Milkjam Creamery - Proud

Proud - Rainbow Sherbet Comprised of Lime Leaf, Pineapple, Blackberry, Blueberry, Raspberry and Orange Sherbets

I made my first trek to Minneapolis scoop shops since the pandemic began last week.  Most of them are open now, and I had gotten to the point where I was comfortable popping in, grabbing a couple pints and popping back out.  On this trip, I went to Milkjam Creamery and Sebastian Joe's.  So I have a two pints of each to review in the near future.  The first pint from my trip is from Milkjam Creamery and is called Proud.  It is a rainbow sherbet made in honor of Pride month (June) and although I am writing this review up a bit later, I did manage to eat this on the last day of June.  The Milkjam does not put a lot of details on their website, but I find their instagram posts have decent descriptions of their flavors.  An informative post for Proud is here.  There, they describe all the different types of sherbets used to form the rainbow:  lime leaf, pineapple, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry and orange.  I have had rainbow sherbet once before from Baskin Robbins.  In that review, I also discuss what sherbet is -- it's partway between the dairy-rich ice cream and the dairy-free sorbet.  Let's see how today's pint compares.

Removing the lid, I see not a full rainbow, but a lot of dark pink and yellow.  Digging in, I taste the berry right away.  It was sort of a berry mix.  It was delicious, though.  Eating more, I taste the pineapple at times (a very distinctive flavor) and sometimes I tasted orange.  And although I did not catch any of it in the photos below, I sometimes had a small green section which had good lime flavor in it.  A little bit of lime goes a long way.  I did not notice distinct berry sections, so perhaps a berry blend was indeed used -- but it's possible they were all in there and they blended together in my mouth.

This is a very bright, fruity and enjoyable version of rainbow sherbet from Milkjam Creamery.  Visually, it does not have quite as many colored stripes in it as I would expect from all the ingredients listed on the instagram page but taste-wise, it was very delicious.  I did like this pint better than Baskin Robbins (which only contains three flavors) but you can't go wrong with either.  It looks like they've cycled the flavor back out now that Pride Month is over but I think a fruity sherbet like this would work well all summer long.  If you see the flavor cycled back in and are in the mood for a blast of fruit, check this one out.

Alden's - Moose Tracks

Moose Tracks - Vanilla Ice Cream with Peanut Butter Cups and Famous Moose Tracks Fudge

Today I return to Alden's Ice Cream, the premium Oregon brand that you can find locally at both Lunds and Target.  I have had this brand once before and had issues with the texture -- it was as if the pint had been partially thawed and refrozen.  That stuff can happen -- often times it can be a fluke issue at the grocery store and no fault of the brand -- but it is awkward when it happens on the very first pint that you try of that brand.  So, I'm getting around to trying another pint.  This flavor is called Moose Tracks and consists of a vanilla base with a fudge swirl and peanut butter cups.  Today I learned that Moose Tracks itself is a brand-name of Denali Flavors.  Looking at their history page, they developed the fudge in 1988 and it is named after a miniature golf course on Michigan's Upper Peninsula.  I looked to see what makes this fudge different from other fudges and could find a lot of specific details -- just that it's a salted dark chocolate.  In addition to Alden's, several brands have licensed the use of Moose Tracks fudge in their ice creams.  It looks like the standard formulation for the basic Moose Tracks flavor matches this one (vanilla base with peanut butter cups).

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid, I see a nice marbling of the fudge swirl against the vanilla base.  Digging in, the texture is good!  The weird refrozen texture I saw in my first Alden's pint is nowhere to be seen.  That is a relief -- although it does make me want to re-try that first pint.  Digging in, the moose tracks swirl is chocolatey as expected.  Parts of it are half-mixed into the base.  It does have a bit of a salted dark chocolate flavor as billed above, but it is not as strong as I expected.  As I eat more, I encounter some peanut butter cups.  I took an extra picture below.  These provide more chocolate flavor than peanut butter, but I do get a little burst of peanut butter when I bite into one.  The vanilla base is decent and mainly serves as a vehicle for the swirl and the peanut butter cups here.

This is a decent pint from Alden's.  The Moose Tracks swirl is alright.  It seems to be a way of delivering a marbled swirl of salted chocolate which is different from a chocolate base or chocolate mix-ins.  It was not as intense as I expected.  It tasted good, but I have had thicker fudge swirls, ganaches, and chunky chocolate mix-ins.  Perhaps my expectations were raised too high because how famous the Moose Tracks name is.  My favorite vanilla-with-chocolate-and-peanut-butter-mix-ins flavor is Ample Hills' PB Wins the Cup.  That's mainly a New York brand, though.  For a national brand, I'd go for the Talenti Gelato Layers flavor Peanut Butter Vanilla Fudge.

Ben & Jerry - Boots on the Moooo'n

Boots on the Moooo'n - A Universe of Milk Chocolate Ice Cream with Fudge Cows & Toffee Meteor Clusters Orbiting a Sugar Cookie Dough Core

Ben & Jerry's has released another Netflix-themed flavor called Boots on the Moooo'n!  I was not expecting a new one so soon.  The first Netflix flavor was about the streaming service itself and is called Netflix & Chilll'd and flavors after that are limited batch releases based on specific Netflix shows.  The first show to get a flavor was Nailed It! with its Chip Happens flavor.  Boots on the Moooo'n is the second show-themed flavor and is based on the Space Force comedy with Steve Carell.  Looking at the flavor description, this appears to be a "core" flavor where a thick mix-in occupies a central cylinder of the pint with ice cream and additional mix-ins surrounding it.  Here, the central core is sugar cookie dough, the base ice cream is chocolate and there are additional toffee pieces (in the shape of meteor clusters) and fudge pieces (in the shape of cows).  Why cows?  Maybe a Hey Diddle Diddle reference (The cow jumped over the moon)?   Or maybe it's just because it is Ben & Jerry's and they love cows. Ben & Jerry's has used a sugar cookie dough core before with Sweet Like Sugar but other flavors were totally different (almond and cherry).  Let's see how this all blends together.

Removing the lid, I see the brown color of the chocolate base with some of the sugar cookie dough core visible on top.  I have discussed in the past about how Ben & Jerry's is delivers chocolate much better though their fudge chips and chunks than their chocolate ice cream base.  That is definitely the case here.  The fudge cows are great which a strong flavor but the chocolate base is just decent.  I encounter the toffee pieces next.  These are interesting.  I don't think I have seen another Ben & Jerry flavor with this type of toffee before.  They are tasty and crunchy but not in a jawbreaking way like in their signature imitation-heath-bar flavors (here and here).  They are almost chewy and crunchy at the same time.  The sugar cookie dough is gritty and chewy like it is in the Sweet Like Sugar flavor but it is interesting to see how it interacts with all the chocolate.  Sugar cookies do not have a very strong flavor themselves and blending but I am not used to them being mixed with chocolate.  Usually sugar cookies are served plain or with a decorative vanilla frosting.  It works though.  Next time I have sugar cookies, I might try adding chocolate frosting.

This is an interesting and eclectic limited batch flavor from Ben & Jerry's.  There's a lot of different things going on here, mixing sugar cookie dough and chocolate, a new chewy-crunchy toffee mix-in plus the old reliable fudge chips (in the shape of cows).  On the whole it is fairly good it can have a bit of a "kitchen sink" effect where there's so many ingredients that it is hard to enjoy each one individually.  But sometimes one in in the mood for that type of flavor.  I am looking forward to seeing if this toffee mix-ins returns in future flavors.

Sweet Science - Strawberry Malt

Strawberry Malt - Strawberry Mascarpone Ice Cream Swirled with Malt Ice Cream

Today is yet another new flavor from Sweet Science Ice Cream in Saint Paul.  I got this as part of a choose-your-own-four-pack curbside pick-up, but their scoop shop in the Keg & Case Market is now back open so you can now buy pints there.  The flavor is called Strawberry Malt.  It is two bases strawberry-mascarpone and malt swirled together.  This is the second strawberry flavor from the same four-pack from Sweet Science -- the other being the recently reviewed Strawberry Stracciatella.  This is a completely different flavor.  Instead of a strong-and-tart strawberry sauce in a vanilla base with chocolate chips.  The strawberry here is muted twice, once by mascarpone in its own base and then muted again by swirling it with a malt base.  Let's see how this tastes!

Removing the lid, I see the very light pink color of the strawberry-mascarpone base with a little bit of the yellowish-white color of the malt base.  Digging in, the strawberry is mild but delicious.  The blending with the mascarpone is done in such a way as to not give any specific cream cheese aftertaste.  I have never had a malt-only base before. Instead, I usually encounter flavored with are 'malted' -- that is, malted vanilla or malted chocolate.  When I try the malt base by itself, the malt flavor is fairly mild, but I do notice it if I focus.  When the two bases are in the same spoonful, it further mutes the strawberry as I described above.  As I step back and get an overall impression of the flavor mix, it does remind a lot of a strawberry shake that would get at a diner or ice cream parlor.  Not too intense on the strawberry or malt but very creamy and delicious.

I enjoyed this strawberry malt pint from Sweet Science.  It is delicious and pleasant and accurately recreates the flavor of a shake or malt which I might get at a neighborhood malt shop.  It doesn't really pack a powerful punch, so I might personally pick a strawberry flavor which is more intense (like the recent Strawberry Stracciatella), but this is still quite delicious and if a hard-ice-cream version of a strawberry malt is what you crave, this works well.

Tillamook - Authentic Sweet Cream

Authentic Sweet Cream - Sweet Cream Gelato

Today I return to Oregon's Tillamook Creamery for their implementation of a simple Sweet Cream flavor.  I got it at Kowalski's on Grand in Saint Paul.  This is my first review of a simple sweet cream flavor.  I have done several reviews of vanilla, but this is my first pint of sweet cream.   Sweet cream is even simpler than vanilla -- it's basically vanilla without the vanilla.  That means it's just just milk, cream, sugar and whatever else is used to help thicken it up (egg yolks, tapioca, gums, etc) to give it the expected texture when it is churned.  Why did I chose to review a sweet cream?  Well, this is the last flavor in their special batch pint collection which I have not yet tried.  I have very much enjoyed the Tillamook brand (especially when they don't layer their mix-ins) so I figured it was worth it to complete their menu.  One note on Tillamook, though, they have completely different flavors in their 1.75 quart size!  I want to try these, but that's too large of a size for me -- the equivalent of 3.5 pints.  But it does give me hope that they'll cycle these flavors into the pint collection at some point.  Who knows.  OK.  On to today's flavor!

Removing the lid, the foil has a nice message for me.  "Mine.  All mine."  Cute.  Peeling that back the base is very white.  Very, very white.  One of my pictures below is unfocused because my camera's autofocus had trouble with all the whiteness.  I take at least shots of every pose, too, figuring at least one of them will turn out, but they were all blurry.  Digging in, the sweet cream has an excellent creamy texture and a very milky flavor.  Very simple, but very well done.  I'll note the texture again because it is very well done.  Tillamook does a great job of being thick and dense but still very easy to spoon.

I enjoyed this pint of sweet cream.  It is a very simple flavor -- the simplest! -- but it is quite well done.  It might not be something that you would crave when you are eating a pint by itself out of the carton, but a flavor like this is a really good complement for a piece of cake or a slice of pie.  That completes my survey of the Tillamook pint line for now.  As I said before, I don't like they way they do layered pints (examples here and here) because the layers are tough and hard to mix into the base but the non-layered pints are usually very good.

Sweet Science - Rocky Road

Rocky Road - Chocolate Ice Cream with Marshmallows and Dark-Chocolate-Coated Toasted Almonds

Today we return to the Saint-Paul-based Sweet Science Ice Cream for their implementation of Rocky Road.  I bought this pint as part of a choose-your-own four-pack curbside pickup order outside of the Keg & Case Market in Saint Paul, but since then the market has re-opened and you can go inside and grab individual pints from the scoop shop.  Rocky Road is one of the oldest "complex" ice cream flavors, dating back to before World War II.  I wrote about the history of it in an earlier review.  It is chocolate ice cream with marshmallow and almond mix-ins.  I have had Rocky Road implementations from several brands, Häagen-Dazs, McConnell's, Jeni's, Baskin Robbins and Lapperts.   Here, it looks like they're coating the almonds with dark chocolate.  Let's see how that works out.

Removing the lid, I see the chocolate base, a few of the marshmallow mix-ins on one side and hints at a couple of the chocolate-covered almonds.  Digging in, the chocolate base is good -- I have had their milk chocolate base before.  I try the marshmallows and they are pretty good.  They are about the same size as the mini-marshmallows that you can buy at the grocery store, but these are step above those in quality.  Looking at the side of the container, it says they get their marshmallows from North Mallow -- looks like they got the vanilla flavored ones.  The other mix-ins are the dark-chocolate-coated almonds.  These are amazing.  They remind me of the almonds in one of the most famous Häagen-Dazs flavors -- Vanilla Swiss Almond.  It's a simple change and even in a base which is already chocolate, it super-charges the impact of the almonds.

This is an excellent implementation of a Rocky Road ice cream from Sweet Science.  Good chocolate and good marshmallows, but it the chocolate-coating on the almonds which lifts this into one of the better Rocky Road implementations that I have had.  Fans of this classic flavor should check it out if they are at Keg & Case and see it available.

Talenti - Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup - Mini Peanut Butter Cups Folded into Milk Chocolate Gelato with Swirls of Peanut Butter

Today I return to Talenti Gelato for their Chocolate Peanut Butter Cup flavor.  This is not a new flavor -- it dates all the way back to 2012 -- but it is new for me.  I found it at a local grocery store.  I can't remember which one unfortunately -- either Target or Lund's.  I like to mix up my brands so I'm happy to try this flavor from Talenti's menu.  It looks like a simple chocolate & peanut butter combination.  The base is chocolate and there are swirls of peanut butter as well as peanut butter cups.  Let's check it out.

Unscrewing the lid, the chocolate base as a caramel-like color.  Perhaps slightly lighter in color and most chocolate bases.  Digging in, I see why.  It seems like the swirls of peanut butter that are described on the side of the container have been fully blended into the base.  The flavor of the base is mostly chocolate, but you notice some notes of peanut butter in there if you focus.  Soon, I encounter the peanut butter cups.  They are a little on the small side -- I took an extra picture of one below.  Small peanut butter cups are the most efficient way to deliver peanut butter because chocolate coating ends up being significant percentage of the volume of it.  Still, I do get a little jolt of peanut butter when I bit into them.

This is a decent flavor from Talenti.  It tasted quite good, but there was not as much peanut butter as I was expecting.  I like I need more intense peanut butter mix-ins when there is a chocolate base.  These chocolate-heavy peanut butter cups work better with a peanut butter base.  It's still good, but for chocolate & peanut butter combination from Talenti, I prefer their gelato layers flavor Peanut Butter Vanilla Fudge.

Lick - Lady Bird Lavender Crisp

Lady Bird Lavender Crisp - Lavender Ice Cream with Cinnamon Brown Sugar Crisp

Today I return to the Austin-based Lick Honest Ice Cream for the sixth and final pint from my online order which was shipped to my house.  This flavor is called Lady Bird Lavender Crisp.  This was one of their spring flavors (they have since switched their seasonal offerings to summer flavors).  A note to local readers that this flavor in not available in local Twin Cities grocery stores.  The Lady Bird in the name comes from the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin.  The side of the carton mentions that the lavender used here is from the Texas Hill Country just to the west and southwest of Austin -- perhaps from a place like the Hill Country Lavender Farm in Blanco, but that's just an educated guess of mine that I got from doing an internet search for lavender from the Hill Country.  Mixed in with the lavender is a cinnamon and brown sugar crisp.  Sounds interesting!

Removing the lid, the base ice cream is an off-white color and I see quite a few pieces of the crisp already.  Digging in, I taste the crisp first.  It is very delicious.  The lavender flavor is quite mild, I might not notice it if I was not looking for it.  I taste it more in the 'finish' (aftertaste) rather than as a direct flavor.  Eating further down the pint, I keep enjoying the crisp.  After a while, the slighter-faster-than normal melting of the Lick brand bases starts to give me a bit of a cereal-milk vibe.  That's not a complaint, I actually like that.

This is a delicious pint from Lick Honest Ice Cream.  It is more crisp than lavender, so people looking specifically for the lavender might be a little disappointed, but it's a good crisp and I thought it was delicious.  This completes my six-pint shipment from Lick.  Overall it is a decent brand.  It's a bit on the milky side rather than rich in butterfat.  Perhaps a milkier ice cream is more refreshing in the hot summers of Texas?  I will keep my eye on Lick's website.  If the flavors are interesting enough, I may order from them again.

Sweet Science - Strawberry Stracciatella

Strawberry Stracciatella - Vanilla Ice Cream with Organic Strawberry Sauce with Dark and Milk Chocolate

Sweet Science of Saint Paul has still more flavors!  I was able to find three new flavors on their order menu, so I ordered another four-pack for curbside pick-up.  (My fourth pint was Berry Crumble which I gave to my uncle).  I am now reading that the Keg & Case scoop shop is re-opening on June 19th.  That should make it easier for me to grab the latest pints.  Today's flavor is called Strawberry Stracciatella.  I have discussed what stracciatella means in previous reviews (here and here).  It is a way of making shred-like chocolate chips.  The base ice cream here is actually vanilla and the strawberry is delivered with a sauce.  Checking my review archive, I was surprised to find that I have only had simple strawberry-and-chocolate combinations a few times.  From Ample Hills, their Be Mine flavor had chocolate flakes in strawberry ice cream.  For pints more similar to this one where the base was neutral and strawberries and chocolate were included as mix-ins, I found McConnell's Chocolate Covered Strawberries (sweet cream base and strawberry pieces) and Tillamook's Chocolate Covered Strawberry (mascarpone base and layered mix-ins including strawberry sauce).  Let's see how this compares!

Removing the lid, I see a light colored vanilla base with lots of small mix-ins.  There are a lot of dark-brown chocolate pieces as well as some wine-colored marbling of the strawberry sauce.  Digging my spoon in reveals more distinct swirls of the strawberry sauce.  The strawberry swirl has variable density throughout the pint.  I took an extra picture below to show different views.  Digging my spoon in, the strawberry sauce is noticeably tart, yet still quite delicious.  The chocolate stracciatella shows up as variable-sized flakes.  I have to double check to see if there are two different chocolates here.  There are some dark chocolate pieces which have a little bit sharper flavor and I guess they decided that they did not what all of the pieces to be that sharp.  It works.

This is a delicious mixture of chocolate and strawberry mix-ins from Sweet Science.  It is a tart-strawberry and not a sweet-strawberry so you should be prepared for that, but given that expectation, it is quite delicious.  I liked this pint better than both the McConnell's and Tillamook implementations linked above.  McConnell's has sweeter strawberries but as they are pieces they can be frozen so it creates an odd texture while the main issue with Tillamook is the way they do their layered flavors.  The layers are too tough and it is hard to mix up with the spoon as you eat it.  Sweet Science seems like the best combination -- a good swirling of strawberry sauce and chocolate flakes.  Just be aware of the tartness.

Lick - Caramelized Banana & Bourbon

Caramelized Banana & Bourbon - Banana Bourbon Ice Cream with Ripe Bananas Caramelized in Brown Sugar and Butter

Today I return to my recent six-pint shipment from Lick Honest Ice Creams in Austin, Texas.  This is the five-pint which is called Caramelized Banana & Bourbon which is one of their spring flavors for 2020 (as I write this, they have since switched to summer flavors).  A note to local readers that this pint is not available in Twin Cities grocery stores.  I could not find this exact flavor combination in my archives.  It appears like a twist on either banana-caramel combination or a bananas foster implementation.  Here the bananas themselves are caramelized in brown sugar instead of having an explicit caramel swirl and it's not quite bananas foster because they use bourbon instead of rum and there is no spice.  Let's see how this tastes!

Popping off the top, I see a light-beige-colored with a smattering of the caramelized banana mix-ins.  Digging in, the banana base has good flavor.  The caramelized banana mix-ins have a very strong flavor.  The side of the carton refers to these as 'ripe' bananas and that is indeed the case.  These are those dark-brown bits of ripe banana which have strong flavor but are too soft and mushy to eat plain.  But when these are caramelized with brown sugar and butter and immersed in ice cream, it works!

This is an interesting and delicious pint from Lick Honest Ice Creams.  It's a bit different from the other banana ice creams that I have had.  I get the intense flavor of an over-ripe banana but made very palatable by the brown sugar and bourbon.  If you are a banana lover and have access to this flavor, you should check it out.

Sweet Science - Almond Toffee Ganache

Almond Toffee Ganache - Light Caramel Ice Cream with Almond Toffee and Chewy Creamy Chocolate Ganache

Another new flavor from Sweet Science!  They've been creative during this pandemic lockdown.  I picked up this pint as part of a four-pack which I got curbside pickup outside of the Keg & Case Market in Saint Paul.  Today's flavor is called Almond Toffee Ganache.  It reminds me of a flavor from my previous pickup called Cherry Almond Ganache which I did like.  Let's dig in.

After removing the lid, I see that the base ice cream has a light beige color to it.  The side of the carton labels this as a light caramel and this is indeed lighter than their Salted Caramel flavor.  Both types of mix-ins are visible right away.  The toffee pieces have a tan color which is noticeably darker than that light caramel base and I see pieces of ganache similar to those that are in the Cherry Almond Ganache pint.  There I wrote that I had never seen solid chunks of ganache which you could chew on -- it usually has a thick sauce-like textures -- but that I liked it and it tastes very good!  Digging in, the light caramel base is indeed lighter.  That's not unexpected though because their Salted Caramel flavor is quite strong and salter.  This is a milder flavor which allows more focus on the mix-ins.  The toffee is quite interesting.  It is a bit crunchy, but not in a jaw-breaking way like some toffees.  It broke apart pretty easily when I chewed on it.  I had a decent nutty flavor to it, but not super strong like a marzepan.  I liked it.  It went well with the light caramel base.  The ganache was excellent again like last time.  There was noticeably less of it than in the previous pint, but the amount here is a good balance.  Here the ganache complements the almond toffee and caramel and does not dominate the pint.

I enjoyed this pint from Sweet Science.  It's is a pretty good toffee and caramel pint with some of this tasty chewy ganache.  Checking my review archive, I see a couple of toffee and chocolate combinations that don't include coffee or other ingredients.  Graeter's Toffee Chocolate Chip contains Heath Bar pieces (a harder toffee) and Graeters' distinctive chocolate chips (which are chewy and can be large).  The closest match that I can find appears to be a limited-batch Phish-themed pint from Ben & Jerry's called It's...Ice Cream.  Very close!  Malted caramel instead of light caramel and fudge fish instead of chewy ganache.  If this flavor combination sounds interesting and you encounter this Sweet Science flavor as things open up later this summer, check it out.

Lick - Tres Leches

Tres Leches - Dulce de Leche Ice Cream with Sponge Cake Pieces soaked in Three Milks (Evaporated Milk, Sweetened Condensed Milk and Cream)

Today if the fourth pint from my recent six-pint shipment from the Austin-based Lick Honest Ice Cream.  This flavor is called Tres Leches after the popular cake made with 'three milks': evaporated milk, sweetened condensed milk and cream.  It was a seasonal flavor for the spring.  A note to local readers that this is not available in Twin Cities grocery stores.  I have had Tres Leches flavors twice before -- both from Häagen-Dazs,  The first was an old retired Artisan-line flavor Tres Leches Brigadeiro which added the Brazilian brigadeiro dessert as a mix-in and the current Spirits-line Rum Tres Leches flavor which includes rum into the mix.  The twist here from Lick is the use of a dulce de leche (caramelized milk) base for the soaked-cake mix-ins.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, I see that the base has an off-white color and a few cake pieces are visible right away.  Digging in, the dulce de leche in the base has a fairly mild flavor.  I think this is one of those bases that serves primarily as the vehicle for the mix-ins.  They both contain the word 'leche' -- it does make some sense that a caramelized milk could serve as the base for cake pieces dipped in three milks.  Continuing to eat, the cake pieces are soft and sweet.  I can taste the tres leches effect.  It creates a soft, moist cache that melts in your mouth as you eat it. 

This is a solid pint from Lick Honest Ice Creams.  The soaked sponge-cake mix-ins are soft, moist and sweet.  The flavor of tres leches is basically 'sweet and milky' which is sort of just the flavor of ice cream itself.  So the flavor was a lot simpler than I anticipated.  I can see why Häagen-Dazs added extra things in both of their implemenations.  Often, simple flavors are good, though and there certainly is a place for a straight tres leches implementation out there.  If this is one of your favorite desserts and you are in the Austin/San Antonion area check this one out.