Ample Hills - Snap, Mallow, Pop!

Snap, Mallow, Pop! - Marshmallow Ice Cream with Buttery Rice Krispie Clusters

It is my last day in New York, so I thought I'd sneak in one last pint of ice cream.  I've had so much success with Ample Hills this trip that I figured I'd go with them again to make it a clean sweep.  This time, its the Snap, Mallow Pop! flavor which is their implementation of Rice Krispie Bars in ice cream format.  Rice Krispie Bars were a regular treat when I was a kid so I am very much looking forward to this flavor.

Removing the lid shows a very textured pint of ice cream.  The rice krispie clusters are everywhere.  Eating my way in, the clusters are crunchy of course, they seem a bit toasted compared to rice krispie bars but it does not affect the flavor.  The marshmallow base is thick, and connects the clusters as you'd expect -- it really does taste like a rice krispie bar.  As I ate my way down, I started to notice a mild buttery flavor mixed in.  It did not hit me right away, it was something that built up over the course of the pint.

I really enjoyed this pint.  Another successful Ample Hills flavor!  If you're in the New York area and like bold flavors with a lot of mix-ins then check out this brand.  They always seem to know how to load a pint filled with interesting ingredients yet still get the mix right.  I'm already looking forward to my next trip to New York so that I can try more flavors.

 

Ample Hills - Autumn in New York

Autumn in New York - Apple cider sorbet made with cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and amaretto liqueur

It is autumn and I am in New York, so when I saw that Ample Hills had a seasonal flavor called "Autumn in New York", I figured I had to try it while I was here.  The flavor is based on a spiked and spiced apple cider.  It is a sorbet an not an ice cream, which means there are no dairy products in the mix.  This is a different flavor mix for me, so I am curious to try it out.  The pint I got was missing the flavor sticker on the front, so I included an extra photo of the lid below.

Removing that lid shows a solid beige color of the apple cider sorbet.  As I scoop into it, it is a bit icy like a sorbet but there is a thickness to it which reminded me of what frozen applesauce might be like.  The first thing that hits you is the amaretto liqueur.  It provides quite a noticeable kick.  Once your mouth gets used to that there is plenty of apple flavor.  The spices are relatively mild, noticeable but no kick like what was provided to by the liqueur.  It was tasty.  Tasted like a good glass of apple cider.  It was very thick and the flavor was fairly concentrated, so it was a lot to eat the entire pint in one sitting.  This is not a knock on the quality of the pint, it's just one of those flavors that is best eaten in one or two scoop serving sizes.

So, an interesting seasonal flavor from Ample Hills.  If you are a fan of apple cider, I'd still recommend you get this despite my note about about serving sizes above.  Apple cider is best enjoyed with friends anyways.

Ample Hills - They Scoop Gilmores, Don't They?

They Scoop Gilmores, Don't They? - Coffee (of course) chocolate pudding ice cream (because Emily is trying after all) but oy, with the snickerdoodles already-- topped with pink [Pop Tart] sprinkles.

The pop culture event this holiday weekend is the Gilmore Girls "revival" on Netflix.  It turns out that the Brooklyn-based Ample Hills creamery has a limited batch flavor to honor this occasion.  To be honest, I never watched Gilmore Girls during its original run -- I may have caught part of an episode once or twice -- but years later I'm surprised at how much of a cult following it has.  Although I was not part of the cult, I appreciate watching others getting excited about things, so I am happy to join in at least for the ice cream part.  This does look like an interesting flavor.  A coffee-chocolate pudding base with snickerdoodle cookie and pop-tart sprinkle mix-ins.  Evidently, Gilmore Girl aficionados know the episode being referenced by every ingredient, which is fun.  Anyhow, I am anxious to dig in.

Removing the lid shows the dark brown color of the coffee-chocolate base with some cookie pieces visible and some red sprinkles also visible on the top.  Eating my way into the pint, the base is very thick and creamy.  I can really tell that it is a pudding base and not just flavored ice cream.  The chocolate flavor is fairly rich and I did notice some coffee in the mix but nothing overwhelmingly strong.  As mentioned in previous reviews, coffee and chocolate have similar active ingredients so they naturally go well together.  The snickerdoodle mix-ins were dispersed randomly through the pint.  They were soft and chewy and provided an occasional cinnamon-laced respite from the chocolatey base.  The sprinkles provided a mostly visual accent -- you could see specks of red in the chocolate from time to time but I did occasionally get a sugary kick from biting into one.

I did enjoy this flavor quite a bit.  Even if you are not a Gilmore Girls fan, a thick chocolatey pint is good eating while binge-watching whatever your favorite TV show happens to be.  But, if you happen to be a fan, then you'll no doubt appreciate the references as well.

Ample Hills - Salted Crack Caramel

Salted Crack Caramel - Salted butter caramel base with Deb's Famous Crack Cookies: salted crackers coated with butter, sugar and chocolate

I am back in New York for the Thanksgiving holiday.  That means, more New York ice cream!  One of my favorites from my previous trip was the Brooklyn-based Ample Hills so I decided to start with them for my first pint.  The Salted Crack Caramel flavor is one of their signature flavors so I figured I would give it a while.  I am curious to see what the "crack cookie" mix-in is like.  There is actually a recipe for it online.  It's saltine crackers cookied in butter with a chocolate coating.  Sounds interesting, but might be too salty?  We'll see.

Opening the pint shows the tan color of the salted caramel base.  It's fairly soft and almost melted.  That could have been the way it was stored?  Anyhow, that didn't end up affecting the flavor so I'll just note that and move on.  Eating my way into the pint, the salted caramel tasted a bit like a Sugar Daddy or a Slo Poke which makes sense as those are caramel candies.  You notice the salt in the mix, but not enough so as to make you thirsty.  Then there are those crack cookies that I was curious about and are visible in a picture below.  These are small square wafers with chocolate on one side the saltines and butter formed a soft and mushy layer on the other.  The soft side was able to blend well with the caramel base and the chocolate side provided a lot of chocolate flavor.  These mix-ins were fun to eat.  They had a snacky feel similar to that of Chubby Hubby but somehow did not add too much additional salt into the mix.  Indeed, like an addictive snack food, I found myself accelerating my eating as I worked my way to the bottom of the pint and was quite disappointed when I got to the end.  No more.  Sad!

This was a much more successful pint than I expected.  I'm not generally a junkie for salted caramel or snack-food mix-ins but this was a well-done combination which was flavorful, crunchy yet was not too dry and did not overdo it on the salt.  I'm not sure who the Deb of Deb's Famous Crack Cookies is, but she deserves to be more famous.  Anyhow, if you're in New York and like salty snacks, give this flavor a try.

McConnell's - Cardamom & Gingersnaps

Cardamom & Gingersnaps - Cardamom flavored Ice Cream with "Pepparkakor" Gingersnap cookie pieces

Right back to McConnell's for another holiday-themed pint, Cardamom & Gingersnaps.  I had been having trouble finding this flavor.  I ended up finding it the same day I picked up their Egg Nog flavor.  Technically, this flavor is available year-round but it is part of their "holiday pack" of four pints available for shipping along with the aforementioned Egg Nog, Pumpkin Pie, and Peppermint Stick flavors.  With today's write-up, I will have reviewed all four.

The romance copy on the back of the pint is a fun read.  My family background is mostly Scandinavian.  I'm am 50% Norwegian and 25% Swedish (the remaining 25% is Irish).  Funny that its only been in the last couple of years that I've known about the cardamon connection in Scandanavian desserts.  So, although my background doesn't give me extra insight, it does motivate me to try to appreciate it.  My only previous foray into a cardamom flavor had more of a Indian feel to it, so it'll be fun to try a Swedish take on the spice.

Opening the pint shows a beige color to the base ice cream and several small specks of cookie pieces are available right away.  Digging in, the aromatic flavor of cardamom hit me right away.  Its funny, in some respects cardamom doesn't specifically taste like much but its a feeling in the nose that hits you.  I think that's what makes it a good complementary spice.  It does not directly compete with the other flavors.  The other flavor here are the chunks of Swedish-style "Pepparkakor" ginger cookies.  These cookies were spicy and flavorful.  They were also soft.  The gingersnaps I had as a kid were hard and crunchy unless dipped in milk.  Here, the cookies are effectively "dipped" in ice cream, so I'm glad they were soft.

This is a new and successful flavor combination for me.  I enjoyed this pint.  There could have been more cookie pieces, but that's a minor complaint.  If you're in the mood for some Swedish or you just like cardamom and ginger then go ahead and give this a try.

  

McConnell's - Egg Nog

Egg Nog - Egg Nog Ice Cream with Rum Flavoring, Nutmeg and Allspice

It's the holiday season already and that means that its time for holiday flavors!  Today, we return to the Santa-Barbara-based McConnell's brand for their Egg Nog flavor.  This flavor is available each year for only six weeks -- from mid-November through the end of the year.  I couldn't find it last year, so I was really happy when I saw it at the Iowa Meat Farms butcher shop in Mission Valley.

McConnell's had been getting away from the fun "romance copy" sections on the backs of their pints  recently -- a slight redesign has made this section of the carton much smaller.  I don't know if they're bringing it back or if it is just that the holiday flavor is using the old design but its fun to see the goofy text once more.  Here they tell a fun anecdote about how you can't re-gift a dairy product like you can a fruitcake.

Before we start, I must confess that I don't really like egg nog.  In fact, its one of my all-time least favorite foods.  As a child, I used to imagine the worst possible thing to eat would be a "spinach egg-nog malt".  I didn't like spinach and I didn't like egg nog, so blend it together and it must be especially bad.  So, can I be objective here?  Perhaps.  What grossed me out the most about egg nog was the texture.  I'm not a huge glass-of-milk fan and blending eggs into it to make it thicker is what I find the most gross.  But I do like ice cream and what you do you get when you add extra eggs to ice cream?  Frozen custard!  So, this might work out.  We'll see how the rum and spices blend in.

Removing the lid shows the bright yellowish flavor of the egg nog base.   Digging in, it did have a primarily custard flavor to it.  Whew!  Checking the ingredient list, I see vanilla is listed but I must admit that I did not taste it at the time.  As with previous McConnell's flavors this is very thick ice cream.  Not a lot of air blended in.  There is a hit of rum blended in.  It's fairly mild, though.  Just enough to provide that hint of flavor but not so much that takes over.  The spices are also mild.  Nutmeg and allspice are ingredients in my favorite sweet bread recipe so I do like it but it could have been a little spicier.

So, this is a well-done implementation of an egg nog flavor -- and for those who don't care for egg nog, its basically frozen custard with a dash of rum and spice.  As well done as this is, it's fairly mild so the flavor has diminishing returns after a scoop or two.  So, perhaps this is one where you get just a single scoop at a scoop shop or maybe split the pint with a friend or two. 

 

Three Twins - Mint Confetti

Mint Confetti - Mint Ice Cream with Chocolate Flecks

Long-time readers know that my favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip.  It has been a while since I've a pint of this so when I saw an implementation of this flavor that I had not previously reviewed, I gladly purchased it for later consumption.  The brand is Three Twins, the San Rafael brand who I've reviewed several time before.  The call their flavor Mint Confetti.  Here, "confetti" is just a colorful name for chocolate chip and it is a label that they've used before in at least one other flavor.  

Removing the lid shows a very light coating of frost on the top.  Certainly not a deal-breaker but you can see it in the picture.  The mint is light-colored with no artificial green coloring.  In fact, its almost yellowish which reminded me of McConnell's Mint Chip, but the current flavor is not quite that yellow.  Digging into the pint, the base is soft and mint-flavored as expected.  The confetti were more flake-shaped and were generously dispersed throughout the pint.  A flake-shaped chip works well because it provides chocolate flavor but with a bit of variability to how much is in each spoonful.  That's makes for more fun than a completely homogeneous mixture.

So, yet another succesful pint of mint chip.  The mint was good, the chip was good, who can complain?  Compared to other mint chips, its probably not quite in the all-time inner circle of McConnell's and Graeter's but that's a high bar to judge.  The Three Twins Mint Confetti is quite good on it's own right.

Nancy's Fancy - Chocolate Fondente

Chocolate Fondete - Dark Chocolate Sorbetto with Dark Rum and Valrhona Chocolate Chips

I was Whole Food's last week and was in the mood for a new brand so I picked up a pint of Nancy's Fancy's Chocolate Fondente.  The Nancy of Nancy's Fancy is Nancy Silverton who is a well-known chef in the Los Angeles area.  She runs a couple of Italian restaurants and has a bakery in the La Brea neighborhood and has written several books over the thirty years.  In 2015, she decided to enter the premium frozen dessert market with a line of gelatos and sorbets.  

This flavor intrigued me for a couple of reasons.  First, I didn't know what "fondente" meant -- I guess it is the italian word used to specify that it is dark chocolate.  The second thing is the fact that this is a sorbet and not an ice cream.  "Ice cream" is a dairy product made from milk and cream and contains a lot of milk fat, but a "sorbet" contains no dairy products.  Sorbets are made from water, sugar and flavoring.  (A "sherbet" is in between.  It contains a small amount of cream)  The flavoring of a sorbet is usually a fruit juice giving it a frozen slushy appearance but here the flavoring is dark chocolate.  Anyhow, I usually associate chocolate with milk and cream so I'm curious as to how this will work out.

Opening the pint show a very dark color to the dark chocolate sorbet and you can tell right away that the texture will not be creamy.  Digging my spoon in, there is a little bit of softness.  I checked the ingredient list and it contains cocoa butter which might help.  The taste is a very strong chocolate.  There is a hint of rum which is noticeable but not overly done.  Dispersed through the pint are the Valrhona chocolate chips.  Chocolate within chocolate does not provide much of a contrast in flavor but the chips add a bit of textural variety -- they give you something to chew on.

Overall, the chocolate in sorbet from was interesting.  Each spoonful felt like a chunk of gourmet chocolate candy.  In that regard, I thought this would be one of the most caloric pints that I'd ever had but it turned out to be the opposite.  The full pint contained only 600 calories while most ice creams contain between 1000-1200 calories.  I guess removing the milk fat really does make it 'lighter' even though it doesn't taste that way.  Anyways, a very intriguing pint for chocolate lovers.  You have to love chocolate of course, but if you do, you should try this out.

  

Honeymoon - Strawberry Tarragon

Strawberry Tarragon - Sweet Cream with a Swirl of Strawberry Tarragon Jam

The cute mason jar image above means that we are return to the San Rafael-based Honeymoon brand this week for their Strawberry Tarragon flavor.  I have never had tarragon in an ice cream before -- in fact, I'm not even sure what tarragon is!  It sounds familiar, but I had to google and consult a friend or two to prepare.  I guess tarragon is an herb similar to anise or fennel with a licorice-like aftertaste.  As noted in reviews here before, strawberry is a very strong and sweet flavor which can be overpowering by itself.  So, something is often used to 'cut' the flavor, we've seen cheesecake or balsamic vinegar used before.  It will be interesting to see how tarragon turns out.

Unscrewing the lid of the mason jar reveals a solid white color of the sweet cream base.  Uh oh... it looks like there might be mixing issues.  All of the strawberry visible on through the glass seems to be only on the sides of the jar.  That's a bit worrisome.  Eating my way into the pint, the strawberry jam is quite flavorful, the tarragon mutes the sweetness while the tarragon gives it a bit of an earthy aftertaste.  For some reason, its the same flavor that I'd imagine a strawberry newton would taste like -- although I've never had one of those.  The mixing issue persisted throughout the pint.  In a previous pint this was a big problem because many spoonfuls would only contain the plain base -- which is no fun.  But here, it actually worked out.  The entire lining of the jar contained strawberry tarragon flavor and it didn't take much of it to take over a spoonful.  I think two things help here.  First, the sweet cream base is very soft so it was not tough to slice through it with your spoon.  Second, the jar itself is a bit narrower than most ice cream container -- so it was easier to get a bit of the sides into every spoon.  As a side effect, I got to try some of the plain sweet cream in the middle and it is good.

So, a successful pint.  The mixing issue may be a warning flag for future flavors from this brand but it worked out here.  If you like strawberry and you are curious about how it mixes with tarragon, then you should check this out.

  

Jeni's - Churro Ice Cream

Churro Ice Cream - Cinnamon Sugar Ice Cream with Toffee and Pastry Flakes

Today, we return to the Columbus-based Jeni's brand for their Churro Ice Cream flavor.   This is the second churros-themed flavor that I've reviewed -- McConnell's Churros Con Leche being the previous one.  It will be fun to compare and contrast the two implementations.  Both include a cinnamon-flavored base and flakes or chunks of dough or pastry, but Jeni's includes toffee into the mix.

Removing the lid shows the light color of the cinnamon sugar base but a lot of darker brown mix-ins are visible right away on the very top.  Also visible are a couple of small chunks that appear to be in a semi-liquid state.  I think this is the toffee!  Its going to be a melted-toffee mix-in.  Eating my way into the pint, the cinnamon flavor of the base is quite potent.  It is not a 'hot' cinnamon, but there is no shortage of its flavor in each spoonful.  The pastry flakes provide a good textural contrast.  The melted toffee chunks were surprisingly prevalent.  It tasted like caramel to me, but whether it's toffee or caramel, it is tasty.

This was a very successful pint.  I liked it better than the McConnell's implementation.  The cinnamon was stronger, the chunks were more smaller but more numerous, and melted toffee the icing on the cake.  Of course, Jeni's is a more premium-priced and harder to find brand, so I will leave it up to the reader as to whether its worth it.