Coolhaus - Salty S'Mores

Salty S'mores - Salted Tahitian Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with a Graham Cookie Butter Marshmallow Swirl & Dark Chocolate Squares

I am still in Minnesota, but my sister bought me a pint of the Culver City-based Coolhaus brand.  She knew I had not been able to find this flavor in California yet.  Isn't she a great sister?  The flavor is called Salty S'Mores. Checking the website, it looks like they've recently renamed it "Campfire S'Mores" -- that sounds like a more appetizing name actually.  It is not uncommon to base an ice cream flavor on the s'mores dessert -- Ben & Jerry's has a S'mores-themed flavor -- but this implementation is a bit different than expected.  Here, there is a salted vanilla base and the chocolate is isolated into a chunky mix-in.  Plus, the graham cracker is turned into a cookie butter which is then mixed with the marshmallow which is then added as a swirl.  Sounds interesting.  

As mentioned in previous reviews, Coolhaus is the brand which is "architecturally inspired" so there is always a famous architect who serves as a mascot for each flavor.  Here, it is Julia Morgan ("Julia S'More-Gan").  Julia was a well-known architect in the early 1900s in Northern California.  She designed a lot of buildings in the Bay Area, particularly at Mills College, but she is most famous for her work on the Hearst Castle in St. Simeon.  I have been there and it is quite amazing.  If you are on the central coast of California, it is worth a trip.


On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid shows all the ingredients visible on top -- the vanilla base, the dark chocolate squares and the the graham-marshmallow swirl almost looks like caramel.  As I ate my way into the pint, the vanilla is actually quite good.  It is soft with lots of bean specks visible.  The Coolhaus brand specializes in ice cream sandwiches so it makes sense that they would have a good vanilla.  The graham marshmallow swirl not only looks like caramel, it actually tastes a bit like caramel as well.  Perhaps a bit salty as well?  The label says the salt is in the base but I am so used to getting salt from the caramel that maybe my mouth is playing tricks on me.  It was good, though.  The dark chocolate squares are a little small but since it is dark chocolate, each one packs a lot of chocolate punch.  The combination of all of the flavors worked really well.  It seemed to get better as I continued eating.  When I got to the bottom, I wanted there to be more.

I really enjoyed this pint. It is a fun and unique twist on a s'mores flavor.  I definitely liked it better than the Ben & Jerry's flavor although their flavor is a lot more chocolatey.  Here the winner for me was graham-marshmallow blend in the swirl.  That may not be what everyone expects, but it was really good.