Steve's - Manhattan Cherry Chip

Manhattan Cherry Chip - Cherry Blossom Ice Cream with brandied cherries and chocolate chunks

I was at Wal-Mart the other day looking for new flavors and stumbled upon this flavor of Steve's that I had not had yet: Manhattan Cherry Chip.  I decided to give it a try.  At first glance it looks like it is Steve's version of Cherry Garcia.  It will be interesting to see how this flavor compares.

One thing to note before we get started.  This is 200th pint review!  You may remember that for my 100th pint review I created a neat collage of those 100 pints of ice cream.  I decided to repeat that exercise for the second 100 pints:

The second 100 pints!

The second 100 pints shows a much larger variety of brands.  When I first started this blog, I was mainly reviewing Ben & Jerry's.  I still review new flavors of theirs when they are released but I've been also exploring many other premium brands that I've been finding both in Southern California and during my travels to see family members in Minnesota and New York.  It has been fun.  I shall continue as long as I am able to keep finding new flavors.

On to this week's pint!  Removing the lid shows the lid pink color of the cherry base.  Digging in, the cherry flavor is a bit different than I was expecting.  It is a bit sweeter than Cherry Garcia's base but it also had a twinge of sourness in it as well.  My first thought was that it reminded me a little of Black Cherry flavored soda that I used to drink as a kid.  I checked the ingredient list to see if this was black cherry.  What I saw was that the label on the pint states that the actually cherry blossom flavored, but the ingredient list just says "cherry juice".  The Steve's website is not in operation, so I can't check there.  I stand by my 'black cherry' description.  The cherry pieces and chocolate pieces were not bad but they were very sparse.  I was expecting more mix-ins.

This was an interesting twist on a cherry flavor.  Was it black cherry or cherry blossom (sakura?)?  I am not sure.  If you are a big Cherry Garcia fan, you might want to sample this to see what you think.  Personally, I would stick with Cherry Garcia but it was fun to try something new.

  

Coolhaus - Salted Caramel

Salted Caramel - Maldon Sea Salt and Caramel Ice Cream

Today we return to the Culver City based Coolhaus brand for their implementation of a Salted Caramel flavor.  It looks like a simple implementation, just sea salt and caramel.  They build it as "Maldon Sea Salt".  Maldon is a town in Essex on the river Blackwater which is known for salt production.  For those who are more interested, here is a long, flowery treatise on Maldon salt.

Remember that Coolhaus is the ice cream brand that is "architecturally inspired" which means that each flavor has an architect associated with it.  This flavor is nicknamed "Cara-Mia Lehrer" after Mia Lehrer, the Los Angeles based architect.  Lehrer is primarily known as a landscape architect.  She has worked on a number of projects in the LA area including the Silver lake reservoir, the San Pedro waterfront and the gardens of the Museum of Natural History.

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid shows the expected brown color of the salted caramel base.  The first spoonful is soft, very creamy and full of caramel flavor.  It is not that salty.  In fact, if you just told me that it was caramel, I would not have noticed.  That is fine with me.  Some people like a kick of saltiness in their salted caramel that leaves them thirsty afterwards.  This is not that, but it is still good caramel flavor.  Sometimes a salted caramel base tastes a bit too much like a Slo Poke sucker but this manages to avoid that.  It is softer and creamier than other salted caramel bases that I've had.

For simple, plain salted caramel bases, this is one of the best that I have had.  That said, the base is all that is here. There are no mix-ins in this pint.  My preference for salted caramel is as a gooey mix-in but if you like it in the base, this is the one to get.  As good as this ice cream is, I want to mix it with something.  Interestingly, the Coolhaus brand is arguably more known for their ice cream sandwiches than for their ice cream alone.  In their sandwich line, they couple their Salted Caramel flavor with Snickerdoodle cookies.  That sounds pretty good.

New Orleans - Praline Crunch

Praline Crunch - Praline Ice Cream with Crunchy Whole Caramel Pecans

Today we return to the New Orleans brand for their Praline Crunch flavor.   At first glance, this looks standard Pralines & Cream implementation as first popularized by Baskin-Robbins over fifty years ago, but a second glance at the ingredient list shows a praline base flavor.  So perhaps a minor twist on that popular flavor.  We shall see.

Removing the lid shows a beige color to the base.  There is a tiny amount of frost due to some air sneaking between the lid and the ice cream but it is not enough to affect the taste.  With the first spoonful, the base has a dark earthy flavor to it.  It is sort of like a brown sugar or perhaps a burnt caramel.  I guess this is consistent with what the praline coating would be like if it was fully blended into a base ice cream.  It is a noticeable difference from the usual vanilla base and I liked it.  The caramel pecans are crunchy and quite good.  I actually like a gooey coating to pecans better than a hard, praline candy coating.

I quite liked this pint.  The variation on the standard pralines & cream is quite minor, but it is a good one.  I liked the brown-sugar-like base and the caramel pecans.  If you're a pralines & cream fan and this type of subtle twist interests you, then give this flavor a try.

  

McConnell's - Earl Grey Tea & Shortbread Cookies

Earl Grey Tea & Shortbread Cookies - Bergamot Oil-Infused Black Tea Ice Cream with Shortbread Cookies

We're back to store-bought ice cream with this review.  McConnell's has a few new flavors for this year and I was able to find one of them at a local butcher shop.  This is Earl Grey Tea & Shortbread Cookies.  Eart Grey tea is interesting.  Earl Grey is not a grey tea, it is a black tea which is flavored with orange. But the orange used is a bergamot orange which is not an orange orange -- the bergamot orange is green.  It turns out the tea is named of the 2nd Earl Grey, Charles Grey, son of the first earl Charles Grey and his wife Elizabeth Grey (nee Grey).  So that's where the Grey comes from.  The Greys were a family Northumberland knights that were promoted into the peerage in the 18th century.  It is likely that the first of these knights had grey hair.  This 2nd Earl is the most famous of the Greys.  He served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the Great Reform Act of 1832.  Many people consider him the first modern Prime Minister.  Today, we remember him as the Grey who liked to flavor his black tea with a green orange.  Shortbread cookies have been added as a mix-in to give this flavor an extra British appeal.

Removing the lid, the base ice cream is beige.  I guess it is the color that you could expect of a milky tea.  With the first spoonful, I taste a bit of the orange oil right away and then the tea.  The orange flavoring fades a bit as you get used to it. The base ice cream is not very sweet.  It is like tea.  To make up for the lack of sweetness, the shortbread cookies are quite sweet.  They are not soft or crunchy, but somewhere in between.  They are sort of like soaked cookies.  The sweetness of the cookies complements the non-sweetness of the tea quite well.

I did enjoy this pint.  I am not a tea drinker, though, so this was just a fun experimental flavor for me.  If you do like tea, this is a good one to try.  It might be a good pint to split with someone as well done as this mixture is, I think it is probably better in a smaller serving.

Ample Hills - It Came From Gowanus

It Came From Gowanus - Salted Dark Chocolate Base with Hazelnut Crack Cookies topped with White Chocolate Pearls and Orange- Scented Brownies

Today we review the last of Ample Hills' Taste of New York 4-pack that I ordered a couple of weeks ago now.   The last flavor is called It Came From Gowanus.  The flavor is so named for two reasons.  It is the exclusive flavor for their scoop shop in the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn and also because one of the co-founders of Ample Hills (Brian Smith) is a former science-fiction writer so they made the flavor name sound like 1950s sci-fi movie.  I saved this flavor for last as it is the most famous of the 4-pack.  The Food Network featured it in this video where they crowned it the number one ice cream in America.  That video provides an excellent overview for the flavor.  It is a chocolate-lovers flavor with chocolate base and chocolatey mix-ins and the video shows how they make everything (including the mix-ins) by hand.

Postcard that came with the shipment that promotes the flavor as if it was a 1950s sci-fi movie

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid shows the expected dark brown color of the chocolate base.  There is a hint of light frost on the top, but I can tell it is not enough to affect the flavor or consistency.  Digging into the pint, it is quite thick and chocolatey.  It is listed as a salted chocolate, but it is not too heavy on the salt.  Perhaps you want to drink a class of water when you are done but that is it.  Then it is just loaded with mix-ins.  The white chocolate pearls are visible in some of the pictures below.  They are about the size of BB pellets.  The brownie pieces were actually blended in pretty well.  The base ice cream is so thick and chocolatey that the brownie pieces were just chewier parts of the mix.  I did notice a hint of citrus.  It was not overly orangey -- it just seemed to brighten things up a bit and keep all the chocolate from becoming too overwhelming.  The hazelnut crack cookies were the star of the pint.  They are similar to the crack cookies in their Salted Crack Caramel flavor in that they are somehow crunchy and buttery at the same time.  I have never had crack cookies outside of ice cream before but they seem to make the perfect mix-in.  There were a lot of mix-ins in this pint, but it all seemed perfectly balanced.  That balance in most of their flavors seems to be one of Ample Hills' specialties.

This was an extremely successful pint which lives up to its billing.  I am not even a chocoholic and I liked it.  If you're in the Gowanus scoop shop, this is definitely the flavor to try.

All in all, I really enjoyed the 4-pack.  This was my first foray into ice cream by mail.  The shipping costs were not trivial here but it looks like something fun to do a couple of times a year.  How would I rank the four flavors?  As awesome as this Gowanus flavor was, I actually liked the Commodore flavor better.  Perhaps that's the non-chocoholic in me talking.  This flavor was a close second.  Then I'd put the Harry & Eigel Marbled and Malted flavor with the Floatin on the High Line flavor's niche root beer appeal coming fourth.

  

Ample Hills - Floatin' Over the High Line

Floatin' Over the High Line - Root Beer Base made with Bubby's Homemade Root Beer Syrup, Mini Marshmallows and Chocolate Sprinkles

Today we continue with Ample Hills' Taste of New York four-pack.   The third pint is called "Floating Over the High Line" and was created as the exclusive flavor for their scoop shop inside the Bubby's Restaurant in the meatpacking district of Manhattan's lower east side.  That shop is right near the southern end of the High Line which is an old elevated train track which has been converted into a pedestrian walk way.  I've walked the high line and it is pretty cool.  This part of town is an older industrial area, but since it is Manhattan, it is gentrifying.  Walking the High Line gives you a overhanging view of the neighborhood as well as the nearby Hudson River.  The "floatin" in the name is because the flavor is based on that of a root beer float.  There's root beer in the base with marshmallow and chocolate sprinkle mix-ins.  I have not had root beer ice cream before so I am looking forward to checking it out.

Removing the lid shows a chalky beige color of the root beer base with hints of the marshmallow mix-ins visible.  It is a much lighter color than root beer itself, but I guess it does resemble the color of a root beer float.  With the first spoonful, I notice the root beer flavor right away.  In fact, I could almost taste the carbonation, although that might have been in my imagination.  It was pretty good.  The marshmallow mix-ins were dispersed liberally through the pint.  They were mini-marshallow-sized.  They were solid -- not liquefied as is done in some flavors -- but they were not chewy as occurs in some other brands.  They seemed to dissolve right away when you eat them.  They did provide the expected marshmallow flavor.  You could see the small chocolate sprinkles in each spoonful, but the effect of these sprinkles was mainly visual.  The effect on the flavor was quite minor.  

I did enjoy this pint.  As mentioned above, this was my first root beer ice cream and it was a surprisingly well done replication of the root beer flavor.  I can see this pint having more of a niche appeal compared to the other pints in this four-pack though.  Some people might be intrigued by a spoonful or two of root beer ice cream but maybe not a whole pint.  I personally really like root beer, so I did enjoy it, but perhaps a heads up to those visiting the scoop shop to get a sample before making a full order.

  

Ample Hills - The Commodore

The Commodore - Salty Honey Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Potato Chip Clusters and Honeycomb Candy

We continue to work our way through Ample Hills' Taste of New York 4-pack.  Today's flavor is called The Commodore.  The flavor was created for their scoop shop on Vanderbilt Avenue in the Prospect Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.  Since it is on Vanderbilt Avenue, they named it in honor of "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt.  It turns out that Vanderbilt is associated with a popular urban legend pertaining to the origin of the potato chip.  The story goes that he was in a Saratoga hotel and send his fried potatoes back to the chef George Crum in the kitchen as they were too thick and had gotten too soggy.  Defiantly, Crum sliced them ultra-thin so they fried up extra crispy.  Vanderbilt liked the final result so much that the "potato chips" were added to the restaurant's menu and the rest is history.  There are some doubts as to the veracity of this urban legend but it is a fun story and a great excuse to base an ice cream flavor around a potato chip mix-in.  Along with the salty honey base and the honeycomb candy, this looks like an interesting pint.  I can't wait to dig in.

                                

The shipment came with a decorative postcard for The Commodore flavor.

Opening the pint shows the off-white yellow of the salted honey base with what looks like a bit of a caramel swirl -- or maybe that is honey because it is not listed..  With the first spoonful, it has a unique yet familiar flavor.  I was having trouble placing it.  The flavor of fortune cookies? or sugar cones? or perhaps honeycomb cereal?  I really liked it but I kept trying to figure out where I'd tasted that before.  Then there were the chocolate-covered potato-chip clusters.  You taste a little burst of salt each time you bite into it.  It doesn't sound like it is a great idea as an ice cream mix-in but it really is.  I have no seen it elsewhere since Ben & Jerry's discontinued its Late Night Snack flavor because the Jimmy Fallon flavor got "promoted" to the Tonight Dough.  More brands should feature potato chip mix-ins.  The ice cream was really thick with lots of mix-ins.  Holding it together was that salty caramel-ly honey swirl.  I scanned the ingredients to see if it was caramel or honey and I think it might be Lyle's Golden Syrup which is a honey substitute dating back to the nineteenth century.  It held the pint together really well.

This was one of the more memorable and successful pints I have reviewed here.  This checks all the boxes for what makes a pint interesting to me.   It has unique ingredients and mix-ins which I don't normally see yet it all came together in seemingly perfect ratios and it tasted amazing.  The saltiness was noticeable so perhaps drink a glass of water afterwards.  It's really too bad this is only available in the Vanderbilt Avenue scoop shop and by mail order.  Anyhow, if you are ever in that particular shop, this is the flavor to try.

  

Ample Hills - Harry & Eigel's Marbled and Malted

Harry & Eigel's Marbled and Malted - Chocolate Malted Base with Marbled Cheesecake Pieces and Crushed Malt Balls

We return to the Brooklyn-based Ample Hills brand today.  I am not in New York right now, so how is this happening?  Well, I am the lucky recipient of the Taste of New York 4-pack which features flavors themed on the location of their scoop shops.  I had never gotten ice cream in the mail before.  Was it going to be half melted?  As it turned out, it came packed in dry ice so it was extra frozen -- much more frozen than a grocery store freezer case.  The dry ice packets were still quite substantial when I opened the box.  I probably could have left the box on my front step for a couple of days before it lost effectiveness.  I dutifully transferred the pints to my freezer, though.  When I say that the pints were super-frozen, I mean in a good way.  No frost build up or freezer burn, just as if it was rapidly quenched to 50 below zero.  Because of this, I did have to put the pint in the fridge for 5-10 minutes before eating it.

Today's flavor is called Harry and Eigel's Marbled and Malted.  It was created this year for the new scoop shop in Brooklyn's Dekalb Market.  What is near the Dekalb Market?  Junior's Cheesecake!    Junior's Cheesecake was founded in 1950 by Harry Rosen using a family recipe perfected by Danish-born chef Eigel Peterson.  So, the "Harry and Eigel's" in the ice cream flavor name is a reference to Junior's.  Cheesecake as a mix-in.  That sounds decadent.  I can't wait to dig in.

After letting the pint soften a bit in the fridge, I cracked it open and saw the brown color of the chocolate base with perhaps a piece of cheesecake mix-in visible right away.  As I dug into the pint, it had a good creamy consistency.  I was satisfied that the shipping and softening were successful without any adverse effects.  The chocolate is quite good and had only a hint of malt flavor.  I quickly encountered the cheesecake pieces.  They were decently-sized.  The chunk in the picture below was typical.  I eagerly bit into the first chunk and it was a bit frozen.  I don't know if that had to do with the super-cold shipping or if it was just frozen from being in the ice cream.  I adjusted for the next chunks by warming them up a bit with my tongue.  That worked and the cheesecake was thick, rich and dense as I remember Juniors cheesecake to be.  The crushed malt balls were dispersed through the pint.  These were basically crushed Whoppers.  I enjoyed the chocolate parts when I ran into them and the malt parts were not encountered them.  This was good because I don't mind malt when it is blended in to help numb a flavor but I am not a big fan of malt for malts sake.

This was a very interesting pint of ice cream.  Real cheesecake pieces as a mix-in was quite decadent!   Ben & Jerry's has a cheesecake core flavor, but they used a sort of goop that was "cheesecake-like" (I did like it for what it was, though).  Here, the mix-in was real Junior's Cheesecake!   It was weird, though, as much as I like ice cream with interesting mix-ins, this pint left me wanting a full slice of cheesecake.  If you're in Brooklyn and you're trying a scoop of this at Ample Hills, you might find yourself walking down to Juniors afterwards.  If you do that, make sure you eat a light dinner beforehand.