Tillamook - Chocolate Covered Strawberry

Tillamook - Chocolate Covered Strawberry - Sweet Mascarpone Gelato with Oregon Strawberry Sauce and Dark Chocolate Fudge Pieces

I'm back to my usual grocery store this week and they've rearranged the ice cream section a bit.  One of those changes is a new brand is now being stocked called Tillamook.  The Tillamook brand hails from its namesake small town of Tillamook, Oregon which is located in a rain-soaked coastal river valley.  The first settlers of that valley saw all the green grass and figured that was a great place to raise dairy cows. There has been a creamery there ever since.  If you visit Tillamook, you tour the creamery.  How do I know this?  Two groups of people I know have independently toured it in the past few years.  My vacation pals went there the year before I started going on vacation with them and my sister went there with her husband.  Tillamook was known early and is still most famous for their cheese, but they've branched out to other dairy products.  They started making basic flavors of ice cream in the 1940s and added premium flavors in the 1970s.  Scanning the flavor list, some of them are ice creams, some gelatos and some frozen custards, evidently varying based on what they feel is appropriate for each flavor and mix-in combination.  For the pint of Chocolate Covered Strawberry, they've chosen to implement it as a gelato.

On to the pint!  Opening the lid reviews a large heap of dark chocolate fudge pieces on the very top.  One of the brands I used to eat as a kid used to do this but this is the first I've seen this in these reviews.  Right under the dark chocolate fudge pieces is a layer of strawberry sauce.  Interestingly, I find as I eat my way into the pint, the strawberry sauce is only on the top layer.  Underneath is only mascarpone and fudge.  Then halfway down there is another layer of strawberry sauce and then just macarpone and fudge again on the bottom.  I took an extra picture below where you can see this  layering through the translucent container.  The use of a strawberry sauce rather than having strawberry pieces or using a strawberry base is another interesting choice.  It's provides a concentrated strawberry but its a mix-in that stays soft in the frozen pint.  I've noticed that pieces of strawberry can easily become frozen which can create an unpleasant biting sensation so using a sauce eliminates concern.  The sauce here was a bit tart which surprised me because I tend to think of strawberry as normally being a very sweet.  The mascarpone base was very delicious,  it was so thick and creamy.  Mascarpone itself is thick and creamy and they use buttermilk to make it thicker and creamier.  The dark chocolate fudge pieces were extremely numerous and very crunchy providing a lot of chocolate flavor.

I liked this pint and appreciated the unique implementation.  I must admit that the layering threw me a bit as large sections of this pint were strawberry-free.  The mascarpone and fudge was amazing by itself but I think I would have preferred if the strawberry was swirled in a bit more.  Perhaps I was supposed to stir it up with my spoon first.  The high quality of the base will have me returning to try other Tillamook flavors, that's for sure.

Gelato Fiasco - Maine Wild Blueberry Crisp

Maine Wild Blueberry Crisp - Vanilla Gelato with Blueberries and a Crunchy Oat Streusel

As mentioned in the previous review,  I revisited a grocery store in old neighborhood last week and discovered some new brands which I had not encountered in my usual shops.  That review was for the Coolhaus brand, and here I try out a brand called Gelato Fiasco and their implementation of a Maine Wild Blueberry Crisp.  I chose a blueberry as it is a flavor which I had not encountered yet in the other brands.

Gelato Fiasco was founded in 2007 in Brunswick, Maine by Joshua Davis and Bruno Tropeano who saw an opening in the artisanal frozen dessert market in the small college towns of Maine.  Also, they claim to be inspired by the ancient Red Spoon Society which has "woven clues to their treasure of gelato secrets into some of history’s most valuable works of art, commerce, and culture".  Thankfullu, Josh and Bruno have a crack team of anthropologists and art historians available to help them decipher these coded messages and bring a better gelato their customer.  Or at the very least, if provides a fun theme for the artwork on the walls of their scoop shops.

On to the pint!  The gelato comes in a screw-top jar like Talenti does, but it does not look as reusable as the lid is the thin metal type and the label is paper and stick-on and would not survive the dishwasher.   I don't think anyone actually reuses these jars, but I'm just noting the difference.  Unscrewing the lid, I see some frost on top.  I guess that is one of the dangers of leaving some air on top between the top of the gelato and the lid.  The blueberries were swirled a bit and I see small brown spots which look like they were from the oatmeal crisp.  Eating into the pint, the frost on top was not ideal -- the first scoops were indeed icy -- but the frost was very thin and did not affect the flavor of what was below.  The vanilla gelato base was thick and creamy and the blueberries were fairly numerous and flavorful.  It  felt like I was eating a hybrid between a gelato and blueberry muffin batter.  The oatmeal crisp was not as 'crunchy' as the label made it sound like it would be, but it was still noticeable and provided the same purpose as the graham cracker swirl does in a lot of the pie-themed flavors.

An interesting new flavor from a fun new brand.  Checking out their website, they have over 1300 flavors listed!  Sounds like they are having a lot of fun and are quite adventurous with their flavor combinations.  Only a few of those make into pints that get shipped to the opposite corner of the country, so if I ever find myself on the coast of Maine, I'll check out one of their scoop shops.

Coolhaus - Dirty Mint Chip

Dirty Mint Chip - Mint Leaf Ice Cream with Brown Sugar and Semi-Sweep Chips

I was in an old neighborhood over the weekend and decided to check out my old grocery store to see if they had anything interesting.  Lo and behold, I found a few new brands of specialty ice cream which looked interesting.  Today, I review a brand called Coolhaus and their Dirty Mint Chip flavor.  Coolhaus was founded by Natasha Case and Freya Estreller in Culver City, California.  They have food trucks in Texas and New York and recently have opened up a second scoop shop in Old Town Pasadena.  Coolhaus claims that their ice cream is "architecturally inspired".  Each flavor is associated with a famous architect.  Dirty Mint Chip is associated with "Buck-Mint-ster Fuller" the 20th century architect and futurist who was fond of geodesic domes.  Chemists will also recognize the name because when an allotrope of carbon was discovered to have a cage-like structure reminiscent of geodesic dome, it was buckminsterfullerene (or "buckyball") in honor of the architect.  Well, so far they've succeeded in architecturally inspiring me, hopefully the ice cream tastes good, too.

Popping off the lid shows the white color of the mint base (no artificial green here) which does not quite reach the top of the container leaving a bit of a rounded freshly extruded look rather than a flatted off top.  McConnell's pints are like that as well.  Dark specks are visible on the top.  At first I thought that these must be the chips, but a closer inspection shows that some of them are green. Tiny bits of shredded mint leaves are mixed into the ice cream.  That's new.  Eating my way into the pint, the ice cream was dense but still soft.  The mint flavor was quite evident but not overly strong.  I didn't really notice the difference that the shredded mint leaves brought to the flavor but it was kind of cool knowing that some of the mint flavor was coming from that.  The chips were miniature semi-sweet chips that you can buy at the store (see photo below).  I think the standard flake-like chips or the half-melted McConnell's chips do a better job of providing chocolate flavor but these chips gave you the feeling of being in a scoop shop where the chips.  The label mentions that there is brown sugar mixed in (is that what makes it dirty?).  I didn't really taste it.  I double-checked the website and it says its just a 'hint' of brown sugar.  It might have been too subtle for me.

A fun pint.  I love a good pint of mint chip.  It does not unseat McConnell's Mint Chip  as my favorite implementation of my favorite flavor, but its fun to try new brands (and of course, its fun to be architecturally inspired).  Checking the Coolhaus website it looks like many of the scoop shop flavors are more adventurous than the pints I saw in my store.  Plus, it looks like they are more known for their ice cream sandwiches where you can choose a gourmet cookie to wrap a scoop of their ice cream.

Häagen-Dazs Artisan - Chocolate Caramelized Oat

Chocolate Caramelized Oat - Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolaty Oat Clusters

Today we do a fifth pint of Häagen-Dazs Artisan ice cream, Chocolate Caramelized Oat.    For the Artisan line, Häagen-Dazs commissions a specialty bakery to come up with their own ice cream flavor.  This time we go to an Irish-themed bakery called Clairesquares in San Francisco where Claire Keane has incorporated chocolaty oat clusters based some of her desserts into a caramel ice cream base.

Removing the lid and the extra plastic seal from the pint shows the expected beige color of the caramel base with some darker spots which I presume are the chocolaty oat clusters.  Digging in, the caramel base was good.  The caramel flavor is not too strong, but it is a common alternative to vanilla when they decide the base ice cream should be slightly richer and without as much bright flavor. The chocolaty oat clusters were small, but they were relatively numerous.  As you bit into the chocolate cluster the fresh oat was underneath and provided a bit of a crunch.  The chocolate coating prevents the oatmeal from getting soggy in the ice cream.

This was an interesting flavor.  It was the first pint I've had which has had oatmeal in it and I can't recall seeing many other flavors which that mix-in.  That said, a recent Ben & Jerry's survey has awarded Oatmeal Cookie Chunk as their most-missed retired flavor and I'm sorry that I did not get a chance to try that flavor before it was retired.  If you miss that flavor and are looking for a substitute then you could give Chocate Caramelized Oat a try.  But you may have to act quickly as I am noticing that the Artisan flavors are starting to disappear from freezer cases.

Talenti - Tiramisu

Talenti - Tiramisu - Tiramisu gelato with a dulce de leche ribbon

Today we return to Talenti to their Tiramisu gelato.  Tiramisu is one of my all-time favorite desserts.  When I go to the Cheesecake Factory, I don't get cheesecake, I get tiramisu.  One of my staple Ben & Jerry's flavors before I got adventurous and decided I needed to try them all was a Target-exclusive flavor called Volun-Tiramisu.  I was very disappointed when that flavor was discontinued right before starting these reviews last year.  So, when I saw Talenti had their own version of this dessert, I scooped up a pint.

Unscrewing the lid reveals a beige color for the tiramisu base with a hint of one of the dulce de leche ribbons.  Digging into the pint, there is a strong coffee flavor to the base.  The Talenti website mentions that the Tiramisu base contains "hints of coffee, Marsala wine, Amaretto, mascarpone cheese" but coffee is the dominant flavor here.  I did note some mascarpone in the mix but I did not notice the wine or amaretto.  Perhaps my taste buds are not attuned to those flavors.  The dulce de leche ribbon was an interesting substitute for the usual soaked ladyfinger cookies.  Dulce de leche is confection made by heating up sweetened milk until it caramelizes.  It tasted a lot like caramel itself, or perhaps a thick caramel pudding.  As a mix-in, I enjoyed it.

Overall, I was a little bit disappointed by this pint.  Although, tiramisu is one of my favorite desserts, and I try to get it whenever it is available in Italian restaurants, I have noted that it is a dessert which has perhaps the greatest variety in implementation.  No two establishment will make tiramisu the same way and often you'll encounter some unique concoctions.  My beef here is that it was a bit too coffee-centric.  Personally, I prefer more mascarpone with coffee used more as an accent.  That was how the old Volun-Tiramisu flavor was implemented.  But, if you're more of a coffee lover than me, and you are OK with the dulce de leche for ladyfinger swap, then you could give this a try.

Häagen-Dazs Artisan - Banana Rum Jam

Banana Rum Jam - Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with a Banana Rum Swirl

It is March 14th, Happy Pi Day everyone!  If I had thought ahead, I'd be reviewing a 'pie' flavor today like Key Lime Pie or Caramel Apple Pie but I did not plan ahead and today is a review of a
Häagen-Dazs Artisan flavor -- Banana Rum Jam.  I guess my favorite kind of pie is banana cream, so maybe there's a connection?  That's a bit of a stretch, but I'll go with in in the spirit of Pi Day.

For the Artisan line, Häagen-Dazs commissions asks specialty bakeries and confectionaries to come up with their own ice cream flavor.  This time, they go to Brooklyn again and asked Jessica Quon and Sabrina Valle from the The Jam Stand and they came up with a flavor incorporating their Drunken Monkey Jam as a swirl.  As mentioned above, I do like banana so we'll see how this goes.

The top of the pint looks like vanilla.  There are small specks visible and it is a vanilla bean base so I figured they are vanilla bean specks.  That said, the first scoops had banana flavor in them.  Although there are some darker swirls visible in the pint, the banana rum is blended into the base as well.  The banana flavor was good.  Its was more earthy banana-bread type of banana flavor and not a sweet flavor like a banana pudding.  The rum was noticeable only once in a while -- every third or fourth scoop I'd feel a mild kick of in the back of my throat.   So the rum is just an mild accent and not a primary component.

I enjoyed this flavor quite a bit.  The earthy banana flavor worked well for eating the whole pint in one sitting.  There were no extra mix-ins though.  If you want chocolate & nuts too then I guess you should stick to Chunky Monkey but today's flavor is pretty good if you just want banana.

Talenti - Key Lime Pie

Key Lime Pie - Key Lime Gelato with Graham Cracker Swirls and Pieces

As I scan the large Talenti section in my local grocery store to see what to review next, I generally look for something unique and different, something that the other brands don't carry.  This time I zeroed in on Key Lime Pie.  I am a big fan of citrus flavors so grabbed this pint.  It turns out that this is a new Talenti flavor for 2016, so its not just new for me, it's new for everyone.

Unscrewing the lid off the jar, you see a pale yellow color with specks of brown visible.  This was actually difficult to photograph.  My camera has autofocus the top appeared 'blurry' and it kept focusing on the wrong thing.  The pale yellow color is actually correct for key lime pie.  The fruit and juice of a key lime (named for its association with the Florida Keys) is more yellow than its more common and greener cousin, the Persian lime.  Plus, added egg yolks, make a key lime pie even yellower.  With Mediterranean Mint, Talenti went with an artificial green color but here they stuck with the natural look.    The base was quite delicious.  It had a bit of a creamy custardy texture but definite lime overtones to it.  It was not as strong as some lime-flavored candies, but I think it was a good amount of lime for eating a whole pint.  The brown flecks turned out to be the graham cracker swirl.  In small doses, these flecks added some texture, but additionally to the swirl were larger pieces.  These provided good contrast to the lime-flavored base and also created the sensation that you were eating a piece of pie with the crust.

I really enjoyed this pint.  It was both a different flavor than usual and also very tasty at the same time.  The flavor was very cool and soothing and I can see why this is a popular flavor for a dessert in hot and muggy south Florida.

Talenti - Caramel Apple Pie

Caramel Apple Pie - Cinnamon Gelato with apple pieces, bits of pie crust and a caramel swirl

Today we review another flavor from Talenti Gelato! My supermarket carries such a wide assortment of Talenti flavors.  They have a lot of the common flavors that every line carries, feature a lot of common mix-ins (cookie dough, brownies, etc) and they have at least four different kinds of raspberry for some reason.  So, I scanned the shelves for something that looked both appetizing and unique and came up with Caramel Apple Pie.  I do enjoy apple pie, but I've never had it worked into an ice cream flavor before.

Unscrewing the lid reveals the milky beige color of the cinnamon base with a bit of the caramel swirl visible on one of the sides.  Digging into the jar of gelato, the cinnamon flavor of the base is quite noticeable and quite delicious.  Talenti does not list the flavor components on the front of the pint the many many other brands do so I did not actually know that it was a cinnamon base until I ate it.  It was a welcome surprise as it was quite yummy and it was not completely unexpected as apple and cinnamon often go together.  The apple pieces were found below as well.  The apple pieces were a little smaller than what is found in a typical apple pie they were soft and soaked in caramel.  Indeed the apple pieces were integrated within the caramel swirl.  This may have solved a logistical issue.  Larger pieces of apple tend to become discolored over time while smaller pieces soaked in syrupy caramel do not have color to lose.  No matter it was quite tasty and tasted like apple pie.  To tell you the truth, I didn't know about the bits of pie crust until searching for the list of ingredients well after finishing the pint.  They were not noticeable.

It was quite a successful pint.  I enjoyed the unique apple flavor and the cinnamon base (which would have been worth it on its own) complemented it well.   If like apple pie and you don't mind the soft syrupy texture of the caramel apple pieces then you should enjoy this pint.