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.