Zeroll Ice Cream Scoop vs. Midnight Ice Cream Scoop

Last week, I went to scoop myself a hefty portion of Deconstructed Nutter Butter Ice Cream, and noticed a disturbing development.The coating on my Zeroll Ice Cream Scoop was coming off on the ice cream I worked so hard to make! I was disgusted and sad, but mostly curious. It turns out after running it through the dishwasher (a big No No), it will erode on you.

I knew I could fix the issue, but I wanted to see what else was out there–in particular, what I could run through the dishwasher, or run over with a car, or go through the X-rays at airport security and still scoop pristine, perfect balls of ice cream.

Enter the Midnight Scoop.

Made by an aerospace engineer, it has been dubbed the Ferrari of Ice Cream Scoops, it’s featured on Oprah’s gift list, and the creator raised nearly ten times the amount he asked for on Kickstarter. It claims to literally be “bomb proof.” But perhaps more importantly, it’s dishwasher proof.

I wanted to test the Midnight Scoop against the Zeroll Scoop.

Here’s what I set out looking for:

• Easy to scoop my homemade quarts and store-bought pints
• Produces aesthetically pleasing and stackable scoops of ice cream
• Easy to wash

When the Midnight Scoop arrived in the mail, it was like getting a Macbook for the first time. As a designer (yes, I have a normal job), I can say the packaging is impeccable, and as an ice cream fiend, that packaging truly provides an emotional beginning to a stunning product.

I quickly put it to the test against my Zeroll on multiple different ice creams. First, a quart of homemade ice cream with too many mix-ins–a challenge for any scoop. Second, a quart of rock hard ice cream. And third, a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey–my breakfast ice cream of choice.

Test 1: A Quart of Ice Cream with Too Many Mix-ins

In this first test, I learned the hard way that you really do need to follow the directions and videos on how to use the Midnight Scoop. It’s not a regular scoop. You must hold it on the very end, face the scoop upward, and push forward from your shoulder, not your wrist. If you try using it like a regular scoop, it will not scoop.

However, when using it properly, it’s an interesting change from the typical scoop. You certainly use your wrist less, and the scoop handle is comfortable, albeit nearly twice the weight of the Zeroll.

However, I found it quite awkward to hold tight to the quart container with my left hand and push hard in that direction with my right shoulder through the scoop. I also felt like the end product — the scoop shape — was more desirable from the Zeroll than from the Midnight. But maybe I’m just not used to it! I didn’t get a picture of that ice cream, but I’ve provided a different photo below:

Test 2: A Quart of Hard Ice Cream

For this test, I used my Chocolate Mustard (Faux Raspberry) Ice Cream (recipe coming soon!). After a day of freezing, it was rock hard out of the freezer. Neither the Zeroll nor the Midnight could truly glide through this ice cream right away.

And to be honest, I don’t really want to eat rock hard ice cream. Ice cream that is too cold will freeze your senses, so waiting for your ice cream to soften isn’t just practical for your muscles, but also for your taste buds. However, scooping through rock hard ice cream is what this scoop was built for, so I tried it.

Again, I kept getting the feeling that I was doing it wrong, so I had my partner test it out as well, read and re-read the directions, and watched and re-watched the tutorials. I just couldn’t get it to scoop a perfect ball the way I could with the Zeroll. It turned out more like a long wave or tongue.

Zeroll scooped into a ball.

Midnight scooped into a long wave.

I think for most people, this isn’t an issue. For someone who needs to photograph her ice cream for her blog, the look of the scoop is definitely on my mind, and I imagine some scoop shops find it simply easier to stack spheres on top of a cone when the shape is perfect.

Test 3: A pint-sized Ice Cream

Let’s pretend for a minute here that we don’t eat straight from the pint with a spoon. 

In this test, I got a 50-50 result. In my first attempt, the Zeroll won hands down. The Midnight Scoop’s method of running through ice cream just didn’t seem to work for pint-sized ice cream containers. The Midnight Scoop does best when given a runway to perform on, and there’s simply no horizontal runway in a pint.

On the other hand, when I got to the bottom of that pint (sooner than you’d expect), I tested it again. The Midnight Scoop did a great job of getting everything from the corners of the pint base. No bite went to waste!

Summary

Both have their pros and cons, but I think I’ll stick to the Zeroll because it produced lovely spheres of ice cream, and because I found the Midnight Scoop to be a little awkward to use. My review won’t agree with everyone, so please feel free to comment on your thoughts below! I went about this research because I threw the Zeroll in the dishwasher on accident, but for now, I’ll just be extra careful.