Talenti - Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie - Pumpkin Ice Cream spiced with Cinnamon and Nutmeg with Pie Crust Pieces

This Halloween, I return to the Talenti Gelato brand for their seasonal flavor, Pumpkin Pie.  Pumpkin Pie may be more of a Thanksgiving treat but you can have it for Halloween as well.  Lots of brands implement this type of flavor.  I've tried implementations from Ben & Jerry's, McConnell's, Jeni's, Graeter's, Sweet Science and Pumphouse.  All have pumpkin, most have spice and a few have something else like cheesecake (Sweet Science, Ben & Jerry's) or graham cracker (Ben & Jerry's).  This pint from Talenti adds pie crust pieces.  That's in the same vein as a graham cracker swirl, but not quite the same thing.  Let's dig in.

Unscrewing the lid from one of these fun jars that Talenti uses, I see the distinctive orangish color of pumpkin.  It looks the same color as pumpkin pie.  It even has that distinctive glaze that a pumpkin pie has.  That's a good start.  In the first spoonful, the pumpkin flavor is a smidge sweeter than the usual pint of pumpkin ice cream.  I checked the flavor link above and there is indeed brown sugar in this pint.  The gelato is soft but still bit creamy.  I would put the spice level at mild.  There is enough cinnamon and nutmeg to keep it interesting, but it doesn't have a kick.  It is slightly spicier than most pumpkin pies but not much.  Occasionally, I encounter the pie crust pieces.  They are white in color and provide a small bit of chewy-crunchy texture that make the pint a bit more interesting than if it was homogeneous.

This is a very good implementation of a Pumpkin Pie ice cream -- emphasize on the 'pie' here.  It very accurately nails the pumpkin pie flavor from the color, the mild spices, hint of brown sugar and the gelato-texture helps as well.  I would recommend this for people who want -- or what to try -- a literal imitation of pumpkin pie filling.  For those looking for more, Jeni's & Sweet Science have more of a spicy kick and Ben & Jerry's and Sweet Science add a cheesecake into the mix.  I do like pumpkin pie for what it is, though, so I enjoyed Talenti as well.

Izzy's - Raspberry Little Italy

Raspberry Little Italy -  Mascarpone Ice Cream with Chocolate Chunks and a Raspberry Swirl

I've written recently about how I have been having trouble finding the best flavors that the local Saint Paul-based Izzy's brand has to offer in pint form.  My recent reviews have been gravitating more towards other local brands such as Sweet Science, Milkjam Creamery and Pumphouse.  Those brands offer more interesting flavors as pre-packaged pints.  I focus my reviews on pints for several reasons.  As you can tell by the photos, I like the packaging aspect of a pint of ice cream.  Eating pints also lets me sample the national brands which are available in supermarkets -- after all, a survey of Ben & Jerry's is how this all got started.  It isn't as if I haven't been able to have Izzy's at all.  Several interesting pints from Izzy's have been reviewed over the past few years, but when I look at what options in pints I could try next, I mainly see base flavors such as chocolate and vanilla.  This has been frustrating because I know Izzy's has lots of imaginative flavors.  I enjoy them when I go to the scoop shop.  I enjoy them at the State Fair.  To remedy this, I have decided to do something different.  I am going to have some of their more interesting flavors hand-packed into pints for me at the scoop shop.  I understand that this is possibly a dangerous door to open.  Scoop shops often have a much wider selection of flavors available than what they offer in packaged form and Izzy's is no exception.  Thankfully, every other year Izzy's has a flavor design contest called the People's Flavor Awards.    In this contest, customers submit flavor designs, Izzy's selects and implements the most promising suggestions, they have a flavor-tasting contest and select the winners.  A list of winning flavors from this contest seems like a good list to work off whenever I feel like I need a pint of Izzy's.  Two flavors from this list -- Midnight Snack and Irish Moxie -- have been available in pint form and are quite good, so that's a good sign.

Enough back story.  What is today's flavor?  Why it is the 2017 People's Flavor Award winner Raspberry Little Italy.  It is frequently available at the scoop shop.  It contains the raspberry and chocolate chip combination that is quite popular.  The 'little italy' is a nod to the fact that they use mascarpone as the base ice cream.  In picture above I mocked up a sticker to make it look a little bit more like their packaged pints.  A closer inspection would show that Izzy's uses more imaginative fonts, but if you don't closely inspect, it doesn't look too bad.  Ha ha...

Opening the pint, the hand-packed mascarpone base is bulging up over the top of the container.  I think I might have gotten an extra half ounce!  The base looks quite thick.  Some of the chocolate chips are visible and they look large and substantial.  The raspberry swirl is a lighter color than I expected but it is there.  It is almost marbled into the base rather than swirled.  Digging in the mascarpone base is very dense.  Some of that could be due to the hand-packing but mascarpone is a form of cream cheese which is thicker than cream so it could just be that.  The base did not have the specific 'flavor finish' (or aftertaste) that mascarpone often has, but it was quite satisfying.  The flavor of the raspberry was delicious.  I noted before that the color was lighter but a little bit of raspberry goes a long way.  It was a good balance of sweetness and tartness -- not too much of either.  The chocolate chips were not incredibly numerous but each chip was more like a chunk.  They supplied quite a bit of chocolate flavor to almost every spoonful.

This is an excellent pint of ice cream.  It has all the appeal of the raspberry chocolate chip flavors that are so popular these days, but the mascarpone base adds a rich and decadent dimension to it.  It was very delicious and I was very full after eating it.  I am looking forward to trying other People's Flavor Award winners.

Pumphouse Creamery - Pumpkin

Pumpkin - Long Island Cheese Pumpkin Ice Cream spiced with Cinnamon, Ginger, Cloves and Nutmeg

I picked up a pint of Pumpkin ice cream from Pumphouse Creamery on my last visit.  I kept it in my freezer for a while because it didn't seem close enough to the holidays quite yet.  Halloween is growing close, though, so I decided to crack it open.  This is sort of a companion pint to their 5 spice flavor.  At first, I worried that the 5-spice would get all the spices and there'd be none for the pumpkin -- as if one would be expected to get a scoop of each.  But fear not, there are spices in this pint as well.  The website says, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.  Traditional pumpkin spices.  My homemade pumpkin bread recipes is pretty much the same list (substituting allspice for ginger).

Interestingly, the pumpkin used here is labeled a Long Island Cheese Pumpkin.  This means it is a cultivar of Cucurbita moschata instead of Cucurbita pepo.  I will leave it for the botanists and the bold readers of those two wikipedia links to distinguish the difference.  The name itself comes from the fact that it was commonly grown on Long Island way back when there were farms on Long Island and because the gourd is short and squat like a wheel of cheese.  Here is a link discussing the Long Island Cheese Pumpkin from a culinary perspective.

Opening the pint, the pumpkin base has a lighter than expected color.  It is not quite an off-white but it is certainly not a deep orange.  Digging in, I taste the pumpkin flavor along with a moderate amount of spices.  The spice level is fairly mild, and it is a non-hot kind of flavorful spicy, but it is certainly spicier than the average slice of pumpkin pie.  There are small little bits in the ice cream which you can see if you zoom in closely.  I wasn't entirely sure what they were.  I think they might be bits of pumpkin.  They were just a visual curiosity though.  If they had flavor, they blended into the base.

This is a decent pint of pumpkin ice cream.  I like my pumpkin a little spicier so I prefer Jeni's and Sweet Science but this is still quite good.  If I went to Pumphouse, I would probably get a scoop of this and a scoop of the 5-spice. 

Humphry Slocumbe - Salted Caramel Cocoa Nib

Salted Caramel Cocoa Nib - Salted Caramel Ice Cream with Cocoa Nibs

Today is the last pint from my four-pint shipment from the San Francisco-based Humphry Slocumbe brand.  This flavor is called Salted Caramel Cocoa Nib.  This is an interesting twist on the salted caramel pint.  Some flavors add chocolate to complement the salted caramel.  This pint goes so far as to add use cocoa nibs -- the unprocessed part of the cacao plant from which cocoa is extracted.  They are kind of like the chocolate version of coffee beans.  I've reviewed two pints with cocoa nib mix-ins before.  This should be fun.

The top of the pint is a bright orangeish brown color.  I suppose brown is simply dark orange, so maybe I am being redundant?  Anyhow, there are a lot of cocoa nibs visible up top.  I've seen chocolate chips with that density, but not cocoa nibs.  Digging in, the caramel is quite salty.  I did a tour of salted caramel flavors earlier this summer and this caramel would rank as one of the saltier implementations.  It is quite delicious.  The cocoa nibs are quite crunchy and have a bit of a salty/bitter bite to them.  The coffee bean analogy works here.  There are quite a bit of them throughout the bit.  This is a crunchy pint.

This is a bold and well-done flavor.  The caramel is quite salty and flavorful and the cocoa nibs are abundant and crunchy.  After a few subtler-than-expected pints, I now see where Humphry Slocumbe's reputation for boldness comes from.  I eat a lot of ice cream, so I enjoyed the variation that cocoa nibs provide, but occasional eaters would note that the nibs do not actually deliver as much chocolate flavor as good old chocolate chips, flakes and chunks.  People who like their caramel salty and are enjoy chocolate in nib form will like this.

Izzy's - Cinnamon

Cinnamon - Cinnamon Ice Cream

Today's flavor is from the Saint Paul based Izzy's Ice Cream.  I feel I have been neglecting Izzy's compared to other local brands.  They have great ice cream and numerous creative flavors in their scoop shops, but their selection in pints is a bit limited.  I will have to see what I can do about that.  For now, I found a pint of Cinnamon ice cream at a local grocery store.  This seems like a good flavor for the fall season.  Let's dig in!

Removing the lid, the ice cream is a light tan color.  The flavor description I linked above describes it as 'sandy'.  I concur.  Digging in, the base is a wonderful creamy texture.  It is thick, but it scoops effortlessly onto the spoon.  The cinnamon flavor is unique.  It is a spicy cinnamon instead of a sweet cinnamon-and-sugar type of cinnamon.  The flavor has a finish reminiscent to the cinnamon in Big Red chewing gum but in a milder, subtler way more appropriate for an ice cream.  I liked it.  The pint has no mix-ins and the cinnamon flavor stayed flavorful throughout the pint.

This is a solid implementation of a cinnamon ice cream.  If you love cinnamon by itself, you should try this because of the interesting flavor.  Otherwise the lack of mix-ins means this flavor might be more ideal for accompanying a slice of apple pie.

Humphry Slocumbe - Honey Graham

Honey Graham - Honey Ice Cream with Graham Crackers

The third pint in my recent shipment from the San-Franisco-based Humphry Slocumbe brand is called Honey Graham.  They sometimes refer to this flavor as "Harvey Milk and Honey Graham" as a version of the flavor was first introduced to commemorate Harvey Milk Day in 2010.  Harvey Milk was the San Francisco city supervisor and gay-rights activist who was assassinated in the 1978 -- Sean Penn won his second Oscar for played him in the movie Milk.  I like honey-flavored ice cream, so this looks like a promising pint.

Opening the pint, I see the off-white golden flavor of the honey base.  Several of the nugget-shaped graham cracker pieces can also be seen on top.  I can taste the honey flavor right away in the first bite.  It is pretty good and well-balanced but more subtle than I expected.  The graham cracker pieces are moist and chewy as opposed to crunchy.  I think they were allowed to steep in the milk and cream for a while before they churning and freezing process.  This is not a complaint, just and observation.  The graham cracker pieces tasted quite good.  As I continued to eat the pint, the honey flavor faded a bit or perhaps my palate got acclimated to the flavor more than I expected.  It was still tasty, though.

This is a solid pint of ice cream.  The honey flavor goes quite well with the graham cracker mix-ins.  As with the previous two pints in my shipment, the flavor levels were fairly modest and subdued.  This brand has a reputation for bold flavors!  This is a minor quibble, though.  The flavors are always well-constructed and balanced.

Sweet Science - Pistachio

Pistachio - Pistachio Ice Cream with Ground Pistachios

The October season flavors from Sweet Science are here.  The first flavor is one I have reviewed before, Pumpkin Cheesecake.  It was good.  We're getting into my second year of following the seasonal flavors so we're starting to see some repeats.  The second October flavor is a new one, though, Pistachio.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the top of the pint is the appropriate green color.  Not all pistachios come out green, but this one is.  I checked the ingredient list here and it looks like they are using spirulina to help with the green color.  I have written about spirulina before.  It is an all-natural, extra-nutritious dietary supplement which happens to have a bright green color.  The perfect green food coloring for those who don't want to use artificial ingredients.  The next thing I notice about the ice cream is the texture.  Pistachios have been ground to a small size and swirled into the mix.  Digging in, I notice the ice cream is quite thick and almost dry.  The ice cream actually crumbles a bit as I scoop it and it is nutty enough that I have to allow the spoonful to melt a bit in my mouth each time to allow me to fully taste it.  It's not that it is frozen, it is just extra nutty.  The flavor is quite good and the chunks are about the size as the chunks inside a chunky peanut butter.

This is a very good and interesting pint of pistachio ice cream.  The incompletely ground nuts add a gritty texture and enhance the pistachio flavor.  It is one of the better pistachio ice creams that I have had.  I think I still like Ben & Jerry's the best for the whole pistachios in the mix but you can't go wrong here.

Humphry Slocumbe - Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee

Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee - Coffee Ice Cream made with Chicory and Condensed Milk

The second pint in my recent shipment from the San Francisco-based Humphry Slocombe brand is called Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee.  This is one of their original flavors.  What makes a coffee Vietnamese?  Vietnamese coffee usually contains sweetened condensed milk.  It reminds me a bit of Thai Iced Tea.  A quick check of the ingredient list tells me that the pint also contains chicory -- a 'coffee substitute' which became popular in New Orleans coffee.  I have written more about coffee, chicory and New Orleans in a previous review.  The 'Blue Bottle' part of the flavor name appears to come from a Bay Area coffee company which probably supplies the coffee used. This pint looks interesting, let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the base ice cream has a creamy tan color.  Digging in, the coffee flavor is very interesting and distinctive.  I can definitely tell there is sweetened condensed milk in there.  I am not enough of a coffee expert to know if the interesting and distinctive part of the flavor is the chicory, but it would not surprise me.  The flavor is surprisingly subtle at first.  This is not one of those coffee ice cream which hits you with dark-roasted coffee bean flavor right away.  That said, the flavor actually improves as I continue eating.  The sweetened condensed milk is never too sweet and I am left wanting more at the end of the pint.

This is a solid and interesting pint of ice cream.  As with the previous Humphry Sclocumbe flavor, it is a bit more subtle than I was expecting, but the flavor balance is very well done.  I am curious to know what fans of the Vietnamese beverage think of this flavor.

Milkjam Creamery - Gimme Some More

Gimme Some More - Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with Marshmallows and Graham Cracker Pieces

I went back to Milkjam Creamery in Minneapolis to pick out a couple of pints.  The first pint is called Gimme Some More.  A press release had said that it was a flavor that had returned, but it appears to be gone again.  I think this is a limited flavor that recurs.  Anyhow, s'mores are big this year.  The flavor name is actually the same pun that Ben & Jerry's used for their limited batch flavor this year.  It is a rather obvious pun so I don't doubt that they each came up with it independently.  S'mores is a fun ice cream flavor because there are there are so many different ways to combine the three ingredients.  My recent Graeter's review has what I think is the latest and greatest summary of all the different s'mores combinations that I have tried.  For this pint, Milkjam has given me no guidance as to how the ingredients will be combined.  We'll have to open the pint to see!

The top of the pint is almost black!  It is not quite as black as their Black flavor, but it is pretty dark.  I am pretty sure this is a dairy version of a dark chocolate ice cream while 'Black' used coconut and almond milks.  The amount of dark cocoa used is very high, so the color is strikingly dark.  There are several mix-ins visible right away.  I can't tell if they are marshmallows or graham crackers quite yet.  Digging in, the base is very rich and chocolatey.  The first mix-ins I encountered were marshamallows.  These marshmallows were not right out of a bag, they had the gelatinous texture of something that was homemade or perhaps half-melted.  As I continue eating, I occasionally run into a graham cracker cluster which is crunchy and provided some graham cracker flavor as well.  The marshmallows outnumbered the graham crackers by about two to one.  The flavor provided by each mix-in was rather brief though as there is just so much chocolate here.  As you can tell by the pictures below, the chocolate base got gooier as I continued eating.

This is a rich and decadent pint of ice cream.  As I mentioned above, there are so many ways to combine the three main ingredients of s'mores and each brand has a different spin on the combination.  This one is very chocolate-heavy which would be close to the old standard s'mores flavor from Ben & Jerry's (not the newer limited batch version).  This is probably a step up from that.  If you want a thick and gooey chocolatey pint, try this one out when it returns.

Humphry Slocumbe - Secret Breakfast

Secret Breakfast - Bourbon Ice Cream with Cornflake Cookies

I decided to try a new brand!  Humphry Slocombe is not available to be in local grocery stores, but I they have national shipping from both Amazon and Goldbely and they have gotten some good reviews.  Humphry Slocombe opened it's first scoop shop in San Francisco's Mission District in 2008.  The founder is Jake Godby who is a celebrated pastry chef in the Bay Area.  The shop quickly grew a reputation for having fun and eclectic flavors as noted by this write-up in the New York Times Magazine several years ago.  Where does the brand get its name?  I guess Mr. Humphries and Mrs. Slocombe were the main characters on the classic British sitcom Are You Being Served?.  That's fun.  Anyhow, the selection and shipping costs seemed reasonable the last time I looked so I pulled the trigger.

The first flavor I'm trying is called Secret Breakfast which is their most famous and popular flavor.  It is a bourbon ice cream with corn flake cookie mix-ins.  Checking my tags on the right sidebar, bourbon and whiskey are becoming trendy ice cream ingredients these days, but I think Humphry Slocombe was a very early entry on the bourbon bandwagon in the late 00s.  Their online menu still says "yes, bourbon" to note the novelty of the ingredient.

Opening the pint shows an off-white golden color to the bourbon base.  A couple of the cookie mix-ins are visible too.  Digging in, I immediately taste the bourbon flavor.  This is a sweet bourbon as opposed to the kick-in-the-back-of-your-throat bourbon -- I have noticed both kinds in previous reviews.  It is not too sweet though.  It tastes quite good.  Soon I encounter the cookie mix-ins and they are delicious.  Cornflakes and sugar make for a surprisingly potent combination.  I have had a few desserts with this combination and the first few bites are always amazing.  There are diminishing returns for it though.  As good as the few bites are, I often don't want a second piece.  For this pint, it looks like care has been done to deliver the cornflakes at a good frequency.  I am getting the occasional sweet corn flake and part of me wishes there were more, but I am also still enjoying them as I am finishing the pint.

I liked this flavor.  For a signature flavor, I was expecting something a bit more intense, but the balance between the bourbon and the sweet cornflakes is quite well done.  Check it out.

Pumphouse Creamery - 5 Spice

5 Spice - Sweet Cream with Anise, Fennel, Cloves, Cinnamon & Black Pepper

Today I try another fall flavor from the Minneapolis-based Pumphouse Creamery.  This one is called '5 Spice' with the spices spelled out "Anise, Fennel, Cloves, Cinnamon + Black Pepper.  The flavor is named after five spice powder which is commonly used in Asian cuisine.  Similar spice combinations are used in all cuisines of course.  My family has a pumpkin bread recipe which uses cloves, nutmeg, allspice & cinnamon.  That's only four spices, though.  The Pumphouse website lists nutmeg instead of fennel, but I'll trust the writing on the container.  This pint is a bit unusual because the spices are mixed into the sweet cream alone.  My previous two spicy pints have been blended with pumpkin or tea.  The best part of those pints was the spice, though, so it will be fun to have a pint where the spices are alone.

Opening the pint, the top has a light beige color.  The base is simply sweet cream so all of that color is coming from spice.  Digging in, the spice flavor hits you right away.  Particularly the anise.  It is a very licorice-like flavor.  My two spicy pints linked above both contained star anise but this is my first pint with just plain anise.  Interestingly, star anise and anise are very different plants but each spice contains a high concentration of anethole -- the aromatic compound responsible for the distinctive flavor.  Licorice and fennel also contain anethole.  You can also taste the cloves and cinnamon and a little bit of pepper, but the anise and fennel are definitely the most memorable flavors.  You know the flavor is strong if cloves are being put into the background.

This was a fun spicy flavor.  It is good to have an options for a spicy ice cream which does not contain another flavor such as pumpkin.  It is a bit heavy on the anise and fennel but I found that fun because I don't see those flavors used often enough.  The Pumphouse website mentions that it would make a great pie-topper.  I agree.  It would even go well with a pumpkin pie because I find that they never use enough spices in most pumpkin pie recipes.  It is also good by itself.  Enjoy.

Häagen-Dazs - Java Chip

Java Chip - Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips

Editors note:  since this review was written, this flavor has been renamed from Java Chip to Coffee Chip.

Today is another Häagen-Dazs flavor.  A recent sale at my local grocery store has inspired me to fill in some of the gaps in my coverage of the Häagen-Dazs line.  I believe I have reviewed all of the newer flavors, limited batch flavors and also the more complex flavors, but I have missed some of the simpler flavors.  Today's flavor is Java Chip.  This is similar to their Coffee flavor which I had a couple of weeks ago but with chocolate mix-ins.

Removing the lid shows the tan color of their coffee base.  It looks like the same color of their simple Coffee flavor.  This time chocolate chips are visible right away.  Digging in, I experience the same coffee flavor as before.  The coffee flavor is not too strong and not too bitter.  Diehard coffee junkies might prefer something a bit more intense but this is a good coffee flavor.  The difference between this pint and their simple coffee base here is the chocolate mix-ins.  They use the same chips here as in their Mint Chip flavor -- thin rectangular chunks about a centimeter or less in size.   The chips work well with the base which is no surprise as coffee & chocolate is a natural flavor combination due to the two having similar active ingredients (caffeine & theobromine).

I liked this flavor.  This is the 'old school' coffee-chocolate combination in the Häagen-Dazs line.  That said, I think I prefer their new flavor Espresso Chocolate Cookie Crumble which in my opinion is a more interesting and unique combination of those two flavors.  But, if you're in the mood for something simpler then the combination of classic Häagen-Dazs coffee ice cream with classic Häagen-Dazs chocolate chips will do the trick.

Sweet Science - Salted Caramel Swirl

Salted Caramel Swirl - Vanilla Ice Cream with a Swirl of Salted Caramel Sauce

The flavor for today is another from the Saint-Paul-based Sweet Science brand.  The flavor is called Salted Caramel Swirl.  This has a very similar flavor name (and label color) as their Salted Caramel flavor which I have previously reviewed but upon second look it is a different flavor.  Salted Caramel is a pure homogenous salted caramel ice cream base with no swirls or mix-ins.  Today's pint is a vanilla base with a swirl of salted caramel sauce.  Let's take a closer look.

The vanilla ice cream base has a yellowish off-white color.  Some of the caramel swirl can be seen right away on top.  Digging in, the caramel flavor is evident right away.  The caramel has a salty bite to it.  This was not surprising as their plain salted caramel pint is one of the saltier of salted caramel implementations.  This time, the caramel is balanced with the vanilla base which is soft and creamy. The combination is quite delicious.  The amount of swirl increased a little bit as I ate my way down the pint.

I very much enjoyed this pint.  It provided quite a bit of salted caramel flavor but the combination with vanilla made it a bit more interesting to me than a salted-caramel only pint.  The caramel here is a sauce and not an ice cream so it is not exactly the same thing, but the salty flavor is well-done and delicious.  Caramel & vanilla lovers should like this.