McConnells - Eureka Lemon & Marionberries

Now for something different.  A McConnell's Ice Cream review!  I have seen it many times in the grocery store freezer and was intrigued.  Its a premium brand based in Santa Barbara, California.  It is generally $7-8 a pint which is more than a bit pricey, but I've heard good things so I picked up a pint when it was on sale.  I chose a lemon-berry flavor as I usually have Ben & Jerry's ice cream and lemon & berry is completely off of their flavor palette.  Each different McConnells flavor has their own J.Peterman Catalog-style description on the side which is fun (see photo).

This pint of ice cream is made with a base infused with Eureka Lemon Juice a Marionberry swirl.  Eureka lemons are common supermarket lemons so using the 'Eureka' name just gives it a bit of a California flair while a Marionberry is a caneberry hybrid cultivated in Marion County, Oregon.  I looked up the Marionberry pedigree and its a fourth generation hybrid which is two parts dewberry, three parts raspberry and eleven parts of various wild blackberrys (five parts regular blackberry, two parts pacific blackberry and four parts himalayan blackberry).  It tasted like berry.  It was a good flavor -- a bit of the tart that you get from a berry flavor, but not too much.

Opening the lid, I was surprised to see almost all berry on the very top.  Turns out this layer on the top was just a thin film.  I wondered if this an intentional part of the manufacturing process or if it was a result of some diffusion that occurs in the freezer afterwards.  No matter, it insures that there is a bit of berry in the very first spoonful.  Digging into the pint, the lemon base has a very icy texture.  There is relatively little air whipped into this ice cream.  The lemon flavor is fairly subtle at first, but builds as you go.  It is a sweet lemon flavor and not at all sour.  The berry swirls provided good contrast and the amount was enough to enjoy the berry but not so much as to overpower the lemon.

All in all, I approve.  Its an interesting new brand and a fun change of flavor mixes. I will have to try a couple of more flavors of McConnells to further investigate this icy texture.  Sometimes the premium artisan brands use less air intentionally to give the customer more ice cream, but its also something that is often done with citrus flavors.  We shall see.

Ben & Jerry's - Milk & Cookies

Milk & Cookies - Vanilla Ice Cream with a Chocolate Cookie Swirl, Chocolate Chip & Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Its back to the basics for this ice cream review as Milk & Cookies is basically Ben & Jerry's version of "cookies and cream" which is carried by many other brands.  Taking the lid off the pint you see exactly what you expect.  A vanilla base with black cookie chunks visible on top.  Digging into the pint, you quickly notice that these are not oreo cookies (or even imitation chocolate sandwich cookies), these are a mixture of regular chocolate chip and chocolate chocolate chip cookies.  The flavor and texture of the regular cookies are what makes this different from other implementations cookies and cream.  Don't worry, there is still plenty of chocolate in the mix, but the non-chocolate cookies add quite a bit to the flavor.  At times it reminded me eating a Nestle's chocolate chip cookie ice cream sandwich.  The cookies pieces are plentiful, but individually they are fairly small.  As the pint slowly melted they did a pretty good job of soaking up the liquid parts of the ice cream.  That made me think that "Milk & Cookies" was more than just a play on words.

All in all, a successful pint.  This is not the most adventuresome of flavor mixes, but if are in the mood for a classic pint of cookies and cream (with a slight twist) then you can't go wrong with this.

Ben & Jerry's - Candy Bar Pie

Candy Bar Pie - Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Fudge Flakes, Chocolate Nougat & Sweet & Salty Pretzel Swirls.

Candy Bar Pie is a 'limited batch' flavor released last fall.  I had had a pint of it back then but was asked to re-review it while it was still available.  This flavor appears to be another permutation of the winning "peanut butter & chocolate" formula which is prevalent in a lot of the recently added flavors.

As you take off the lid, the first thing you notice is the nougat swirls and a few of the fudge flakes sitting on top.  Digging into the pint, the first thing you notice is the peanut butter ice cream base.  Even though I am not a peanut-butter-aholic, I must confess that this is a very flavorful and versatile base.  It has a very nutty flavor (rather than buttery) even when no nutty chunks are mixed in.  The nougat swirls give the ice cream the 'candy bar' feel.  The nougat is creamier and more chocolatey than the nougat found in the typical candy bar, but you could tell it is nougat.  The fudge flakes are noticeable thinner than the fudge chips that are present in other flavors.  The flakes still provide a punch of concentrated chocolate flavor as you eat but they crumble in your mouth rather than crunch.  It was not unlike the other chocolate layer of a candy bar.  Lastly, the pretzel swirls were not quite as noticeable in this pint as I remembered it last fall.  I did get a bit of a crunch from time to time that had a hint of salt flavor, but in the previous pint I definitely remember more of a 'kick' of salt flavor from time to time.  Perhaps that varies from pint to pint?

All and all, a relatively successful flavor.  I think as far as 'Candy Bar' ice creams go, I prefer the 7-11 exclusive "Nutty Caramel Swirl".  That has a nougat ice cream base, salty caramel swirl, fudge flakes and peanuts.   A slightly different twist on the same ingredients.

Candy Bar Pie's limited batch appears to be running out.  I had a very hard time finding it for this review.  It will be interesting to see how it fared as a limited batch.  Will it come back as a regular flavor?

Ben & Jerry's - Hazed & Confused

Hazed and Confused - Chocolate and Hazelnut Ice Creams with Fudge Chips and & a Hazelnut Fudge Core

The next review is for Hazed and Confused which is one of the "core" flavors which was introduced by Ben & Jerry's in 2014.  Core flavors have the pint split into sections with a core section of something thick and goopy (caramel, jam, or in this case fudge) in the middle.

Opening the pint you see the split sections.  Chocolate on one side and hazelnut ice cream on the other.  You can see fudge chips right away as well, the fudge chips were only on the chocolate side.  It was standard chocolate ice cream and the fudge chips were relatively large and tasty.  The hazelnut side was more subtle.  You could tell it was not vanilla but only barely.

The first or second spoonful reveals the fudge core section.  The fudge core is very thick and tasty.  Again the box says it is "hazelnut fudge", but as far as I could tell it was just fudge.  No matter, it was very tasty.  It is very thick -- you would not want a spoonful of just the fudge -- so what I did was eat around the core picking up a little bit of the fudge into each spoonful (see photo). 

This is my favorite of the regular (i.e. non-cookie) core flavors.  I have returned to it a few times.  Hazelnut fans might be surprised at how mild the hazelnut is in a flavor called "Hazed and Confused", but it goes well with the fudge.  The whole concept of core flavors is rather interesting.  I get the impression that manufacturing constraints prevent these fillings from 'swirling' like other ingredients do, so they place a large dollop of the core in the middle and let you do your own mixing while you eat.  All and all, a successful flavor.

Ben & Jerry's - Peanut Butter Brownie Sundae

Peanut Butter Brownie Sundae - Walmart Exclusive flavor -- Vanilla Ice Cream with Fudge Brownies & a Crunchy Peanut Buttery Swirl

I was on a quest to find another flavor (Candy Bar Pie) and I found myself trekking to the Walmart on the other side of town to find it.  They didn't have that flavor but I figured as long as I was there, I'd grab the WalMart exclusive flavor.  Peanut Butter Brownie Sundae.

Opening the pint you see lots of texture within the vanilla base.   Indeed the first spoonful has lots of peanut butter flavor.  The peanut butter swirl dominates the base so much that you forget that it is not a peanut butter ice cream.  The fact that its a crunchy swirl gives the ice cream a much dryer texture than usual.  Sometimes a larger chunk of the swirl would appear on my spoon and it was very peanuty -- not at all creamy.  All chunks and no butter.    So, while a flavor like Phish Food is so gooey that it seems to melt faster, this flavor seemed to melt slower.  The pint maintained its solid consistency even as I got to the bottom of the carton.  There were quite a bit of fudge brownie chunks in the mix.  The chunks were flavorful and were soft and chewy (i.e. not frozen).

All and all, a successful flavor.  There are so many different flavors that are permutations of the chocolate & peanut butter combination that I'd leave it up to the reader to decide if this mix of dry, crunchy peanutty bits mixed with soft fudge brownies is right for them.

Ben & Jerry's - Phish Food

Phish Food - Chocolate Ice Cream with Gooey Marshmallow Swirls, Caramel Swirls & Fudge Fish.

Phish Food is a flavor I often return to.  I am not a chocoholic but once in a while I do appreciate something very chocolatey and I often go for Phish Food over arguably chocolatey flavors such as Chocolate Fudge Brownie, New York Super Fudge Chunk or Chocolate Therapy.

Its is a very chocolatey flavor.  As you can see from the photos, the marshmallow is also quite noticeable but the caramel swirl is fairly subtle.  I've had this flavor several times before and I had forgotten about the caramel.  The main effect of the swirls is the gooeyness.  Its a softer pint and even makes it feel like the ice cream is melting faster.  Because of this, everything blends together more than usual. I ate it all in one sitting (very filling!) but I'd be interested in knowing how well this refreezes.

The "fish" are small and hide so well in the ice cream that I had never *seen* them in previous pints.  One of them was stuck to my lid tonight though, so I was able to get a good picture of one (see attached). Although usually unseen, these fish add quite a bit of chocolatey crunchiness to almost every scoop.  They are basically fudge chips.

Anyhow, a good flavor for a chocolate fix.  Will have again.  Although since you did mention the S'mores flavor, there are a lot of similarities between the two.  Both are heavy on the chocolate an marshmallow.  Both have fudge chunks or fish.  The difference is that Phish Food has a caramel while S'mores has graham cracker swirl.  The caramel in Phish Food is very subtle, though whereas you definitely notice the graham cracker swirl in the S'mores.  An interesting comparison.  Phish Food is much more easy to find in stores, though.  Almost every place has them whereas S'mores is stocked by about a third of the stores.

Ben & Jerry's - Cake Batter

Cake Batter - Yellow Cake Batter Ice Cream with a chocolate frosting swirl.

The chocolate frosting swirls are evident as soon as you take off the lid.  As you work your way into the pint, the chocolate becomes even more noticeable.  There is chocolate in every spoonful.  The yellow cake-batter base is a simple flavor.  Its smooth and really does taste like yellow cake.  I'm not exactly sure what that flavor is... I guess there is a hint of egg in it but it is a sweeter and more appealing flavor than a purely egg-based flavor like New York Vanilla.  The chocolate swirls have a frosting-like consistency to them, but they also have a bit of a bite to them -- the flavor reminds me of chocolate syrup.

Relatively simply flavor combination by Ben & Jerry's standards (single-flavor base with one single swirl) but a successful one.  If you like Duncan Hines yellow cake with chocolate frosting, you should check this out.