Häagen-Dazs - Butter Pecan

Butter Pecan - Vanilla Ice Cream with Roasted Butter Pecans

Today, we go right back to Häagen-Dazs for their Butter Pecan flavor.  Interesting story:  I actually bought this pint by mistake.  When I was at the non-chain convenience store buying the Pralines & Cream pint that I couldn't find anywhere else.  I put my initial pint back and reached down into the bottom of the case for a colder one and grabbed a Butter Pecan by mistake.  You'll see that both similar packaging with pictures of pecans on the front.  I tried to make an exchange the next day after I had discovered my mistake but they would not do it.  So, I had to eat both!  Tough, eh?  A silver lining (if one is even needed) is that I probably would have gotten to this flavor eventually.   Butter pecan is a fairly ubiquitous flavor which is present in almost any scoop shop with a double-digit number of flavors.  In fact, Wikipedia states that butter pecan is the country's third most popular flavor of ice cream behind vanilla and chocolate (according the American College of Emergency Physicians of all places).

Removing the lid and the plastic seal, the top of the pint is an off-white with plenty of mix-ins visible right away.  Digging in,the base is billed as being vanilla here and vanilla extract is in the ingredient list but you can tell that some of the butter from the mix-ins has blended into the base.  It served as good vehicle for delivering the pecan mix-ins.  There were a lot of pecans in this pint!  It was quite common to get several pieces into a single spoonful.   The pecans were softer and less crunchy than the praline pecans of the pralines and cream.  I got the labels of the two flavors confused before but I was defintely not confused once they were opened up.  Pralines & Cream is a sweeter pint which lots of crunchier pecans and lots of caramel.  This is a richer buttery pint with softer and more numerous pecans.

This is a standard flavor which was very well done by Häagen-Dazs.  They usually do the classic flavors well and this is no exception. 

  

McConnell's - Cookies & Cream

Cookies and Cream - Sweet Cream with Chewy Chocolate Cookies

Today we return to the Santa Barbara-based McConnell's brand for their implementation of a Cookies & Cream flavor.  This is a new flavor for 2017 from them.  I mean, it is a classic ice cream flavor so they have probably had it before (at least in their scoop shops) but it is a newly released pint flavor for 2017.  Previously, they've had a Sea Salt Cream & Cookies flavor which is more of a twist on the classic flavor using salt and chocolate chip cookies.  Here, it is the expected chocolate sandwich cookies.  They do not use Oreos here, they use a chocolate cookie from Newman's Own.  

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid shows the expected speckled grey color of the sweet cream base.  This particular pint had a thin layer or unblended sweet cream folded over one side.  Very thin and it tasted fine.  Just a manufacturing curiosity.  I only note it to explain one of the pictures below.  The sweet cream is very thick.  Still tasty but some McConnell's pints are so dense that they sacrifice a bit in creaminess.  They chocolate cookies mix-ins are different from Oreos.  They are dark brown and chewy rather than black and crumbly.  It made for a good mix-in though.  Quite chocolatey.

This is a solid, implementation of the traditional, cookies and cream flavor but to tell you the truth I strongly prefer their Sea Salt Cream & Cookies flavor.  Not that this was at all bad.  It is good to have the classic version on the menu, but for a special salt and chocolate chip cookie flavor that is unique to McConnell's, I would go for the other one.

  

Talenti - Roman Raspberry

Roman Raspberry - Raspberry Sorbetto with a Hint of Lemon

Today, I decided to return to the Talenti brand.  If you've every walked past the Talenti section of the freezer case, you'll know that two flavors stick out due to their bright coloring:  Alphonso Mango and Roman Raspberry.   I have always wanted to try one of them.  I have reviewed a mango flavor before, so I went with the raspberry.  A closer inspection after my purchase tells me that this pint is a sorbetto -- meaning that there are no dairy ingredients, just fruit, ice and sugar.   I did some searching to see if there was anything significant to the 'Roman' adjective.  Is it a variety of raspberry?  Is this sorbet popular in Italy?  But I could not find anything that did not reference this specific Talenti flavor.

Unscrewing the lid shows the bright red color of the raspberry sorbet.  You can see the slushy texture right away on the top.  Digging in, the raspberry flavor is quite strong, but it is not overly tart.  Some raspberry jam mix-ins have been a bit on the sour side.  Here they must have either used sweeter raspberries or they added enough sugar to balance this.  It was a good flavor.  The jar states that a little bit of lemon juice was added into the mix.  That was not obvious to me, but it is possible that helped to balance the flavor as well.  The flavor held up as I continued to eat the entire pint.  At no point did it become overwhelming.  The fact that it was a sorbet gave it the feeling like I was eating a frozen smoothie.

This was a fun pint.  A sorbet works well for raspberry.  The texture and the sour/sweet balance were well done here.  Obviously, you need to be a fan of raspberry to enjoy this but if you do, then go for it.  I am curious about what their dairy/gelato implementations are like now.  I may try their raspberries & cream or raspberry cheesecake flavors at some point.

  

Häagen-Dazs - Pralines & Cream

Pralines & Cream - Vanilla Ice Cream with Praline Pecans and a Caramel Ribbon

A little over a year ago, I reviewed Baskin-Robbins' Pralines N' Cream flavor which is one of their signature flavors dating back over fifty years.  In that review, I noted that they had sued Häagen-Dazs in 1984 for infringing on their trademark with their Pralines & Cream flavor.  Häagen-Dazs only changed the 'N' to '&', so they were obviously copying Baskin-Robbins.  I looked right away for the Häagen-Dazs flavor but I had trouble finding it -- tor some reason, none of my usual stores carries it.  Well, last week I was at a non-chain convenience store outside of my usual stomping grounds and I took a peek into their freezer case to see what they had for ice cream (something you should do no matter where you are) and there it was!  I finally get to compare the two flavors.  Here we go.

Opening the pint shows a lot of dark caramel visible right away on the top.  I was expecting this!  Digging in, the caramel swirl is quite good.  It almost made me forget about the vanilla base.  The vanilla was not bad but I think its purpose was only to prevent the caramel from reaching overdose levels.  The mix was good.    Next I encountered the praline pecans.  They were crunchy and tasty and the praline coating was noticeable but not too thick.  Some pralines overdo it on the coating, but not here.  There was not as many pecans in the mix as I was expecting.

This was a very good flavor.  The comparison with Baskin-Robbins reminds me of the comparison between Caramel Cone and Americone Dream flavors.  There, I enjoyed the Häagen-Dazs pint better despite the fact that the Ben & Jerry's cone mix-in was better simply because of all the extra caramel.  The same thing happened here.  I think Baskin-Robbins' had better praline mix-ins but I enjoyed Häagen-Dazs more because they had extra caramel.  I'm glad that the two implementations are different so one can decide which one they are more in the mood for on a particular day.

  

Häagen-Dazs - Mint Chip

Mint Chip - Peppermint Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips

Long time readers know that my favorite ice cream flavor is mint chocolate chip.  I used to buy it all the time, but since I started writing these reviews I have not repeated a pint so I don't get to eat it as much.  This is not a big problem in the grand scheme of things, but I do try to remedy it from time to time by tracking down a brand's implementation that I haven't reviewed yet.  So, today's flavor is Häagen-Dazs' Mint Chip.  I am looking forward to this.

Removing the lid shows the white color of the peppermint base (no green coloring added) with many chocolate chips visible.  The chips are thin and rectangular shaped and as big as a centimeter long.  If this was Ben & Jerry's they would be called "fudge flakes".  Some smaller crushed pieces of these chips are also in the mix.  The first spoonful provides quite a bit of cool peppermint flavor.  It is quite tasty.  The chocolate chips were crunchy and also flavorful.

This flavor hit the spot.  My all-time favorite mint chip implementations are still Graeter's and McConnell's because they provide a little something extra, but this Häagen-Dazs implementation is much easier to find and is otherwise as good as one could possibly ask for.  Enjoy.

  

New Orleans - Creole Cream Cheese

Creole Cream Cheese - Creole Cream Cheese Ice Cream

Today, we look at another flavor from the New Orleans Ice Cream company - Creole Cream Cheese.  New Orleans is the brand that features a lot of flavors local to the New Orleans area.  I had not heard of creole cream cheese before, but it turns out that it is a thing.  It is a type of cheese made from milk and buttermilk which can be made is small batches.  It is not real easy -- you need access to "rennet" -- but it only takes a day to cure.  I was curious so I watched a video showing how it is done.  Will it make a good ice cream?  We shall see.

Removing the lid shows the the ice cream is very white.  So white, that it was difficult to take a good picture.  It hard to get contrast.  I kept reducing the light but then the flash would go off.  You can see in the pictures below.  White.  Digging in the ice cream is thick and tasted like cream cheese as you would expect.  There is occasionally a hint of sourness which may have come from the buttermilk included in the cheese but nothing major.  This just tasted like cream cheese ice cream.

It was fun to learn about the existence of creole cream cheese, but I don't think I would recommend this flavor for consumption by itself.  This pint seems like it would be one of the ingredients of a larger-scale New Orleans-themed recipe.  I bet it goes well with a tart fruit or alongside red velvet cake.

My grocery store only carries three flavors of the New Orleans brand:  today's Creole Cream Cheese flavor, White Chocolate Bread Pudding and Praline Crunch.  The Praline Crunch was easily my favorite of the three.  The ice cream is not super-premium quality like Jeni's, McConnell's or Ample Hills, but it is not super-premium priced like those, either.  I am a bit disappointed, though, because there are many other flavors on their website which look much more interesting.  Mississippi Debris, Lemon Doberge Cake, Satsuma Dreamsicle, Cafe au Lait & Beignets and more.  I'll keep my eye out to see if they rotate in any more interesting flavors.

  

Coolhaus - Sundae Funday

Sundae Funday - Tahitian Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, Chocolate Hazelnut Swirl and Salted, Roasted Almonds

It is Sunday and what better flavor for a Sunday than Coolhaus's Sundae Funday?  This looks like a standard vanilla, chocolate and nuts flavor with the added twist that it is Tahitian vanilla.  I have been aware of different varieties of vanilla for a while now, but this is the first pint that I've reviewed where the vanilla is specifically labeled as Tahitian.  As a refresher, I googled the differences in vanillas and found this useful link.  Vanilla comes from the bean of an orchid originally indigenous to Mexico but is commonly grown in any tropical climate.  Most vanilla is now grown in Madagascar or its nearby islands (including Réunion whose former name of Île Bourbon is why this is sometimes called Bourbon vanilla), but it is also famously grown in Tahiti.  Tahitian vanilla is a slightly different species of the plant and has a different flavor.  The link above says is a bit weaker but more floral and sweet.  Interesting.  I will be paying more attention to the vanilla than usual as I eat this pint.

Longtime readers may recall that Coolhaus is the brand which is "architecturally inspired" which means that a famous architect serves as the mascot for each flavor.  This flavor is nicknamed "Moshe Saf-isticated Sundae" which means that Moshe Safdie is the featured architect.  Safdie is a living architect who was born in Israel and educated in Canada.  His most famous design is one of his first, the Habitat 67 which was created for the Expo (World's Fair) held in Montreal in 1967.  He had given two TED talks which I watched to see examples of his other works.  Who would have thought that eating ice cream could be so educational.

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid shows a bunch of chocolate and nuts have been sprinkled across the top to give you an early taste of the mix-ins.  It is rather fun when brands of ice cream do this.  Digging in, the vanilla base is very soft and creamy. I was paying attention to the vanilla and it does seem a bit different.  It kind of tastes like soft-serve ice cream.  It was not quite that soft but it had the same flavor.  The chocolate hazelnut swirl was good, it sometimes had the burn that a chocolate syrup provides.  Sometimes the swirl was a bit elusive but there was usually enough it on the edges of the container so that I could always find chocolate if I wanted it.  It allowed me to enjoy the vanilla base more.  The crushed almonds were fully mixed into the base, but they were the kind of nuts that you often see sprinkled on the top of things.

This is a very simple vanilla-chocolate-and-nuts flavor but it is really well done and I enjoyed it very much.  It is not technically soft-serve ice cream but it had the feeling of cup of ice cream that you might get from a truck which has chocolate and nuts poured on top of it.  If you stumble upon this flavor, don't hesitate to check it out.

  

Häagen-Dazs - Rum Raisin

Rum Raisin - Rum Ice Cream with Rum-Soaked Raisins

 
Today's flavor is Häagen-Dazs' implementation of Rum Raisin.  This has been a standard flavor of the Häagen-Dazs line since the 1980s.  It is based on the old Italian gelato flavor called "malaga".  Malaga gelato is named after Malaga raisins which originate in the Malaga province of southern Spain.  Originally, the raisins for this gelato were soaked in Marsala wine from the province of Sicily.  Marsala is a dry, sweet wine and a dark rum can be substituted for it in many recipes.  From that, the "rum raisin" flavor was born.  The side of the Häagen-Dazs pint states that they use California raisins instead of Malaga raisins and that the raisins have been steeped in rum for 42 days.  That is an amusingly specific number, but Häagen-Dazs has been making this flavor for over three decades, so I will trust their judgement.

Opening the pint shows that the rum base has a very light color and a few of the raisins are visible right away.  I noticed the rum flavoring right away in the very first spoonful.  I could tell that it was a dark rum too by the aftertaste.  I enjoyed that.  The raisin mix-ins were dispersed generously throughout the pint.  They gave me something to chew on but were not too tough.  They contained some rum flavor as well, but not noticeably more than was in the base.

This was an interesting pint.  I had never had a pint with raisin mix-ins before.  The star of the pint is the rum, though.  I should say though that because this is a pre-packaged pint from Häagen-Dazs that this is a PG-rated version of a rum raisin flavor.  I could taste the rum flavor but not the alchohol.  I imagine that a homemade version of this flavor from a restaurant or scoop shop could be quite a bit more intense.  Still, if a grocery store is what you have available then give this a try.