what you will get! Please keep that in mind and take note of the unique melt and icier consistency.
The Facts on Wink Frozen Desserts
Certifications: I believe Wink Frozen Desserts are Certified Vegan, Certified Gluten Free, Certified Kosher Pareve, and Non-GMO Verified.
Dietary Notes: By ingredients, Wink Frozen Desserts are dairy-free / non-dairy, egg-free, gluten-free, nut-free, peanut-free, soy-free, vegan, plant-based, and vegetarian. Nonetheless, check with the company on their manufacturing processes for all varieties if potential allergen cross-contamination is an issue for you. Processes and labeling are subject to change at any time for any company / product.
For More Product Information: Visit the Wink Frozen Desserts website at winkfrozendesserts.com.
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What Others Are Saying ...
Used to be great, ruined in Dec 2016, but I still miss it
I just really miss the original Wink and wanted to leave a review. I first tried Wink in June 2016 and became OBSESSED with it, ordering large amounts despite the high cost. Back then I had to travel a lot, and whenever I would visit a new city I would rush to the closest store that had Wink and buy some… it was that good!
Yes, it didn’t taste exactly like regular ice cream, but the taste was just really light. It had a pleasant light sweetness and creaminess to it. I usually improved the flavor by manually mixing in some additional monk fruit, salt, cinnamon, etc. which helped a lot with the taste without upping the calories much! But I didn’t mind it on its own either.
It was amazing that it was vegan, sugar free, and only 100 calories, without any artificial sweeteners or erythritol. There is still nothing like it on the market today.
I lost a large amount of weight eating this product. My weakness has always been snacking on sweets in the evening. Instead of my usual sweets, I could eat a few whole pints of this stuff and feel so indulgent and still be fairly low on calories! And I have a very sensitive digestive system, but due to the careful selection of ingredients in this product caused me no digestive discomfort. To this day, I am not aware of ANY other vegan dessert that has all the properties Wink did (vegan, sugar free, low calorie, digestively safe, etc.)
Unfortunately, things started to go south in December 2016 when Wink changed their formula to replace xanthan gum with flaxseeds and locust bean gum. The texture completely changed from something light but creamy to something super icy. It was nearly identical to a snow cone in texture. This ruined one of the main things loved about Wink (the creamy texture). In addition, all the flavors tasted basically the same, whereas before things like Cake Batter and Vanilla Bean tasted very different and much more different from each other. I immediately reached out to Wink, notifying them that this would turn off a lot of customers and potentially lead to the failure of their company. They wrote back nicely, and even sent me the remaining pints of the old formula until they ran out of every flavor in May 2017. But they decided to stick with their new “improved” (ha) recipe. I really never got used to the new flavors and shortly afterwards moved to an area that they were not sold in.
Now I see all the bad reviews from 2019 and the closure of their company around November/December of that year, and I understand completely but it makes me sad. I can’t help but miss the way they used to be (especially since I need to use a few pounds haha). They were a good company that made some bad decisions but also produced products that met a very real need. They didn’t deserve the hate they got.
Thankfully I just got a new compressor ice cream maker! I am going to try to “copy” the Wink ingredients to see if I can reverse-engineer their original recipe and see if I can make something even better 🙂
Excellent Frozen Dessert for Diabetics
I discovered this product at a Diabetes Expo years ago and I buy it every summer. It is great to have a summer drink that won’t elevate my blood glucose level.
bad not good
bad
Love this stuff
This is wonderful. I like the flavors (I’ve tried Pumpkin Spice, Vanilla and Cocoa Mint) and don’t feel guilty eating these.
come on folks...
what do you expect? they’re super low in calories for ICE CREAM.. so i mean, come on. taking that into consideration, they’re THE BEST. i liked the cake batter a lot. you have to melt them a bit though, like let them sit for a min. too bad they went out of business, likely from all the people who expected creamy, delicious, decadence.. sorry, not for 100ish calories y’all.
Tasted like frozen saw dust
I just found a new entrant into the keto ice cream market (it is excellent by the way) and it made me think about Wink…it was the most awful product i have ever tasted….i threw away every last one of the……i was sure Wink had to be out of business…the flavor profiles were just awful.
No Stars (but they made me put one on to submit review)
This was a total waste of money….and very expensive! I will never buy Wink again, and I will never recommend it to anyone. Totally blah. I thought strawberry would have chunks of the fruit in it, but no. It is the most bland tasting frozen “whatever” that I have ever tasted. Very disappointing, to say the least.
Disgusting product and business practices
Wink had a deal for $50 worth of product for free shipping, so I bought it. Especially because of all the ‘reviews’ that made it seem too good to be true.
It came nicely packaged, with dry ice and instructions. We had to wait a while to let it soften before we could try it. Like about 30 minutes on the counter.
We tried the Strawberry–tasted like lipstick. The cookies and cream, like milky water, every pint was just INEDIBLE.
So, I cut the losses and chucked the $50 worth of ‘ice cream’.
Then, I saw an ad pop up for the same deal and a person asked if anyone had tried it. I responded that I really wanted to love it, but the taste was not for me. That’s it….nothing nasty, no urging to save money….just a candid comment.
Instead of reaching out…they BLOCKED ME! Can you believe that? That is why there is such a disparity between what you see here on Go Dairy Free and what you see on Facebook–WINK turned off their reviews so no one can share the truth.
So, not only is their product disgusting, so are their business practices.
So much potential-so little taste
I bought and consumed several containers of Wink 100 calorie pints. Wink 100 calorie dessert is the absolutely worst mock ice cream product I’ve ever eaten. However, there is a niche for the 100 calorie product. They need to revamp and make their product palatable. I make my own product and it’s better than theirs. I wish they were close to Des Moines–I’d help them!
It's called Wink because they know they are bs'ing you
The cake batter flavor was spot on..if you were making a very watered down, mint flavored coffee cake. Not great, not disgusting..not even close to cake batter.
63 Comments
Wasted 70 bucks. This stuff is absolutely disgusting. I should have read the ingredients first and had I known water was the first ingredient I wouldn’t have ordered.. It’s just that, frozen flavored water. Waste of money and gross.
This product is so very artifical tasting it’s disgusting. PLEASE don’t waste your money!! I’ll just go without ice cream..it is terrible!!
Agree I posted a review on there Facebook and the company blocked me so looks like you can only post positive reviews lol it’s was horrible I wasted money also
I just ordered 11 so hope these reviews are t right. I don’t care for halo but these sounded good. Live and learn.
Halo is heaven compared to this crap. Should have just flushed my money down the crapper instead of going out of my way to track down this hateful stuff. The wink is for the fast one the seller pulled on us.
I’m sorry wink but I agreed that this “ice cream” taste terrible. I was so excited. Ever since I started keto all I’ve wanted was ice cream. And this is a huge disappointment. Since I paid almost 40 bucks with shipping I’m gonna force myself to eat it. But it’s gonna suck. Wish I had done my research before buying. It just looked so good ?
i just got mine in….. melted… but still really cold… was thinking about adding hwc…
Well, I JUST LOVE IT ! I do like the S’Mores and Dark Chocolate the best, and those have been the prominent ones in my past TWO orders!! I intend on keeping it as a staple in my freezer and will definitely try new flavors, maybe in the future ?:) I am not a real fan of the Vanilla, but it can be delicately flavored with maybe coconut or fruit for some different taste. I think the problem is for the non enthusiast is getting used to it especially if they have not changed their food consumption prior…. AND really making the decision to cut down on fattening foods where one just DOES IT and settles for the purpose of not gaining weight. I have been on a diet all my life, off and on (my hobby),,,, I certainly will try anything to help the chance of my yo-yoing out of control again and again ! BRAVO WINK and Thank you !
That’s great! Thank you for sharing this Deborah.
I wish I could send you mine. I would never suggest anyone to order this. I have waisted 36 dollars and will flush it. People listen to the comments. ?
Although I didn’t care for the texture at all, BUT I’m not sorry I bought 6 pints. A little bit in my Keto protein shake totally jazzed it up, mixed with the other ingredients I used I have something that resembles a milk shake more then a protein drink, I am good with that. I’ll probably have to buy more
Thanks for sharing this Michele! That sounds like an ideal way to enjoy Wink.
I wish I had thought to look for info like this review before I purchased. I am one of those Stevia “super tasters” and that’s all I taste, for hours after taking a few bites. Yuck! We all just need to constantly remind ourselves that if we have chosen to give up sugar and carbs there are no substitutes that will satisfy like the original.
I would warn you against the new dairy-free Halo Top then, too. I tried a bite and promptly returned it to the freezer. Overpowering bitterness and texture from protein powder. Just a heads up!
Received mine last night,should have read reviews before I ordered the 11 pint special,so far everything I have tasted is nasty,don’t know how they sell it.I spent 75.00 for something you can’t even give away!Shame on you people for ripping people off like this!
I wish I had read the reviews BEFORE ordering. I got all excited about it being low carb, and the flavors SOUNDED yummy…. alas, I just got four pints delivered today, and every one of them tastes terrible. They leave a horrid aftertaste as well. I can’t believe I’m about to toss out $30 worth of this stuff… well, live and learn. Really, it’s just gross tasting. And now, to make myself feel better after this disappointment I guess I”ll go out and get some Ben and Jerry’s or something really unhealthy! 🙂
I am in the minority!! I LOVE Wink!!
Okay, here it goes with my Wink review! I recently bought the cake batter (which I heard good things about) and I also got the cinnamon bun. I’m sorry to say, but these do not taste very good at all… I personally prefer Enlightened ice cream because it tastes like real ice cream.. these two flavors unfortunately tasted super chemically? HOWEVER! If you are desperate, and are simply trying to follow a low calorie/sugar diet, and you just need to have some ice cream.. then I would recommend just mixing this with some whip cream (like I did) and it actually wasn’t so bad hahaha. I was pretty bummed about these because I thought they would taste better 🙁 but when I mixed them with whip they were able to satisfy my sweet tooth without overindulging on the calories. I hope this review was useful to someone!
I am very disappointed with this product way to expensive to taste so badly. Don’t waste your money!
Agree that the taste is not good at all. Was really disappointed after ordering 4 different flavors. I should have listened to the Sharks on shark Tank (none of whom liked it.). The entrepreneurs seem very nice, but the product is not good.
I was so excited to think there was actually an ice cream type product that diabetics could eat. This is HORRIBLE! I couldn’t get past the smell!!! So expensive for such an awful taste. Just wasted $24.00 on something to throw in the trash!!!
Worse thing I ever tasted
Everyone my daughter and I have tasted have been terrible. Would never buy again
Tried several “flavors “, this stuff is terrible. Could not tell one from another. All the taste and consistency of a slushy mud puddle. Don’t waste your money.
Wink is inedible in my opinion.
I picked up 4 pints today. Loved them all! Yum!
I agree!!
I tried Arctic Zero and I liked it, so I got WINK today (Dark Chocolate). It is so BAD!!! I do not understand how people can sell it, and so expensive. I literally eat everything, open minded, and have no allergies, but this is just the worst thing I have ever tried in my life. Horrible.
Thanks for sharing your feedback Green. As a heads up to other readers, Arctic Zero isn’t dairy-free, it’s just lactose-free.
My family tried Wink. It is not meant to be ice cream. So you can’t compare it. If one is on a heart healthy diet or no sugar diet this is healthy. It does take some getting use too. I actually mix Wink with the Halo brand 240 ice cream which is relatively healthy that increases the sugar to 12 grams per pint. Hopefully I can get use to the Wink alone at some point. You only eat Wink if you have to for health reasons.
Wink Frozen Desert is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever consumed. Totally gross. I gave the 4 pints I bought to someone else, and they agreed, GROSS.
Are the higher calorie ones thicker or is it the same consistency as the other ones?
They are roughly the same consistency but have more indulgent “add-ins”.
Your review is the only remotely positive one I’ve heard about these pints… they were on the show Shark Tank, and the sharks all spit out the products live on-air.
Oh goodness, that is not a positive sign! I’ve read some pretty big raves from people who do eat sugar-free desserts, so I wanted to offer perspective 🙂