Pumphouse - Coffee with Cashew Toffee

Coffee with Cashew Toffee - City Girl Coffee Ice Cream with Cashew Toffee Pieces

Today, I am trying a new brand.  The Pumphouse Creamery in south Minneapolis has gotten good reviews and pints are starting to be stocked by local grocers.  I figured I would give it a whirl.  The flavor I found is called Coffee with Cashew Toffee.  It has long been known that coffee goes well with toffee, so this is not an unexpected flavor combination.  Putting cashews in the toffee is not standard, but I have seen it before -- interestingly from another Minnesotan ice cream brand.  The coffee used in the base here is locally sourced from the City Girl Coffee Company.  I am looking forward to trying this out.

Removing the lid shows a fairly light color to the coffee base with a hint of some of the mix-ins below.  With the first spoonful, the coffee flavor is quite noticeable right away.  It is not super-potent, but you can tell that it was hand-made from brewed coffee and not from coffee flavoring.  Tasted like a medium roast.  The texture of the base cream was very thick.  This is often a selling point of premium and hand-packed ice creams but in this case it leads to a lack of creaminess.  Sometimes I notice this with McConnell's flavors as well.  It wasn't an icy texture, it was cold and crumbly.  I think it will improve as I eat further down and it starts to melt.  The cashew toffee pieces were very good.  It was like a tasty cashew brittle which was a little crunchy but not in a jawbreaking way.

This was a fun new brand to try.  Coffee & Toffee fans who run into this brand in the Twin Cities will want to check it out.  I will keep a look out for this brand to see if I encounter other interesting flavors.