Tillamook - Toasted Coconut Fudge

Toasted Coconut Fudge - Toasted Coconut Gelato, Chocolate Fudge & Coconut Flakes

The Oregon-based Tillamook brand returns to the blog!  I was beginning to think that they were a west-coast-only brand -- or perhaps that they were de-emphasizing their pints in favor of their 1.75-quart tubs which I do see from time to time.  I keep checking freezer cases every time I am in a grocery store, though, and a few weeks ago I stumbled upon a small local change which carries Tillamook pints.  This flavor is called Toasted Coconut Fudge. 

The first thing I notice is that Tillamook has changed their pint design.  They switched from the old plastic containers to the white cardboard containers that most other places use.  They've also changed their logo.  Removing the lid, I see an extra foil layer with the label "Made to be enjoyed."  That's nice.  Then removing the foil I see no ice cream is visible!  I see only coconut flakes (and perhaps some fudge) on top.  This is going to be a layered pint!  Digging in, the coconut flakes are sitting on top of a thin layer of hard fudge with soft coconut gelato below.  The coconut flakes by themselves are amazing.  Some of the best strands of toasted coconut that I have had in an ice cream.  The coconut gelato is soft, and creamy.  There are no extra coconut mix-ins within the gelato itself but the coconut flavor is sweet, strong and delicious.  The fudge layer presented some changes.  The taste was good, but it took some effort to break the spoon through it.  As I ate my way further down the pint, it was almost all gelato beneath the top layer.  I saw a little bit of extra fudge sticking to one of the sides, but there were not more 'layers' below.  Because of this, I wanted to break the top fudge layer into smaller pieces so I could mix it into my lower-pint spoonfuls.  That was a challenge, though, as the layer was so hard.

This was an interesting and tasty pint of coconut fudge ice cream.  I really loved the ingredients -- especially the coconut base and coconut mix-ins -- but as with a couple of other Tillamook flavors I had issues with how the layering was done.  I am not always against layered pints.  The Häagen-Dazs layered pints contain some crunchy fudge layers but the layers are so thin and they repeat throughout the pint -- it is hard get a spoonful that does not contain every layer!  The Talenti layers are thicker -- there are certainly top-of-the-pint layers and bottom-of-the-pint layers -- but the layers are also really soft and it is very easy to mix them, or to selectively dig your spoon as I did, to make sure you are experiencing all the the flavors at once.  Here, the tough fudge layer on top created a challenge.  I found myself finishing that layer early and then having mostly plain coconut gelato on the second half of the pint.  The coconut flavor was excellent, though.

Häagen-Dazs - Vanilla and Vanilla Bean

Vanilla - Vanilla Ice Cream 
Vanilla Bean - Vanilla Ice Cream with Vanilla Beans

Last weekend was Easter and we had a group dinner with the extended family.  I was in charge of getting the ice cream.  The family knows my penchant for trying new and interesting flavors, so they told me ahead of time "we are having it with cake, so just get regular ice cream".   So, I got vanilla.  I chose Häagen-Dazs because they do simple flavors very well, plus it was on sale!  At the store, I noticed that Häagen-Dazs actually has two different vanilla flavors -- Vanilla and Vanilla Bean.  So, I picked up a couple of pints of both.  It turns out that my family did not eat as much ice cream as I expected -- there was a lot of ham and it was good, so I had leftover ice cream.  I figured why not turn it into a joint review!  Although I have written before (here and here) about how the vanilla spice is actually quite exotic, it still Simple vanilla pints often do not make for the most interesting of reviews.  Plus, I figured these flavors might be similar enough that I might not remember distinguishing details if I waited a few days between eating them.  By eating them side-by-side, I hope to bring out the constrasts between the two pints.

Enough talk, removing the two lids, both ice creams look pretty darn white but when next to each other I can see a clear difference.  The vanilla is a brighter white with perhaps the slightest tinge of yellow, while the vanilla bean is more grey and upon close inspection, I can see the tiny specks of vanilla bean.  Digging in, the vanilla ice cream feels slightly thicker while the vanilla bean is slightly softer.  It's a small difference -- perhaps the plain vanilla was in the colder part of my freezer -- but I am especially looking for contrasts here.  The flavor of both is a good vanilla.  The vanilla bean tasted a little bit stronger.  I checked with someone else and they agreed.  We also both agreed that we could definitely tell them apart with our eyes closed.

This was a fun side-by-side experiment.  Both ice creams were quite good. Häagen-Dazs does the basic flavors very well (their chocolate ice cream is excellent).  The differences between these two ice creams were subtle but noticeable.  I thought the plain vanilla was thicker and milkier -- it tasted like a vanilla-flavored frozen whipped cream while the vanilla bean was slightly softer and had more vanilla flavor.  When would I choose one over the other?  My personal opinion would be that the plain vanilla would go better with a piece of cake or a slice of pie.  It was more 'neutral'.  While the vanilla bean would be better by itself -- or perhaps with chocolate syrup.  I'm intentionally splitting hairs here, of course.  You can't go wrong with either one.

Izzy's - Coffee Break

Coffee Break - Coffee Ice Cream with Oreo Cookie Pieces

Today is another flavor from the Saint Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream.  I had come into the store because they had a flavor-of-the-year winner available (Cabernet de l'Orange), but this one looked so good in the scooping bin that I had to get it as well.  This flavor is called Coffee Break.  It is a coffee cookies & cream.  I am surprised that I have not seen this idea for a flavor combination before!  I know coffee goes well with chocolate and I know that Oreos (or Oreo-like cookies) are a common substitute for chocolate chips.  I've seen regular cookies and cream, chocolate cookies and cream, mint cookies and cream, peanut butter cookies and cream -- why not coffee cookies and cream?  The closest I can find in my archive is an Espresso Chocolate Cookie Crumble from Häagen-Dazs, but the cookie swirl there is not quite the same thing as cookies & cream.  So, I'm looking forward to checking this out.

Opening the lid, I see a lot of cookie pieces right away.  Large cookie pieces.  I can even see the white filling of the sandwich cookies in a few places.  I can tell right away that these are Oreo-brand sandwich cookies.  The coffee ice cream is a beige color is a beige color.  Digging in, the coffee flavor of the base is quite good.  I had someone who likes coffee more than me try it out and they liked it.  That said, the flavor is not too intense.  In some coffee ice cream, you can taste the beans and a dose of caffeine hits you.  This is just good coffee flavor.  The Oreo pieces are quite large and quite good.  This is a very generation amount of cookie pieces for a cookies and cream.  Even more so that Izzy's regular Cookies & Cream flavor.  That could be something that varies from batch to batch -- perhaps I just lucked out here? -- or it could be that the regular cookies & cream flavor was pre-packaged while this pint was hand packed.  As I finish the pint, I notice that I am more full than usual.  This is delicious, but it is also quite filling.  It is very good, though.

This is an excellent pint of coffee cookies & cream!  Good coffee and great Oreo cookie mix-ins.  Coffee & chocolate go very well together and Oreos are a great way to deliver chocolate.  There should be more coffee cookies & cream implementations! 

Talenti - Vanilla Fudge Cookie

Vanilla Fudge Cookie - Layers of Double Dark Chocolate Gelato, Chocolate Cookie Chunks, Fudge Sauce, Vanilla Gelato and Chocolate Waffle Cone Pieces

Today we move on to a pint from the new Layers Collection from Talenti Gelato.  This flavor is called Vanilla Fudge Cookie.  The two gelato layers here are Double Dark Chocolate and Vanilla.  The layers in between are chocolate cookie chunks and fudge sauce and the layer on the bottom is chocolate waffle cone pieces.  It sounds like a simple mix of various types of chocolate and vanilla.  Let's check it out.

Again, the only thing I see when I unscrew the lid on a layers collection pint is the Double Dark Chocalate gelato layer.  It looks chocolatey, but it does not look to be all that dark.  I checked the online page for that individual base flavor and I don't think it is actually supposed to be that 'dark'.  I dip my spoon in for a taste and it is quite good, but it tastes like regular chocolate ice cream.  OK, now to try to extract the layers.  It is a challenging, but fun task to try to dig out a wedge with reasonable layer integrity for the photos.  The results are below.  OK, on to the ice cream.  I was distracted by the 'double dark' name of the chocolate above, but it is quite good.  I have not reviewed the standalone version of this base yet, but it would work quite well.  It has a frozen hot chocolate flavor to it.  The chocolate cookie and fudge sauce layers blended together a bit -- the cookies seemed to be immersed in the fudge.  I liked that.  The cookies tasted like cookie part of an Oreo -- crunchy and chocolatey.  The chocolate waffle cones on the bottom here not that bad.  They were a bit like the cookies but less crunchy and sweet.  The vanilla gelato acted a bit like a palate cleanser here -- to keep the pint from getting too chocolatey.  It fulfilled that role quite well.

I liked this layers pint.  This is the probably the simplest flavor in the layers line -- chocolate and vanilla.  Perhaps I should have tried this one first.  It is still quite good, but it wasn't a 'wow' flavor for me due to its simplicity.  I could be a great first flavor to have if you are curious about the collection though.  Chocolate lovers should enjoy this and the layer of vanilla keeps the chocolate from becoming overwhelming.

Häagen-Dazs - Irish Cream Brownie

Irish Cream Brownie - Ice Cream infused Irish Cream with Brownie Pieces and a Fudge Swirl

Today's flavor is another from the Spirits Collection from Häagen-Dazs.  This flavor is called Irish Cream Brownie. Irish Cream is a cream-based liqueur which includes Irish Whiskey.  The mix-ins are brownies and a fudge swirl.  I checked online and I actually found a bunch of recipes for irish cream brownies.  I learn all sorts of things trying different ice creams!  Checking my archives, I do see a similar pint from Izzy's called Irish Moxie.  That one has cookie and heath bar mix-ins instead of brownies.  There is no coffee explicitly listed in the flavor description, but I checked the ingredients for this pint and I do see coffee listed.  So they do both have coffee.  It should be fun to see how today's pint compares!

Removing the lid, I see quite a bit.  The ice cream as a creamy-brown color with some evidence of marbling.  There is coffee in the base and it appears that the fudge swirl has been blended into the base more in some places than in others.  There are a lot of mix-ins pieces visible as well.  The brownie mix-ins appear to be ground up into many small crumb-like pieces.  The first spoonful delivers quite a bit of irish cream flavor.  As with the rest of the flavors in the Spirits Collection, the main affect of the alcohol is in the aroma.  It does not taste 'boozy', but your mouth gets flooded with the smell of the irish cream.  I've written this before, but I really like this effect.  There is coffee flavor and a fudge swirl.  They taste pretty good and go with the whiskey flavor quite well.  The brownie pieces are finely ground into mostly crumb sizes -- though some of the pieces are large enough as to create a chewy texture.

All in all, this is very good implementation of an irish cream flavor.  Compared to Izzy's Irish Moxie,  the whiskey flavor is more pronounced and aromatic in the Häagen-Dazs, but Izzy's has better coffee flavor.  Both have chocolate mix-ins, but they overall texture is soft here (brownies and a swirl) while it is crunchy with Izzy's (cookies and toffee).  Of course, Izzy's is a local brand and Häagen-Dazs is available nationwide.  If you like Irish Cream, check this flavor out. 

Izzy's - Cabernet de l'Orange

Cabernet de l'Orange - Blackberry, Blood Orange and Honey Ice Cream

Today I return to the Saint-Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream.  Spring has finally sprung in Minnesota and they rotated the flavors in their scooping bin to mark the occasion.  One of those flavors is called Cabernet de l'Orange.  This flavor won Best in Show in their 2015 flavor contest.  It is a fruit flavor with blackberries, blood orange and honey.  Interestingly, it does not appear to have any wine or grapes in it, but perhaps a blackberry and blood orange blend is a good simulator of that flavor.  Plus, I have to give a hat-tip to the flavor name anyways.  Cabernet de l'Orange is very fun to say!

Removing the lid shows a dark pink, almost magenta-like color of the base ice cream.  This reminds me a bit of Izzy's own Church Elderberry flavor.  No seeds though.  This base is quite smooth.  Digging in, the fruit flavor is quite delicious.  It is soft and creamy -- it is an ice cream and not a sorbet -- and it is not at all tart.  I can taste the blackberry and the blood orange but I also find that the two have blended extremely well.  If you were to tell me that this flavor was its own fruit, I would believe you.  The honey flavor I do not specifically taste, but often honey is used to keep a fruit flavor from getting too sweet, and that is definitely the case here.  Despite being a homogeneous pint with no mix-ins, I am easily able to finish the pint in one sitting.

This is an excellent fruit-based flavor of ice cream.  The blackberry-blood orange blend is very well balanced.  It is not too sweet or too tart.  There's no wine in this pint -- at least I don't believe so -- but somehow the name does not feel inappropriate.  It sort of tastes like a virgin sangria.  Perhaps I just like saying the name.  Cabernet de l'Orange.  Ha ha.  If you are at Izzys and are up for something a little tart and a bit seedy, try Church Elderberry.  For non-tart seed-free and pulp-free fruit flavor, I like this pint.

Talenti - Peanut Butter Vanilla Fudge

Peanut Butter Vanilla Fudge - Layers of Peanut Butter Gelato, Peanut Butter Cups, Fudge Sauce, Vanilla Gelato and Peanut Butter Cookies

Today I try my second pint from Talenti Gelato's new Gelato Layers line of flavors.  This one is called Peanut Butter Vanilla Fudge.  Like the first pint there are five layers.  Peanut butter gelato on top, then peanut butter cups, then a hot fudge sauce, then a vanilla gelato with peanut butter cookie pieces on the bottom.  Sounds fun.  Let's dig in!

As before when I unscrew the lid, I only see the top layer -- the peanut butter gelato.  For the sake of research, I tried to cut out a wedge again, just to get a picture of all the layers.  The pictures are below.  Some mixing does occur when you try to do an extraction like that, so I don't think the pictures are catalogue-quality, but it was fun to do.  Plus, it makes the remainder of the pint a bit easier to eat in a 'layered manner'.  How does it taste?  Pretty darn good?  The accidental mixing is a bonus because you actually want the ice cream to mix a bit as you eat it.  The two base ice creams are decent but both have mild flavors.  Their purpose here is to serve as vehicles for the three mix-ins layers.  The two inner mix-in layers are fudge sauce and peanut butter cups.  They naturally mixed.  The peanut butter cups seemed immersed in the fudge sauce.  The sauce was very chocolatey and reminded me of chocolate syrup -- a little bit of a kick in the back of your throat when you swallow if you know what I mean.  The peanut butter cup filling was much softer than I expected.  Usually it's hard peanut butter on the inside of these.  The peanut butter seemed to ooze out of the cups when I ate it.  These are amazing!  Are these the same peanut butter cups used in their Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup flavor?  I will have to put that on my list of flavors to check out.   Finally, the mix-in layer on the bottom of the pint are peanut butter cookie pieces.  Like the previous pint, the shape reminded me of oyster crackers but these cookies are soft and full of peanut butter flavor.  Very good!

This is an amazing layered pint from Talenti Gelato.  This definitely exceeded my expectations!  Logistically I wondered how the layers would mix, but the solution here seems to be to give the two bases a supporting role and to use amazing mix-ins.  The gooier than expected peanut butter cups are clearly the star of the show here, while the chocolate sauce and the soft peanut butter cookies are also excellent.

Häagen-Dazs - Bourbon Vanilla Bean Truffle

Bourbon Vanilla Bean Truffle - Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Chocolate Truffles and a Spicy Bourbon Swirl

Today we continue with the Spirits Collection from Häagen-Dazs.  This pint is called Bourbon Vanilla Bean Truffle.  This is the second of the two bourbon-themed pints in the collection.  The other is a pint which actually pre-dated the collection itself:  Bourbon Pecan Praline debuted a couple of years ago.  There, the mix-ins were praline pecans, here the mix-ins are chocolate truffles.  Let's see how the two flavors compare.

The top of the pint has a marbled appearance.  I can see the light color of the vanilla base but I also see the swirls of bourbon.  The swirls seem to be half blended in.  There aren't really ribbons of pure bourbon in there, but you can tell by the differences in coloration that some places have more bourbon in it than others.  Digging in, I taste the bourbon right away.  The description labels it as a 'spicy' bourbon.  It does have more of an edge or kick to than the pecan praline flavor which was quite sweet.  I checked the ingredient list and see brown sugar and molasses, but I don't see specific spices listed.  For me, I'm going to read 'spicy' as having that edge or kick.  As with all the other flavors in the spirits collection, the bourbon flavor is quite aromatic but it is not so intense as to be considered 'boozy'.  As I continue eating, I run into the truffles, these are sizeable chunks of chocolate.  The chunks are not 'filled' but the chocolate is quite chewy in texture.  They tasted quite good.

This is a fun an interesting bourbon-themed pint.  Since there are two 'bourbon' flavors in the spirits collection, I like that they introduced such a noticeable contrast between the two.  This pint has more of a burn or kick to the bourbon and uses a chewy chocolatey mix-in while the Bourbon Pecan Praline flavor is a much sweeter bourbon which a crunchy nutty mix-in.

Jeni's - Sweet Cream Biscuits & Peach Jam

Sweet Cream Biscuits & Peach Jam - Buttermilk Ice Cream, Crumbled Biscuits, and Swirls of Jam Made with Georgia Peaches from The Peach Truck

Today, I review the final pint from my six-pint shipment from the Columbus-based Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.  This flavor is called Sweet Cream Biscuits & Peach Jam.  Interestingly, the sweet cream is not the base, it's in the biscuits.  Reading that recipe, I see that there is no buttermilk, while here, buttermilk is in the base ice cream.  So, buttermilk and sweet cream have traded places in this pint!  And unlike the previous review, here we are talking about the soft American-style biscuits and not the hard crunchy biscuits of the UK (and Italian biscotti).  Then peach jam is added.  Peach ice cream flavors are not super-common, so this looks to be a special treat.  Let's dig in.

Opening the pint, I see a little bit of the peach jam swirl off to one side.  The base ice cream is a near white color with some hints of the biscuit mix-ins.  Digging in, the buttermilk flavor of the base is fairly mild -- this is not at all 'sour'.  I got a bit of peach jam in the first spoonful and this is the predominant flavor and it tastes really good.  As I continue eating the pint, I start to appreciate the biscuit mix-ins.  They are not too large and chewy, so I don't single them out in any individual spoonful, but collectively they give the base ice cream a different texture and flavor.  I really can imagine myself eating a biscuit-flavored ice cream.

This is a really good flavor.  All of the pints from my six-pint shipment but this one is probably my favorite of the six.  Soft-biscuit mix-ins is a really good idea and this one works really well.  Plus, the peach flavor is delicious.  Together is was like peach jam spread on a soft biscuit -- but in ice cream form.  Checking my review archive, I see Talenti has a peach & biscuits flavor, but the biscuits there were crunchy so as to feel more like a pie crust, so it's a little different.  It's like a fruit pie à la mode.  Tillamook had a peach cobbler flavor which also had a crunchy mix-in.  Both those flavors are quite good, but I like this Jeni's flavor the best.

Izzy's - Almond Biscotti

Almond Biscotti - Almond Ice Cream with Almonds and Almond Toast Pieces with a Splash of Sherry

Today's flavor is Almond Biscotti from the Saint Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream.  Biscotti is Italian for biscuit -- the crunchy biscuits in the British sense, not the soft biscuits in the American sense.  Italian biscotti are usually made with almonds, so this flavor makes complete sense.  The biscuits used here are provided by the local Wuollet's Bakery, the same bakery which made the Cardamom Toast used in Izzy's Norwegian Chai flavor.  Wuollet's Bakery has been around for a very long time.  My parents actually got their wedding cake at Wuollet's (back then they were called Bungalow Bakery).  I am looking forward to checking this out.

Removing the lid, I see the off-white beige color of the almond base with some fairly noticeable chunks of biscotti toast visible right away.  So, larger toast pieces will be used here (in the Norwegian Chai flavor, the toast pieces were ground up into fine crumbs).  Digging in the almond flavor is fairly strong and quite delicious!  Sometimes, if there is too much almond extract added, it can be a bit off-putting, but this is just enough.  The flavor description says that a splash of sherry is added to the base.  I don't know the flavor of sherry well enough to know, but perhaps this is what is helping balance the flavor?  There are almond pieces dispersed throughout the pint.  These are delicious in themselves but also add some fun crunch into the mix.  Then there are toast pieces in the mix as well.  These pieces are a little softer than I expected -- I think they soaked up the ice cream during the churning process -- but are still quite fun and delicious.

I really liked this pint.  This is possibly one of my favorite almond-centric pints.  I've had a lot of great almond flavors, but it is often playing a supporting role to coconut, chocolate, caramel or some other strong flavor.  Here the base is almond and both mix-ins are almond and the result is excellent.  Almond-lovers should check this out.

Milkjam Creamery - Lychee Pineapple

Lychee Pineapple - Lychee & Pineapple Sorbet

Today I return to the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery for a flavor called Lychee Pineapple.  This flavor is a non-dairy sorbet made from lychee and pineapple.  A very tropical flavor!  I have had a couple of pineapple pints before, but only one other lychee flavor.  This should be fun.

Removing the lid shows that the sorbet is a beautiful bright yellow color.  Digging in, it definitely has a sorbet-like texture.  They did a pretty good job of churning it to make it as creamy as they could but it is definitely not as creamy as an ice cream.  The flavor itself is as bright and tropical as its color.  The pineapple is the more familiar flavor but I can definitely taste the lychee flavor in there as well.  This is a homogenous pint with no mix-ins.  The first spoonful is great.  There is a little bit of diminishing returns after that, but I am able to finish the whole pint in one sitting while still enjoying it at the end.

This is a fun and tropical sorbet.  Lychee & pineapple are not everyday flavors so it good to enjoy these when I have the opportunity.  Tropical flavors are especially fun in April as they make me look forward to summer. As with many fruit sorbets, you could argue that a single scoop is better than a whole pint.  So perhaps ration it out in single-scoop servings or share with friends.