It’s not only legendary among children of the 1980s and 90s. Even today, little sweet tooths in particular still like to suck on the flutschfinger, the godfather of water ice. 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 “The Lion’s Den” he is looking for an investor for his vegan Zebra Ice (Editor’s note: The product was renamed Zebrastic Ice after the show was recorded).
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 the Zebra Ice star check, 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.
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.
Flutschfinger
Zebra Ice
Alnatura fruit ice cream raspberry
Portion
64 ml
45 ml
48 ml
Zucker pro Portion
12 g
12g / 8.1g
9,6 g
Energie pro Portion
54 kcal
98 kcal
42 kcal
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
When it comes to the amount of sugar, there is no clear winner at first glance. A flutschfinger (64 ml) should contain an average of twelve grams of it. In the smaller Zebra Ice “Guava
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?
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 concentrated 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 two of them tipped the Zebra Ice (Guave
To make it short: also the mango variety
Ramtin Randjbar-Moshtaghin didn’t reinvent the sherbet. But the 37-year-old did take it to a more sustainable level. It comes to 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 available in the last episode of season 13 “The Lion’s Den”. Sweet tooth Ralf Dümmel didn’t have to be asked twice and brought the first ice cream start-up into his portfolio.
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