Häagen-Dazs - Rocky Road

Rocky Road - Chocolate Ice Cream with Roasted Almonds and a Marshmallow Swirl

Today we discuss the Rocky Road flavor from Häagen-Dazs.   There are still a few new
Häagen-Dazs which I have not tried but I did not see them at the Pavilions that I was shopping at so I looked to see if any of their classic flavors looked interesting.  I do not plan on doing a full survey of the Häagen-Dazs line because they have a lot of simple homogeneous flavors which don't make for interesting write-ups but some of the classic flavors have fun mix-in combinations and Rocky Road is one of them.  

Rocky Road is actually a classic flavor in general.  It is one of the first popular flavors to include a relatively complex group of mix-ins. The history of the flavor is a bit murky as several places claim to have invented it, but it dates from before World War II for sure and one account claims as far back as 1920.  Some of the names of the people who claim invention are still well known today.  One story has William Dreyer and Joseph Edy concocting the flavor around 1930 in Oakland.  Another story has it being invented across town in Oakland at E.S. Fenton's creamery.  Lastly, culinary sleuths have stumbled upon a recipe for 'rocky road' in an old Kansas cookbook.  Regardless of who invented it, it has withstood the test of time.  As I write this, I am starting to wonder why it has taken me so long to review an implementation of this flavor.  Enough chatter, on to the ice cream!

Removing the lid shows the familiar brown color of the chocolate base.  Häagen-Dazs has one of the best implementations of just plain chocolate.  Eating my way into the pint, I start to encounter pockets of the marshmallow swirl.  I was almost expecting chewy marshmallow pieces, but this was a gooey melted marshmallow.  I did not expect this, but it was a welcome surprise.  These pockets were large enough to provide marshmallow flavor but they were distinct enough so as not to blend with the chocolate as happens with the Phish Food flavor from Ben & Jerry's.  It makes me wonder how they got those gooey pockets in there.  The almonds here are not full almonds but they are large enough to provide plenty of crunchy texture and almond flavor.

I very much enjoyed this pint.  All three ingredients were top notch.  Fans of Häagen-Dazs'
amazing chocolate base will like this.  Fans of gooey marshmallow will like this.The almonds are quite good, too.  It makes me wonder why it took me so long to review this!