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.