FrozeN2 Review

Desserts seem to have become more and more interactive and unexpected, and my Instagram feed and Snapchat stories never fail to keep me updated on the latest dessert trend. The crazier the creation, the more people have got to try them — and simple ice cream cones have been left in the dust.

Rolled ice cream? Yes, please. Bacon on Donuts? Must be tasty. Cereal balls that make you look like you’re breathing smoke? Go ahead and call me a dragon.

This trend seemed especially fun, so in order to track down this latest trend, I plugged in the location of FrozeN2 Cafe at 151st St. and S Black Bob road. My screen said 36 minutes without the highway, so I plugged my phone into the aux cord.

Once I arrived at the Olathe cafe, I was ecstatic to break my no-cheat-streak on my diet and try the smoking dessert balls fittingly named “Dragon Breath,” as well as take some videos up-to-par with the ones by my friends I had seen on Snapchat. But my excitement transformed into frustration as I stood in front of the glass window, trying to figure out which of the four workers complaining about traffic and paying no attention was supposed to take my order.

After hearing one of them recount every detail of his day, I finally left the line marked “Dragon Breath” and flagged down an employee.

I learned from the employee that the treat that I hoped would transform me into a mythical creature happens to be very simple — just cereal balls and nitrogen. They stir the colorful balls in the nitrogen gas and voila: colorful spheres oozing nitrogen gas are created. The options of strawberry or chocolate dipping sauce top of the dessert — I chose strawberry to make myself feel slightly less guilty about all of the sugar I was about to eat.

I reached to grab the plastic cup and the cold sent a painful shock into my fingers. When I set it on the table, it made a sizzling noise that was satisfying — but concerning, and I made sure to only touch the protective cardboard sleeve when picking it back up.

After a long awaited taste test, I stabbed a smoking cereal ball with the enlarged tooth-pick accessorizing the cup, dunked it into the strawberry dipping sauce and popped it into my mouth. The dipping sauce was sweet and fresh-tasting, but the ball itself tasted like stale cereal.

As I was crunching down on the almost tasteless ball, I realized I didn’t see any smoke coming out of my mouth. I tried again, holding the ball in my mouth and breathing out this time, and a small cloud of fog came out. I felt more like someone breathing in the frigid January air than Puff the magic dragon, and I didn’t expect a dessert to require an instruction manual.

Some of the cereal balls gave me the desired effect, while others didn’t. Halfway through the desert, the nitrogen had escaped and they weren’t smoking at all. I only got half of the experience I paid $6 for, more than I would normally pay for a far tastier option at TCBY, as well multiple non-share-worthy Snapchat memories to remind me of my failure.

Not all trends are worth the rage, and this one let me down almost as much as the “Kylie Jenner Lip Challenge” that left me with normal lips and a red mark around my mouth for a day. Unhelpful employees, stale-Froot-Loop-tasting balls and skill-demanding smoke made for a Monday afternoon that only the puppies at Petland could cheer me up from. But, if you still want to experience it for yourself, my tips would be to eat quickly before you look down to realize the cereal balls have lost their magic. And, if you want to save your fingers, don’t touch the cup.