Museum of Ice Cream - Cherrylicious

Cherrylicious - Maraschino Cherry Ice Cream with Sugar Cookie Bites

The next pint in my survey of flavors from the Museum of Ice Cream is called Cherrylicious.  The Museum of Ice Cream is a youthful brand which has partnered with Target to release seven new flavors this year.  I say that the brand is youthful because a lot of the flavors seem to be bright and sweet.  When I was in college, I could eat a bag of gummi bears for dinner, but I have no inkling to do that anymore.  That's what I mean by youthful.  Some of the flavor descriptions of the Museum of Ice Cream set extra sugary expectations.  So far, the pints have been on the sweet side (e.g. the Piñata flavor), but they haven't been so much that I haven't been able to finish them.

Today's flavor is giving me similar expectations of sweetness.  It is a cherry ice cream based on maraschino cherries.  Maraschino cherries are the preserved, sweetened and dyed cherries that most people know from the single cherry on the top of a sundae (where even the stem is dyed).  A single one of them on top of a sundae is a nice treat, but it doesn't always make for a good base in recipes.  I made a cherry nut bread using maraschino cherries (and juice) and one bite of it tasted great but it was hard to eat more than just the one bite.  Then on top of the maraschino cherry base, this pint is adding sugar cookie bites as a mix in.  So, this is certainly bracing me for sweetness.

Without further ado, I open the pint.  The pint is a very bright and light pink color.  It reminds me of that cherry nut bread that I talked about above.  Digging in, the cherry flavor is very bright and sweet.  Then I unexpected start to encounter large pieces of maraschino cherries!  Quite a bunch of them too.  They are sweet too.  Unlike my nut bread, it stops short of being overwhelming, though.  I don't know if the cream and butter fat is just enough to counteract the sweet flavor, but I am able to eat the whole pint in one sitting.  I only found one small sugar cookie piece.  The size was larger than a peanut but smaller than a grape.  There must have been a mixing issue if I got only one.  The pint was plenty sweet enough already but the bites might have provided some textural variation.

You really need to like maraschino cherries to enjoy this pint.  It was surprisingly flavorful and edible given my expectations but it was a very sweet pint.  Someone who loves candied cherries could like this more than I did but be sure you know what you are in for.