Milkjam Creamery - Pistachio Halva

Pistachio Halva - Pistachio Halva Ice Cream

Today is another flavor from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery.  They have a limited-batch flavor called Pistachio Halva.  The flavor is so limited that it is no longer available, but you never know if it may come back.  Anyhow, when the flavor was still listed, their description said simply "just that".  Thankfully, I found an instagram post of theirs which has a better description.

"Pistachio Halva: halva is a middle eastern sesame confection that is made by grinding sesame seeds (tahini) and mixing in sugar syrup and flavorings. here it’s made with pistachios and a little hint of rose water for a very light aromatic note."

That sounds interesting.  So, although this has pistachio in it like in the previous review, it is actually a sesame-based confection.  This should be fun.

The base ice cream is a light sandy yellow.  Most pistachio ice creams are green, so that's certainly a sign that halva is sesame based.  I see some large pieces of pistachio on top as well.  As I try the first spoonful, I can taste the pistachio, but I can tell that it is not the main flavor.  I have never had halva or tahini before, but the flavor does seem consistent with a sweet, sesame-based treat.  It's definitely interesting and unique -- and pretty good, too.  Pistachio pieces are used as mix-ins.  These are fairly large and provide quite a bit of flavor and chunky texture. 

This is a very interesting and unique pint of ice cream.  At first, I thought it would be like a twist on the standard pint of pistachio, but the halva/tahini is at least half of the flavor.  The rosewater is just for accent here.  I note some subtle tanginess, but it doesn't stick out as it does in a previous rosewater and pistachio pint.  Fans of the middle-eastern halva dessert would want to try this out as well as curious folks who are interested in trying something new.

Talenti - Sicilian Pistachio

Sicilian Pistachio - Pistachio Gelato with Pistachio Pieces

It has been a while since I've had Talenti Gelato, so I picked up a couple of pints.  I don't want to do all local brands while I am waiting for the new 2019 flavors to be available from the major national brands.  This flavor is called Sicilian Pistachio.  Talenti has a habit of using Italian-sounding adjectives to enhance their Italian gelato brand (Mediterranean Mint and Roman Raspberry to name just a couple) but Sicilian Pistachios are indeed a thing and they are used in this pint.  It's been a while since I've had a pistachio flavor, so this should be fun.

Unscrewing the lid, I see the bright light green color of the pistachio base as well as the complex colors of the nut pieces (some with their brown peels intact) below the surface.  Digging in, the gelato has the expected pistachio flavor and soft gelato consistency.  It is a little sweeter than most pistachio flavors that I have had, but not too sweet.  The nut pieces are quite small, but they are generously dispersed throughout the pint.  They don't deliver much nutty flavor by themselves but they do provide some crunchy texture which is welcome in what would otherwise be a homogeneous pint.

I enjoyed this flavor.  It is a fairly standard implementation of a pistachio ice cream/gelato.  It is a little on the sweet side and has small nut pieces.  For gelato fans who want a pistachio flavor, this is a reasonably well-done implementation.  For pistachio fans, there are other implementations which larger pistachio pieces such as Ben & Jerry's, or pints which blend in other flavors such as honey, cardamom or rosewater.  

Ample Hills - Oscar Night

Oscar Night - Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Pieces of Red Velvet Cake

It's Oscar Night and Ample Hills has the right ice cream for the occasion.  It is appropriately called Oscar Night.  They have a limited release of this flavor every year.  I am usually not in New York in February, so I haven't had this flavor before, but this year, I was excited to be able to able to put both the Valentines's flavor and the Oscar Night flavor into the same online shipment, so here I am eating Oscar Night on Oscar Night!  What does one eat while watching the stars on the red carpet?  Why red velvet cake of course!  Here, pieces of red velvet ice cream are immersed in a cream cheese base.  Sounds fun!

I open the pint and I see a lot of red chunks are visible right on top.  Some of the cake pieces are intact and some have been 'swirled' which for a cake means that small specks of red cake are distributed through the rest of the base.  Digging in, the cream cheese base is thick and sweet -- the cream cheese adds thickness here, but I detect no distinctive 'cream cheese flavor' that you sometimes find.  This base effectively acts as the 'frosting' for the cake piece mix-ins.  The cake pieces themselves are sweet and they stay soft in the frozen pint.  Red velvet cake usually -- but not always -- includes chocolate.  I don't taste much chocolate here.  It tastes like red-colored sheet cake.  I checked the ingredients and there is cocoa in the mix but it must not be very strong because I don't taste it.  It's good cake, though, I'm just making an observation so that you know what to expect.  The mix is good.  Some cake pieces are spoon-sized, while the rest peppers the base.

This is a fun pint to eat while watching the Oscars.  The red velvet cake pieces look beautiful and they taste pretty good as well.  This is easily much better than the Ben & Jerry's version of the flavor where they tried to use natural dyes to create the red color.  I think  By the time you read this, the Oscars will be over and this flavor will no longer be available, but this flavor returns every year.  If you are in the mood for red velvet cake during the Oscars next year, check this flavor out.

Ample Hills - Be Mine

Be Mine - Strawberry Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate Flakes

The Brooklyn-based Ample Hills Creamery had a free-shipping deal for their Oscar-themed flavor.  Their Valentines flavor was also still available as well.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get two limited batch flavors in one shipment, so I got four pints.  I decided to have the Valentine's Flavor first because we're already a week late.  The flavor is called Be Mine and it's a strawberry ice cream with dark chocolate flakes.

Opening the pint, I see the light pink color of the strawberry base.  I also see a bunch of small chocolate specks, but I only see them on one side.  Sometimes that happens on the top layer.  Digging in, the strawberry base is fully strained -- no solids or seeds -- and it is quite tasty.  The chocolate chips on the one side are fairly dense and provide a lot of crunchy flavor.  As I continued eating the pint, the mixing issues persisted.  There are large sections of the pint which are only the strawberry base and other sections which are chip-heavy.  I get the impression that this is not intentional, but I actually didn't mind.  The strawberry base is quite delicious so it was good to have some spoonfuls which contained only that so that I could appreciate it more.  As I got further down, I encountered a spoon-sized chunk of aggregated chocolate chips.  It was almost as if I was eating a crunchy version of Graeters.  Like the semi-accidental super chips in a Graeters pint, the big chunk of chocolate near the bottom was quite tasty.

I enjoyed this pint.  The mixing flaw was a bit strange -- I am almost positive that it is accidental -- but I went with it and I almost want to say I liked it better this way.  The smooth and fully-strained strawberry base was easier to appreciate this way and the denser sections of chips were fun.  I'm not sure how reproducible this mixing would be if I got this pint again, though.  Anyhow, it's a fun flavor for Valentine's Day.

Ben & Jerry's - Sweet Like Sugar

Sweet Like Sugar - Sweet Cream Ice Cream with a hint of Almond flavor & Shortbread Cookies & Cherry Ice Cream with Cherries & a Sugar Cookie Dough Core

Ben & Jerry's has new flavors for 2019!  Ben & Jerry's is the brand that got me started with these reviews.  I don't get to have their ice cream as often any more because I've reviewed all of the items on the current menu.  So, I'm relegated to waiting for new flavors to come out so that I can have Ben & Jerry's again.  For 2019, Ben & Jerry's is releasing three new "Core" flavors.  As has been mentioned in previous reviews, a "Core" flavor is where a there is a cylinder of a non-ice cream mix-in in the center of the carton with ice cream on the outside.   The first set of core flavors all contained thick and gooey mix-ins -- like caramel, fudge, jam, and later cheesecake and brownie batter.  Then in 2015 they came out with "cookie cores" where the core was made from cookie butter (baked cookies that are ground up and mixed with condensed milk to form a spreadable paste).  This year, they're releasing "cookie dough cores".  If cookie butter worked well, why not cookie dough?  The three cookie dough core flavors use three different types of cookie dough: sugar cookie dough, chocolate chip cookie dough and a 'no bake' cookie dough core.  I trekked down to my local scoop shop to pick them up.  They had one of them.  It is called Sweet Like Sugar and has a core of sugar cookie dough.  Surrounding the core is sweet cream, a hint of almond flavor, shortbread cookies, cherry ice cream and cherries.  That's a lot of flavors!  Let's see how this all works out.

Opening the pint, I actually see almost all the ingredients right away -- which is impressive because there are so many of them.  The two bases are split.  Sweet cream on one half, and cherry on the other.  The cherry base is a very light pink.  The top of the sugar cookie dough core can be seen.  Expectedly, it is the light yellow color of sugar cookies.  I can see one of the cherry pieces as well.  Digging in, the cherry base is light and subtle while the cherry pieces are larger than I expected and delicious.  The emphasis on the cherry side is on the cherry pieces.  It is quite good.  On the sweet cream side, I don't taste the hint of almond much -- perhaps too subtle for me.  I first confused the shortbread cookie mix-ins with the core.  They are different though.  The shortbread cookies are soft, but have certainly been baked.  The sugar cookie dough core is the most distinctive part of the pint.  It has an interesting texture.  It is softer and gooier than I expected -- some cookie doughs are thicker and have some grainy sugariness.  It is quite fun to eat.  There is not a very large amount of it compared to other core flavors though.  That was OK, because the surrounding ice creams were good.

This is a very interesting and flavorful pint of ice cream.  I don't know how Ben & Jerry's is able to mass-produce this blend of ingredients -- core in the middle with cherry base and cherries on one side and sweet cream and shortbread cookies on the other.  It all has the potential to go awry in the mix but each flavor remains distinct and delicious.  I did like the pint.  It's worth a try if you like cookie dough flavors.  There is more cherry flavor in this mix than I was expecting -- it isn't obvious when you see the pint in a freezer case that there will be this much cherry.  I really liked the cherry flavor, but people might be surprised.  I am anxious to try out the other two cookie dough core flavors.  I hope my local scoop shop stocks them soon.

Milkjam Creamery - I ♥ You

I ♥ You - White Chocolate Ice Cream with a Raspberry Rose Swirl

The Milkjam Creamery of Minneapolis released a flavor for Valentine's Day called I ♥ You.  I know it is after Valentine's Day already, but it's not too late to enjoy Valentine's themed ice cream.  I even have another Valentines flavor coming in a few days!  The flavor uses a '♥' in the name of the flavor.  I wondered if this was the first pint that I've had with an emoji in the name, but upon research the '♥' character was added to the unicode standard way back in 1993 -- long before we imagined using emoji's on our smart phones.  It was added as part of the Dingbat Block in Unicode 1.1 -- which itself was an importing of the Zapf Dingbat characters developed way back in 1978.  I'm always amazed at how early features like these were actually developed.  Apologies for the frivolous tangent about what most people would just say is 'just a heart'.  I was just trying to get the character into the article (and the article title, and article URL) and then my mind started to wander. 

The flavor is a white chocolate ice cream with a swirl of raspberry rose jam.  I have actually had a pint before from Sweet Science which combined raspberry and rose.  There, the flavors were blended into the base, here they are included in a swirl of jam.  After removing the lid, I see mainly the white chocolate base as an off-white cream color.  There is one dark pink section the jam visible on top as well as a faint pinkish hue visible in parts of the base.  Digging in, the base has the typical Milkjam texture, thick and dense but rather soft.  White chocolate does not stick out as a strong flavor for me, but the base is good.  The raspberry rose swirl does have the consistency of jam.  It has a strong and tasty raspberry flavor.  If there is rosewater in the mix, it's just an accenting flavor.  It is tasty and sweet and not too tart.  I think there were some mixing issues with the swirl.  It was hard to find at first, then it clung to the sides a bit and then I found more of it on the bottom half of the pint (I took a second picture below to get a better picture of the raspberry.  I was able to strategically spoon the ice cream in such a way so that most spoonfuls did have a bit of the swirl, but it could have been mixed a bit better.  The flavor was good though.  A little bit of swirl goes a long way and the white chocolate base does a good job of balancing the flavor.

This is a pretty good pint of ice cream.  There were some minor issues with mixing but it didn't take too much away from my enjoyment.  The swirl-to-base ratio is fairly low, but that is appropriate ratio as the swirl has a strong flavor.

Izzy's - Italian Strawberry

Italian Strawberry - Ice Cream made from Strawberries marinated in Balsamic Vinegar

Today we try another flavor from the Saint Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream.  This is the People's Flavor Award winner from 2002:  Italian Strawberry.  Note that the flavor seems missing from the Flavor Award menu, but is correctly listed a separate article about the Flavor Awards.  This flavor is made from strawberries marinated in balsamic vinegar.  I've seen this flavor combination once before -- at Morganstern's during my New York City ice cream crawl.  Balsamic vinegar is sometimes used to mute strong flavors like strawberries or figs.  I'm looking forward to checking this out.

Opening the pint, I see the pink flavor of the strawberry base with quite a few solids and strawberry seeds visible as well.  The aroma of balsamic vinegar is noticeable right away as well.  Digging in, I can taste both strong strawberry and vinegar right away.  The flavor seem to exist on separate planes -- they don't seem to blend or distract from other.  I think I notice the vinegar the most at the beginning and end of every spoonful.  The ice cream itself is very dense and creamy -- not a lot of air pumped into this -- and the strawberry is delicious.

This is an excellent blend of strawberry and vinegar.  I can see why this won a People's Flavor Award.  You have to be on board with the use of vinegar in ice cream -- if you're not perhaps just try a scoop first instead of a full pint. Otherwise, this is really good.

Milkjam Creamery - Pink Lady

Pink Lady - Raspberry Sherbet with Chocolate Chips

The latest flavor from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery is called Pink Lady.  It is a raspberry sherbet with chocolate chips.  The folks at Milkjam are much hipper than I am so I'm not exactly if the flavor name has a reference to something specific.  I suppose raspberries are pink.  This should be a fun flavor.  Raspberry chocolate chip is a pretty common flavor combination, the twist here is that it is sherbet.  Let's check it out.

Opening the pint, the base is indeed pink but there is also a very high density of chocolate chips.  Reminds me a bit of their True Colors flavor which was a mint chip implementation with a similarly large density of chips.  Digging in, the raspberry sherbet is fairly soft.  I can tell it is sherbet and not ice cream.  The raspberry flavor is fairly strong.  It is both sweet and tart at the same time.  I liked it.  I checked with my raspberry-loving friend and it is indeed good raspberry.  As mentioned before the chocolate chips are quite dense and provide a lot of chocolate as well.

This is a good implementation of a raspberry chocolate chip.  Both the raspberry and the chocolate flavors are quite bold here.  The strong flavors and the use of sherbet make this a unique implementation of a common flavor combination.

Izzy's - Caramelia Cookie Crunch

Caramelia Cookie Crunch - Ice cream made with Valrhona Caramelia Chocolate, Oreo Cookie Pieces and Salted Caramel Swirl.

Today is another fun flavor from Izzy's Ice Cream in Saint Paul.  Caramelia Cookie Crunch.  I had gone to Izzy's to pick up a pint of Chubby Bunny because it had won People's Flavor Award, but this flavor looked so good in the scooping bins that I had to pick it up as well.  "Caramelia" is actually a type of chocolate sold by Valrona which contains a lot of butter and caramel flavor.  The scooper behind the counter said the base was white chocolate and there was a caramel swirl.  Unfortunately I don't have an ingredient list.  I would be curious to know how much of the caramel and chocolate is supplied by the Caramelia and how much was added with separate ingredients.  Caramel and Oreos sound delicious, though.  I can't wait to try it out.


Opening the pint, I see the base is a marbly mixture of lighter and darker caramel color.  The caramel swirls I saw in the scooping tubs have been blended a little bit by the hand packing process.  Also visible are plenty of Oreo pieces.  Digging in, the ice cream has a salty caramel flavor and the Oreo mix-ins are just like cookies and cream.  The caramel is indeed saltier than your average salty caramel.  As I eat my way further down, the caramel swirls that were blurred by the hand-packing are more visible but the flavor is the same.

I really enjoyed this pint!  It's is a simple idea to take cookies and cream and add caramel, but it works extremely well.  I'm surprised that more brands have not tried this (often I see peanut butter in the mix, but this the first time I have seen caramel).  The cookies here are Oreo-brand cookies which many non-organic brands avoid, yet they have their own distinctive flavor and appeal.  I also must note again that this caramel is saltier than usual as is the trend these days.  I like that but it's not a universal opinion, so just a heads up.  This is a fun and tasty pint.  Enjoy.

McConnell's - Dutchman's Chocolate

Dutchman's Chocolate - Chocolate Ice Cream

Today we return to the Santa-Barbara-based McConnell's brand for the fourth and final pint of my recent four pint shipment.  The first three pints were limited-release pints from the Winter Collection. (the reviews are here, here and here).  For the fourth pint, I looked for one of their standard flavors which I have not yet reviewed.  It is getting harder to find unreviewed flavors, but I did see that I have not tried their simple chocolate flavor yet so I chose that one.  McConnell's calls it Dutchman's Chocolate. 

McConnell's uses Guittard chocolate -- a California company founded during the Gold Rush by a French immigrant.  So why is it Dutchman's chocolate?  Probably because of the Dutch process used for refining many modern chocolates.  Indeed, Guittard does sell baking cocoa which is "Dutched".  I was curious about what effect this process has on the flavor.  I found this article which describes Dutched chocolate has having a darker color, with a milder flavor, but less bitterness.  Interesting!  I'll have to see how this compares.

Opening the pint, the color is quite dark.  That matches what the above article says about Dutched chocolate.  The ice cream is quite thick and dense as is the norm with all of McConnell's flavors.  They don't churn in a lot of air at McConnell's, yet it still remains creamy.  Digging in, the flavor is chocolatey as one does expect.  I did find that it tastes different than the chocolate bases of some other brands.  This tastes more like chocolate-bar chocolate while the chocolate from Häagen-Dazs tastes like frozen-hot-chocolate chocolate.  They're both good, I'm just trying hard to try and contrast the flavors -- it's hard when the pints are simple and homogeneous.  I checked to see if the "Dutchness" is playing a role in this difference.  I don't think so because Häagen-Dazs think uses Dutch processed cocoa (also known as "cocoa processed with alkali") as well.  Oh well, it's fun to learn about chocolate process anyways.  Chocolate-bar chocolate is still good, though.  It has a clean flavor devoid of any bitterness.

This is a solid implementation of a chocolate ice cream.  McConnell's makes great ice cream and it is not surprising that they make their simple flavors as good as they make their more famous flavors (or seasonal specials).  

Sweet Science - Cherry Chocolate Chip

Cherry Chocolate Chip - Light Cherry Ice Cream with Cherry Compote and Chocolate Chips

Saint Paul's Sweet Science Ice Cream has two seasonal flavors for February.  The first is a good one that I reviewed last year, Blood Orange Cream.  The second is this flavor, Cherry Chocolate Chip.  I like the Ch3 symbol used on the carton label.  Ch-Ch-Chery Ch-Ch-Chocolate Ch-Ch-Chip!  Cherry and chocolate is a common combination in many brands.  It'll be interesting to see what Sweet Science does with this.

Opening the pint, I am surprised by all the mix-ins!  There is a light pink base in the background, but there is a lot of chocolate visible and a lot of cherry compote visible as well.  It is even a bit gooey.  I have quite a bit of cherry compote to lick off the lid before I even start.  Digging in, the base it billed as a 'light cherry'.  That may be so, but there is quite a bit of compote everywhere and it is quite strong.  It still tastes good, though.  The chocolate mix-ins resemble the outer coating of a filled candy bar -- it is crumbly crunchy.  There is quite a bit of it and it provides a lot of chocolate flavor.

This is a bold implementation of the popular cherry chocolate chip flavor.  With a premium brand, you expect boldness and lots of flavor and you definitely get that here.  Personally, I don't think that it was too much cherry, but it is definitely pushing the limits.  I do think they pulled it off, but you really have to like cherry to enjoy this!  Cherry lovers will definitely want to check this one out.

Izzy's - Chubby Bunny

Chubby Bunny - Cinnamon & Nutmeg Ice Cream with Carrot Cake Pieces, Chunks of Cream Cheese Frosting and Walnuts

Today we return to the Saint Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream for another one of their People's Flavor Award winning flavors.  This one is from 2004 and is called Chubby Bunny.  The title appears to be a play on the classic Ben & Jerry's flavor called Chubby Hubby, but the flavor is quite different.  Here it is not a hubby becoming chubby with peanut butter and pretzels, it is a bunny become chubby with... carrot cake!  This is my first pint that I have had which includes carrot cake -- or carrots of any kind really.  I like carrot cake.  Included in this pint is everything which goes with carrot cake -- spices, frosting and walnuts.  The website says there are also raisins but I did not find any here.  That's OK because raisins are not my favorite and there's plenty of other mix-ins here.  Enough talk, on to the ice cream!

Removing the lid, the base has a sandy color and a nice swirl of carrot cake is visible right away.  Digging in, I immediately taste the spices -- cinnamon and nutmeg.  They taste good.  Yum.  Then I encounter the carrot cake swirl.  The cake pieces are not too large, but they are soft, they taste like good carrot cake and they blend well with the cinnamon-nutmeg base.  I also encountered the occasional chunk of cream cheese frosting.  These are quite tasty.  They are sweet, but not overly so.  Every so often, I found a walnut to crunch on, but the cake and frosting are the stars of the show here.

I very much enjoyed this pint.  There are a lot of ingredients here, but it all comes together so well.  The cake, spices and frosting almost seem to blend together.  There are walnuts in the mix as well.  I can see how this won their People's Flavor contest a while back.  Check this one out, especially if you like carrot cake.

Pumphouse Creamery - Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip

Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip - Coconut Ice Cream with Roasted and Salted Almonds and Chocolate Chips

Today is another flavor from Minneapolis' Pumphouse Creamery.  This one is called Coconut Almond Chocolate Chip.  This is not a seasonal flavor, it is one from their main rotation of flavors.  It has been a while since I have had a coconut flavor, so I am looking forward to this.

Removing the lid, the base ice cream is the expected off-white color and I can see hits of a couple of the mix-ins.  Digging in, the coconut base is quite delicious.  There is even the occasionally strand of coconut in the.  Next I encounter the mix-ins.  The almonds are quite good.  They seem larger than they look.  I think what is happening is that the almonds are cut width-wise instead of lengthwise halves or slivers.  A width-wise cut still contains parts of both halves so when I bite into it, I can feel the two halves collapse first and then my teeth bite into the actual nut.  A little complicated to explain, but I really liked the effect.  Also in the mix are the chocolate chips.  These are more like chunks than chips -- not as numerous but each chip delivers more chocolate flavor.

I very much enjoyed this pint.  Coconut, almonds and chocolate is a winning combination.  Checking my archives, I expected to see more of this flavor.   Talenti has a version with stronger coconut, but with fewer almonds.  McConnell's has a great pint, but there the coconut is very toasted so it feels like a different flavor.  Graeter's has a flavor with all the ingredients but the base there is chocolate so it is also a very different pint.  Anyhow, this is a winning flavor combination and Pumphouse implements is extremely well.  Check it out.