Lapperts - Ube Macapuno

Ube Macapuno - Ice Cream flavored with Philippine purple Ube Root mixed with Macapuno (coconut) puree

There is a new show this year on the Vice Network called the Ice Cream Show.  It is a fun and whimsical show featuring different kinds of ice cream, popular ice creams in different cities and includes many behind the scenes looks at how ice cream gets made.  The host of the show is Isaac Lappert of Lappert's Ice Cream.  I checked out their website and the flavors seemed unique and interesting so I figured that I would give them a shot.  My online order of six pints arrived just before I went on vacation to New York.  I am back home now, so I can try them out.

Lapperts was founded in 1983 by Isaac's grandfather Walter Lappert.  Walter had 'retired' to the Hawaiian town of Hanapepe on the island of Kauai, but he did not like the local desserts so he started making ice cream.  This led to a successful second career selling tropical-themed ice cream flavors throughout Hawaii, several western states and even in Japan.   When Walter died in 2003, the company split.  His former wife and business partner inherited what is now Lapperts Hawaii and his son Michael (Isaac's father) inherited the part on the US mainland which is centered in Richmond, California.  I got a shipment from the Lappert's in California.  If you looks at the flavor menus for the two companies you can see the shared heritage.  Both specialize in tropical flavors and many of the flavor names are the same.


Today's flavor is called Ube Macapuno.  I must admit that when I first saw this flavor selection, I had no idea what either of those words meant.  One of the fun things about this blog is trying new things so once I confirmed that neither word meant something terrible I decided to give it a try.  An ube is a purple yam native to southeast Asia and its neighboring islands.  Macapuno is a soft, gelatinous variant of coconut.  The two commonly occur in dessert recipes.  It should be fun to check this out.

The first thing I notice is that the side of the pint carton is blank.  There is only brand-labeling on the lids.  What should I take a picture of?  I took a picture below, but perhaps that doesn't make a good 'avatar' for the article as it appears in the mobile feed?  So, I also included some marketing imagery from their website.  I could go either way on that, though.  Taking off the lid, the ice cream is a beautiful lavender color.  Digging in, the flavor is unique and not too strong.  It is not as sweet as a sweet potato, but it is definitely sweeter than taro root (which is what it visually reminds me of).  You can taste a little bit of the coconut, but it is blended in really well.    I notice tiny bits of ube pulp in the mix.  Because of their small size, they provide only a small bit of textural variation, but they do confirm that this is made from natural ingredients. The flavor builds a little bit as I continue eating, but it never gets too strong.

This was a very interesting pint of ice cream.  Because the ingredients are so new to me, I feel like I can only describe what I ate rather than try to compare it to anything.  The light purple color certainly gives it a tropical vibe.  The yam-coconut flavors are quite mild but they are also quite light and refreshing.  This is definitely worth a try if you are curious.

Ample Hills - Baby, I Was Churned This Way!

Baby, I Was Churned This Way - Salty Hazelnut Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Rainbow-Colored Sunflower Seeds

Yesterday, I went to the Gotham West Market in New York City and picked up two limited batch pints from Ample Hills.  The first pint, I ate yesterday in the market and the second pint I took back to my sister's apartment.  So, today I am ready to eat that second pint which is called Baby, I Was Churned This Way! in honor of Pride Month.  I did not get a chance to see the parade but I did see a lot of the barricades that were put up before.  Of course, the flavor name is a pun on the Lady Gaga song Born This Way.  In the spirit of Pride Week, I will link to her video of that song here.  The flavor itself is quite interesting.  It has a salty hazelnut base with chocolate-covered rainbow-colored sunflower seeds.  I don't think I've ever had hazelnut by itself, I usually only see it blended with fudge (Nutella-style).  Also, I have never had sunflower seeds in ice cream before.  So, this should be interesting.

Opening the pint, the hazelnut base as a sandy color.  There are some splotches of yellow food coloring and hints of chocolate-covered mix-ins below.  In the first spoonful, the ice cream is soft and creamy and the hazelnut flavor is quite interesting.  It is pretty good.  You can certainly tell that it is made from crushed nuts.  The chocolate-covered sunflower seeds are dispersed throughout the pint.  These are quite good!  They deliver a bit of saltiness and the coating provides a bit of chocolate as well.  Mostly, they are fun to chew on.  I like them in salads for the same reason.  I am surprised that sunflower seed mix-ins are not more common.  The rainbow-coloring in this particular pint is a bit of a disappointment.  There were yellow splotches from time to time but very little of any other colors.  The coloring does not affect the flavor one bit, so this is just a cosmetic issue, but a colorful ice cream for Pride Week might be part of the appeal.  The pictures of scoops on the Ample Hills website are much more colorful.  I am sure this is something that varies from batch to batch and if you are at a scoop shop, then you can simply look inside the bin and see how colorful it is before you order a scoop.

This is an interesting pint of ice cream.  The hazelnut base and sunflower seeds provide a unique earthy nuttiness which I don't often encounter in other flavors.

Ample Hills - The Scoop

The Scoop - Marshmallow Ice Cream with Pieces of Blue Velvet Cake

For my first two points of my trip to New York, I just went to the Whole Foods on the upper East Side.  For my next two pints, I decided to go to the Ample Hills scoop shop in Gotham West Market on 44th and 11th in Hell's Kitchen.  I picked up a couple of limited batch pints.  Something about a seasonal or limited batch release adds urgency to my ice cream tastings.  The first of these flavors is called The Scoop and is in honor of the fortieth anniversary of the ABC news-magazine program 20/20.  Here are links to articles about the flavor collaboration from both Ample Hills and ABC News (though I believe the video linked within each article is the same).  The artwork on the side of the carton is quite nice.  I believe the video goes into that.

The flavor is a marshmallow ice cream with a blue velvet cake mix-in.  Everyone knows red velvet cake, but I had not heard of blue velvet cake before.  Is it the same recipe with different food coloring?  I looked and recipes vary quite a bit.  Recipes for red velvet cake can vary too, but the standard implementation is a buttermilk-cocoa cake with heaps of red food coloring.  Checking the ingredient list for this blue-velvet-cake pint, I see no buttermilk or cocoa.  Interestingly, I also only see egg whites, so it appears like this is a white cake with heaps of blue food coloring.  This has the visual effect of allowing the cake to be a brighter blue color -- something desirable here as blue is the color of ABC News and the 20/20 program.

I decided to eat this pint right there in the Gotham West Market.  As I opened the pint, the marshmallow base is bright white in color and a few specks of the blue velvet cake are visible on top.  As I dig in, the marshmallow flavor is noticeable and quite sweet.  As I dig in, the I start to encounter the cake pieces.  They are a beautiful bright blue color.  These cake pieces do taste like white cake.  They are soft and sweet with the occasional harder piece of cream cheese frosting which is also sweet.  All of this sweetness had me concerned that I might get overwhelmed or end up with a sugar headache, but I did not have that problem.  I was not as sweet as last fall's Marshmallow Moon which had swirls of marshmallow.  There was enough creaminess in the base to temper the marshmallow and cake and I was able to eat the entire pint in one sitting.

This was a fun pint of ice cream.  The blue and white color was quite visually appealing and suiting the connection with ABC News quite well.  With marshmallow and cake, it is a sweeter flavor than most.  It was not too sweet for me, but I am the type of person who eats a couple of pints of ice cream per week.  Plus, I have been doing a ton of walking in New York City and could use the extra energy.  This pint is good, but be prepared for marshmallows and cake.

OddFellows - Coconut Kaffir Lime Leaf

Coconut Kaffir Lime Leaf - Coconut Ice Cream with White Chocolate and Kaffir Lime Leaf

My trip to the Whole Foods on Manhattan's Upper East Side resulted in two pints.  The first pint I reviewed yesterday, today's pint is from OddFellows  -- a new brand for me -- and is called Coconut Kaffir Lime Leaf.  OddFellows was started in Brooklyn in 2013 by noted pastry chef Sam Mason.  Known for their eclectic artisanal flavors, they now have five scoop shops locations across New York and pre-packaged pints are available at Whole Foods.  This flavor includes kaffir lime leaf which I have not seen before.  The kaffir lime is a tropical Asian fruit and its leaves are actually commonly used in south Asian and southeast Asian cuisines.  The kaffir lime leaf contains a lot of a fragrant compound called an excellent source of a fragrant compound called citronellal which is also found in lemongrass.  It should be interesting to see how this goes with coconut.

Opening the plastic pint shows that the pint has been packed to the brim.  The top has taken the shape of the lid.  The coconut base is white in color with some greenish orange specks visible.  Digging in, the ice cream is very thick.  I put my spoon in and the consistency is almost chunky.  The coconut flavor is quite good.  The coconut flavor is quite good.  The chunkiness has me thinking there is actual coconut pieces in there but looking at the ingredients I only see coconut milk.  It is delicious nonetheless.  The small lime leaf pieces provide a bit of a citrus twist to the pint.  It is a good combination.  Indeed there are lots of recipes combining coconut and kaffir lime leaf online.

This was a solid pint of coconut ice cream.  The lime leaf was a fun and unique way to accent the coconut flavor.  OddFellows looks like a promising brand.  There are several youtube videos online featuring Sam Mason or OddFellows.  If you live in New York, you should definitely check OddFellows out.

Ample Hills - Chocolate Milk and Cookies

Ample Hills - Chocolate Milk and Cookies - Chocolate Milk Ice Cream with Pieces of Back to Nature Sandwich Creme Cookies

 I am in New York City visiting my sister so that means I get to check out the New York brands.  I went to the Whole Foods to check out my options.  I found a pint from Ample Hills which I had not tried before.  Ample Hills is the Brooklyn-based brand which tends to be overly generous with the mix-ins.  The flavor is Chocolate Milk and Cookies.  It looks like a cookies and cream implementation, but with a chocolate milk base instead.  This should be interesting.

Opening the pint, the base has a brown color from the chocolate milk.  I see the edge of one larger cookie piece but interestingly, there are no fine cookie specks that have blended into the base like in other implementations.  Digging in, the chocolate base is tasty.  I was curious about the 'chocolate milk' distinction as most ice creams contain milk anyways.  It does taste like the ice cream version of a frozen hot chocolate, but a lot of other milk chocolate bases taste like that anyways.  I would have to compare it to their usual chocolate ice cream (which I don't think I have ever had).  At any rate, it is very delicious.  The cookie mix-ins are chocolate sandwich cookies from Back to Nature.  The cookie pieces are quite large -- sometimes you get almost the whole cookie on your spoon.  They look like Oreos but they are chewier.  The fact that the pieces are larger and chewier probably explains why there are fewer fine specks blended into the base.  Crushing an Oreo tends to create more powdery crumbs.

I did not find this to be a 'wow' flavor from Ample Hills, but it is still a solid implementation of a cookies and cream with a chocolate base.  Every brand needs to have a cookies and cream flavor and this fits the bill quite well. Folks who enjoy larger cookie pieces will like this flavor.

Milkjam Creamery - Hard Knock Life 2.0

Hard Knock Life 2.0 - Dark Chocolate with Salted Chocolate Fudge, Whoppers and Brownies

We are back to the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery today for their Hard Knock Life 2.0 flavor.  The flavor name is, of course, from a song from the musical Annie.  The ingredients are almost all chocolate.  Chocolate base, chocolate fudge swirl, plus whoppers and brownies too.  I'm not sure wha the connection to the musical is.  All of this chocolate does not sound like a hard knock life to me!  I guess a touring production of the musical came to the Twin Cities last year, so perhaps that's the source of the inspiration.  You can listen to the song from the 1982 movie production of Annie or if you are feeling more edgy, you could listen to Jay-Z's 1998 sampling of the tune instead.

On to the ice cream!  Opening the pint, the base ice cream is quite dark.  There are some white mix-ins visible.  Are these the whoppers?  I am not sure yet.  Like other milkjam flavors, the ice cream quite thick and creamy, but it is also quite soft and easy to scoop.  The ice cream is quite sweet and incredibly chocolatey.  The dark chocolate base and the salted chocolate fudge are blended together to give you a double whammy.  The saltiness is noticeable and seems to magnify the chocolate flavor.  Occasionally, I got a chewy bite.  That must be the brownies.  The white I saw didn't taste like whoppers.  It almost tasted like marshmallow, but it was not a strong flavor.  I did occasionally notice the chocolate coating of this particular mix-in as it was the only thing in this pint which was not soft.

This is a sweet, salty and incredibly chocolatey pint of ice cream.  You have to really be into chocolate to like this.  Every band seems to have a flavor like this, though, where they start with chocolate, add some more chocolate and then keep adding chocolate.  It is good, though.  The marshmallow-like whoppers were a bit confusing.  I checked online and I think this mix-in has changed in the past (it used to be pretzels).  Perhaps they changed the recipe for this batch.  If you're at Milkjam Creamery, this flavor and their "Black" dark chocolate sorbet flavor are their nod to chocoholics.  Enjoy.

Sweet Science - Basil

Basil - Basil Ice Cream

With the final free tasting event in May and the new scoop shop not open until the end of the summer, I figured I might be able to take a break from the Saint Paul-based Sweet Science brand for a couple of months.  Well, they sent out a tweet saying that they still have new flavors for June!  So, I went down to their home office and picked up a couple of pints.  Today's flavor is an interesting one.  Basil!  I never even imagined making an ice cream flavor out of basil.  Basil is an aromatic herb indigenous to central Africa and southeast Asia.  It is a member of the mint/deadnettle family  which contains many other culinary herbs such as sage, rosemary and thyme (though not parsley, as the old folk song would have you believe).  I have always associated basil with savory dishes, but the fact that it is a member of the mint family gives me hope that perhaps this might work.

Opening the pint, the ice cream is a beautiful light green color.  Some tiny specks of basil leaf are also visible.  As I dig in, the ice cream has a very bright flavor.  This is very fresh basil!  The relationship to mint actually is evident.  I can tell it is basil and not mint, but you get that same fresh leafy taste.  This is surprisingly good and not just for a spoonful or two.  I was enjoying this very much as I ate my way down the pint.  Whenever I think of basil, I think of the dried herb or the cooked leaves in asian cuisine, but fresh leafy basil makes for delicious ice cream.  Who knew?

I enjoyed this pint quite a bit.  I must admit, I was prepared for the worst and figured it might only be fun for the novelty or shock value, but I actually like basil ice cream very much.  I am guessing that this might be a seasonal flavor as the basil needs to be fresh.  If you're interested in aromatic and herbal flavors then you have to check this out.

  

Milkjam Creamery - Turkish Tiramisu

Turkish Tiramisu - Turkish Coffee & Mascarpone Ice Creams with Rum Soaked Lady Fingers

I decided to go back to the Milkjam Creamery in Minneapolis to pick up a couple of pints.  I had tried a different pint from them a few months ago.  In that pint, the cereal mix-ins were a bit soft, but the base ice cream was so delicious that I figured I'd try some other flavors.  The pint for today is Turkish Tiramisu.  Tiramisu has been one of my favorite desserts for many years.  For that reason, I am always eager to try a implementation of a Tiramisu flavor whenever I can find one.  One of the fun things about Tiramisu is that no two places make it the same way.


Opening the pint, the coffee-mascarpone base is an off-white beige in color and big cake-y doughy sections are visible already.  These must be the lady fingers!  Digging in, the rum flavor is noticeable right away.  It is quite sweet, flavorful and quite aromatic, but it doesn't have the burn or the kick of other rum ice creams.  I like that, it's lots of rum flavor and smell but without feeling at all boozy.  The lady finger cookies are soft and cake-like.  The base ice cream is very delicious.  The coffee flavoring itself was not all that strong, it is mainly the mascarpone that I liked.  It almost tasted like whipped cream, but it still had the thick texture of ice cream.  Overall, it felt like I was eating a really good tiramisu dessert, yet it was still very much ice cream.

This pint was simply delicious.  Perhaps I am biased because I love tiramisu, but it is one of the better pints that I have had in a while.  As I said above, no tiramisus are the same, so if you have particular preferences to how you like your tiramisu, this one is heavy on the mascarpone and rum (but without being boozy), a noticeable but not strong coffee, and no cocoa.  I just checked the Milkjam website and it looks like they have cycled out the flavor already!  Well, I'm glad I had a chance to try it and hopefully it comes back.

  

Häagen-Dazs - Banana Peanut Butter Chip

Banana Peanut Butter Chip - Banana Ice Cream with a Peanut Butter Swirl and Chocolate Chips

Today we return to Häagen-Dazs for the second flavor in their "Decadent Collection" released in 2018.  This one is called Banana Peanut Butter Chip.  Peanut butter and banana was the favorite sandwich of Elvis Presley.  Recipes and menu items for other things such as pancakes or muffins are often named after Elvis for this reason.  Häagen-Dazs chooses to play it straight with the flavor name here, but I will still imagine a 1970s Elvis lounging in the opulent Graceland Mansion while I eat this pint.

Opening the pint, the banana base is an off-white yellow, many chocolate chips are visible right away and some of the peanut butter swirl is visible on the edges as well.  As I dig in, the banana base is quite bright and sweet.  I have written before about two types of banana flavor -- the sweet banana of banana pudding or banana cream pie, and the more earthy banana flavor of a banana bread.  This is definitely the sweet kind.  I soon encounter very large chunks of peanut butter!  Some of these are an inch or more in size.  The peanut butter is very rich and chewy.  I can understand why they used the sweet banana flavor for the base because they wanted more of a contrast with the peanut butter.  If they had used a more subtle banana, then the flavor might have gotten completely overwhelmed.  It is a good combination.  Then the chocolate chips are also generously dispersed through the pint.  These chips are small rectangular pellets that are used by many of their other chip flavors.  They are quite good and deliver chocolate flavor while.

This is a tasty, and yes, decadent, pint of ice cream.  The star of the pint is the chunks of peanut butter.  The banana and chocolate add to the experience, but they play more of a supporting role here.  Check it out if you are like Elvis and love peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

  

Sweet Science - Passion Fruit

Passion Fruit - Passion Fruit Ice Cream

Today we return to the Saint-Paul-based Sweet Science brand for their implementation of a Passion Fruit flavor.  It is an ice cream and not a sorbet.  Passion fruit is native to South America -- its flower is the national flower of Paraguay.  The fruit got its same for its use by missionaries in Brazil.  So, the passion here is of the biblical sense and not the emotional sense.  The fruit and juice have a very sweet and tropical flavor.  The smell is also quite appealing.  Juice of the passion fruit is sometimes added to other fruit juices to enhance the aroma.  I have never had passion fruit in ice cream before, so this should be fun.

The base is a very bright yellowish white.  I can smell the fruit as soon as I open it up.  It smells quite good.  The first spoonful is very creamy.  As I mentioned above, this is an ice cream and not a sorbet.  The fruit is sweet and tropical flavored and blends really well with the milk and cream.  As I continued eating, I notice a bit of mild tartness but is normal with many tropical fruits.  The flavor stays very bright and even as I ate the entire pint in one sitting, the tartness never builds to the point of being sour.

This is an excellent and fun pint of ice cream.  It is very simple.  The description on the side of the pint says that they used fresh passion fruit and liked the way it blended with the cream and did not want to mess with it.  If you love passion fruit -- or any other tropical fruit -- then you should try this out.

  

Ben & Jerry's - It's Ice... Cream

It's Ice... Cream - Caramel Malt Ice Cream with Almond Toffee Pieces, Fudge Fish & Caramel Swirl

Last fall, Ben & Jerry's announced a new "secret stash" program where special pre-packaged pints would be available only for online purchase and from their scoop shops freezer cases.  The first flavor, sponsored by Jimmy Fallon, was called Marshmallow Moon.  Last week, we finally got word of a second pint in the series, Phish's It's Ice... Cream.  This is another flavor named for the Vermont-based jam band Phish -- the other being the long-running and still amazing Phish Food flavor.  The specific name of this flavor is a reference to a call of Phish's 1993 Rift album called "It's Ice".  For the artwork on the side of the carton, they commissioned long-time Phish illustrator James Pollack.  They have an interview with Pollack featured on their website.  The artwork looks pretty cool and gives a certain Phish legitimacy to the flavor which I think their fans would enjoy.  What is actually in the ice cream (or should I say ice... cream)?  It's is a caramel malt base with almond toffee pieces and fudge fish.  The fudge fish and caramel swirl are the same one as Phish Food, but the rest of the pint is completely different.  Enough talk, let's dig in!

Opening the pint, the caramel malt base is beige in color and the caramel swirl and a few of the almond toffee pieces are visible right away.  Digging in, the malt in the base serves to mute the caramel.  Unlike the recent series of salted caramel flavors, the purpose of the base here is to serve as a vehicle for the swirl and the mix-ins.  The almond toffee pieces are sweet and crunchy.  They mind me a bit of a crushed praline pecans -- except of course that they are candied almonds instead of candied pecans.  I don't think I've seen this type of mix-in from Ben & Jerry's before.  I like it.  It is sweet, though.  I can see why they decided to mute the caramel base with malt.  The caramel swirls is gooey and flavorful.  This swirl sticks out much more than the similar swirl in Phish Food which gets overpowered by all the chocolate.  Here, the caramel is front and center and it goes quite well with the almond toffee.  The fudge fish are in the mix as well.  Hard and chunky, these are the same fish that are included in Phish Food.  These provide a bit of chocolate flavor, but not as much as you'd think because they are so hard.  That's OK though, the focus of the flavor here is primarily on the caramel and the toffee.

This is a solid secret stash flavor from Ben & Jerry's.  It is an fun caramel toffee combination which I don't think I've seen before.  The closest I can find is a Tillamook pint which had a softer toffee.  Most of the other caramel toffee combinations feature coffee or a lot more chocolate.  If a combination of caramel and crunchy candied almonds sounds good to you, run down to your local Ben & Jerry's scoop shop to check this out.

  

Talenti - Sea Salt Caramel

Sea Salt Caramel - Salted Caramel Ice Cream with Chocolaty Caramel Truffles

Today is yet another salted caramel review!  We go to Talenti gelato this time for their implementation of a Sea Salt Caramel flavor.  This pint actually has mix-ins!  It has been helpful to review all of these salted caramel pints in a row so that I can keep what distinguishes them from each other fresh in my mind, but it will be welcome to switch it up a bit as well.


Unscrewing the lid shows another caramel colored base.  No sign of the truffle mix-ins quite yet.  Digging in, the caramel flavor is strong enough to remind me of an old-fashioned sugar daddy sucker.  The salt level was medium.  Not really high like Sweet Science and not low like Graeters.  About a quarter of the way down the pint, I started encountering the truffle mix-ins.  They were small pieces of chocolate which were filled with caramel inside.  I took a picture of them below.  They were like miniature pieces of Rolo candy.  I liked them and it was good to have some textural variation after four straight homogeneous pints.  That said, I must confess that they were not quite as good as the similar mix-ins that Graeter's used in their Chunky Chunky Hippo flavor which I had earlier this year.  The frequency of the mix-ins picked up a bit as I ate my way down the pint.  This was good, but I wish there a bit more of them near the top.

This is a pretty good pint of salted caramel.  The caramel itself did not have the homemade feel that the more artisan brands had, but the truffles add some variation of texture and flavor for those who are not interested in eating a full pint of just salted caramel.  Be aware that the mix-ins are in there as it is not obvious from flavor's name or short description and you can't see any of them through the clear container, either.  The mix-ins make it a more fun pint to eat though.