Bebe Zito - Dad's Coffee

Dad's Coffee - Coffee Ice Cream with Bourbon and Chocolate Chips

 

Today's flavor comes from the Bebe Zito scoop shop on 22nd and Lyndale in South Minneapolis.  This one is called Dad's Coffee and it is a coffee ice cream with bourbon and chocolate chips.  It looks like a coffee chocolate chip flavor with the addition of bourbon being a bit of a twist.  Let's see how this turns out.

Removing the lid, I see a lot of chocolate chips right away sprinkled on top.  Bebe Zito likes to add extra mix-ins across the top for you to see right when you open the pint.  These looks like miniature chips that you can buy in the store.  Digging in, coffee base is delicious.  It is creamy and has a good coffee flavor which is not too strong and not too bitter.  Underneath, I can taste a touch of bourbon.  I taste it mostly in 'finish' meaning that it changes the aftertaste a little.  It's a nice effect which I like.  I do notice that there are not many chocolate chips underneath.  It seems like the chocolate is mainly just a garnish for the top of the pint.

This is a well-done implementation of a coffee ice cream which has a twist of bourbon.  Neither the coffee nor the bourbon is very strong, but together they make a pleasant blend.  This is a simpler flavor than the description implies in that the chocolate chips are rare -- they act almost like a topping here.  That's fine, but just to let you know what to expect.  Expect mostly base ice cream here.

Sebastian Joe's - Chocolate Cinnamon Pretzel

 

Chocolate Cinnamon Pretzel - Cinnamon Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Pretzel Pieces

Today's flavor comes from the Sebastian Joe's scoop shop in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis.  This flavor is called Chocolate Cinnamon Pretzel.  The flavor is self explanatory.  It is a relatively unique combination of flavors.  There are lots of chocolate-cinnamon flavors (sometimes called Mexican Chocolate) and lots of chocolate pretzel flavors, but I believe this is the first pint I have had which contains all three.

Removing the lid, I see the cinnamon chocolate base has a deep brown color.  I can see at least one of the pretzel mix-ins as well.  Digging in, the chocolate flavor is quite good and I notice the notes of cinnamon in the mix right away.  The mix is good.  It is more of a sweet cinnamon than a hot cinnamon.  Scattered throughout the pint are little chocolate coated pretzel balls.  There is not a whole lot of them, but they provide quite a bit of crunch when you do encounter one in your spoonful.

This is a fun flavor from Sebastian Joe's.  It's basically a Mexican chocolate implementation with pretzel balls mixed in.  The pretzel balls played more of a supporting role in this ensemble.  If you like a non-hot cinnamon-chocolate blend and you see this in the scooping bin, then give it a try.  The pretzels are a bonus.

Sweet Science - Raspberry Cheesecake

Raspberry Cheesecake - Cream Cheese Ice Cream with Raspberry Sauce and Graham Cracker Clusters

 

Saint Paul's Sweet Science has been releasing new flavors every week or two for most of the fall.  Their latest flavor is called Raspberry Cheesecake (instagram link here).  It's a cream cheese ice cream with a swirl of raspberry sauce and graham cracker clusters as a mix-in.  I bought this at the scoop shop in the Keg & Case Market in the West 7th Neighborhood of Saint Paul.  Checking my archives, this is surprisingly my first raspberry cheesecake flavor.  I know Talenti has a Raspberry Cheesecake flavor, but I have not had it yet.  Most of the reason for me writing this blog is to keep track of what I have already eaten.  I will have to remedy that Talenti omission soon.  I have had a few other berry cheesecakes, though.  I have had three strawberry cheesecakes (Ben & Jerry's, Coolhaus, Graeter's), one blueberry (Izzy's) and one Marionberry (Tillamook).  Let's see how raspberry works out!

Taking off the lid, there is a lot to see on the top.  I see quite a few graham cracker clusters right away as well as quite a bit of the raspberry sauce.  Digging in, the raspberry swirl is delicious.  It's very flavorful and a good balance of sweet and tart.  The cream cheese base does a very good job of balancing the flavor of the raspberry.  It does not have a very strong flavor by itself -- no cream cheese aftertaste.  I can just tell that it is not vanilla.  The graham cracker clusters are amazing!  There are a lot of them, some large, some small.  It's amazing how a variable size can make a mix-in more memorable because I am never quite sure how much I'm going to get in each spoonful.

This is a top-flight berry cheesecake flavor from Sweet Science.  I feel like I'm really getting my money's worth when I have a pint like this.  The raspberry and the cream cheese were both quite good, but my favorite part of the pint was these graham cracker clusters.  Yum.

 

OddFellows - Budget Breakfast

 

Budget Breakfast - Honey Ice Cream with Chunks of Homemade Honey Bun Cake and Coffee Soil

Today is the last of the six "Bodega Capsule" flavors which I ordered from OddFellows Ice Cream in Brooklyn.  See the first review in the series for more on this shipment.  A note to local readers that this flavor is not available in Twin Cities grocery stores.  The flavor is called Budget Breakfast and it is a honey ice cream with honeybun cake and coffee soil.  I did not immediately recognize what a 'honey bun', but once I found the wikipedia page I knew that I had seen it many times before.  It's those pre-packaged cinnamon buns that are sold in convenience stores (and bodegas) everywhere.  Hostess even makes a version of these, so the last review from this shipment was a cupcake flavor and today's review is a honeybun flavor.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, I see a lot of the 'coffee soil' right away.  I was not sure what that term was supposed to mean, but one look at the top of the pint and I got it.  It almost looks like someone spilled coffee grounds on top -- and spilled a little bit of coffee on there too.  I'm not sure if it actually is the grounds, but it's probably coffee flavored powder of some kind.  Digging in, I do taste this coffee right away and then the honeybun pieces.  It's like it turns the honeybun cake into coffee cake.  The honey ice cream beneath these mix-ins is quite good.  I like honey ice cream.  It has a very nice agreeable sweetness to it.  It works well with the mix-ins here too.

I enjoyed this pint from OddFellows.  Honey, honeybuns and coffee make a delicious combination.  This wraps up this Bodega Capsule shipment.  Overall, I liked the shipment.  With the bodega theme and Desus & Mero promoting it, I expected these to be very bold and over-the-top flavors but the implementations turned out to be very nuanced and almost understated in a couple of instances.  I will always remember this collection as containing my first meat-containing flavor in baconeggncheese, but my favorite flavor was actually Chico Stix -- peanut butter and coconut go well together.  The shipping was a bit expensive going all the way to Minnesota, but if you're closer to New York, this brand is worth checking out.

Milkjam Creamery - Poison Apple

Poison Apple - Caramel Apple Sorbet

 

Today is the day for the fourth and final Halloween flavor from Milkjam Creamery.  The previous three flavors were Fun Sized, It Shall Not Be Named... and Death By Chocula.  Today's flavor is called Poison Apple (instagram link here) and it is a caramel apple sorbet.  An apple sorbet is a good fall flavor which I have seen once before with Ample Hills' Autumn in New York flavor.  Caramel is a good pairing with apple.  Although I have seen this in a few apple ice cream flavors (e.g. Talenti and Sweet Science), I have not yet seen caramel added to a sorbet.  Let's check this out.

Removing the lid, the apple sorbet has a light yellowish-white color which is consistent with the flesh of an apple.  I can see some hints of caramel underneath the surface.  Digging in, the sorbet is quite dense with a thick texture of churned ice typical of a fruit sorbet.  The flavor is amazing!  This has very bright and sweet apple flavor which is really good.  I caught a little bit of caramel in the first scoop as well and that definitely enhances the apple flavor quite a bit.  The caramel is half-blended into the sorbet so it provides a complement to the apple rather than existing as its own thick swirl.  This is really good stuff.  One thing, though, about halfway down I started to get overwhelmed a bit by it all.  I actually could not finish it in one sitting -- a problem I almost never have!  I do remember having this issue with the Autumn in New York flavor I mentioned above so perhaps this is just an issue with me and apple sorbets.

This is an excellent caramel apple sorbet from Milkjam Creamery.  The flavor is super-delicious, but as mentioned above perhaps best enjoyed in smaller doses.  Nothing wrong with multiple servings though.  Enjoying it a scoop at a time means there will be more for later.  The caramel swirl worked really well.  I wonder if that would work well with other sorbets (coconut? chocolate?).  It is past October as I write this (sorry about the time lag) but it's possible they still have some in their freezer case.  Otherwise, it will probably return next year.  Enjoy.

OddFellows - Host of Cupcakes

Host of Cupcakes - Chocolate-Infused Sweet Cream Base with Chunks of Homemade Chocolate Cake and a Liquid-Nitrogen Frozen Whipped Cream

 

Today is the fifth flavor in my recent six-pint "Bodega Capsule" shipment from OddFellow's Ice Cream in Brooklyn.  See my first review in this shipment for more details on this collection of flavors.  A note to local readers that I bought these pints online and they are not available in local grocery stores.  Today's flavor is called Host of Cupcakes which is a pun on "Hostess CupCake" which is often found being sold in a bodega.  The base is a chocolate-infused sweet cream and the mix-ins are chocolate cake pieces and liquid-nitrogen frozen whipped cream.  I am curious as to what makes "chocolate-infused sweet cream" different from simply "chocolate" and I am also curious about the liquid-nitrogen frozen whipped cream.  I have had a cupcake-themed flavor before from Coolhaus, but that was a white-cake cupcake and this flavor is chocolate.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, the base ice cream has a light brown color -- lighter than the usual chocolate color.  Digging in, I can taste the chocolate for sure, but I can tell what they mean by "chocolate-inflused sweet cream".  It reminds me a bit of the 'chocolate cookie milk' bases that I see occasionally (for example see this Coolhaus pint).  I suppose this is probably 'chocolate cupcake milk'.  Perhaps they soaked the cream in cupcake pieces for a while and then strained them out before chilling and churning?  Anyhow, although it is mild by design, it is still quite delicious.  Soon, I encounter the mix-ins.  The cupcake pieces are quite small -- they are a bit hard to see in my photos below -- but they are soft and chocolatey when I do bit into one.  The whipped cream sections are interesting.  They are small and taste like whipped cream (probably because they are!).  They are not super-cold or anything so I suspect the deal with the liquid nitrogen was a way to fold them into the base without mixing them into the base.  It worked!  There are small pockets of whipped cream which are not blended into the base.

This is a fun and interesting Hostess CupCake-themed pint from OddFellows Ice Cream.  It is a bit more subtle and nuanced than I expected -- mild chocolate-infused base which small tastefully added mix-ins -- but still quite tasty.

 

 

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - It Shall Not Be Named...

It Shall Not Be Named... - Butterbeer Ice Cream (Butterscotch with hints of Vanilla and Rum)

 

The next of Milkjam Creamery's Halloween flavors for the month of October is called "It Shall Not be Named..." (instagram link here). I got it at their scoop shop on Lyndale in South Minneapolis.  Fans of Harry Potter will recognize "it shall not be named" as a Voldemort reference, but this flavor is actually based on "butterbeer" which is a fun beverage that the students would indulge in on their fun-filled trips to Hogsmeade.  I guess Milkjam had to make the flavor name scary because of Halloween.  Anyhow, butterbeer is a butterscotch-based beverage which sometimes also contains a hint of alcohol (and sometimes not).  This ice cream is a butterscotch flavor with hints of vanilla and rum.  I have only had a butterscotch base twice -- and only from California brands Three Twins and Nancy's Fancy which I do not have access to anymore.  I have had a few others which include butterscotch sauce or candies as mix-ins.  I'm looking forward to checking this out.

Removing the lid, the butterscotch base look thick and has the color of a light brown sugar.  Digging in, this does have a delicious butterscotch flavor to it.  The hint of rum was just that.  I noticed a little bit in the 'finish' -- it replaces the typical aftertaste that you get from eating butterscotch.  The combination works quite well.

This is a simple and successful butterscotch pint from Milkjam Creamery.  The hint of rum is a little noticeable, but it is by no means a boozy pint.  I would have no qualms giving a scoop of this to a child (provided they like butterscotch).  Check it out if you like butterscotch.  Also, other than the flavor name, this does not have to be a Halloween flavor.  I could definitely see this returning at other times in the year if there's room in the scooping bin for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OddFellows - Chico Stix

Chico Stix - Peanut Butter Ice Cream with a Shaved Coconut Candy Crunch

 Today brings the fourth pint from my recent "Bodega Capsule" shipment from OddFellows Ice Cream in Brooklyn.  See my first review in this series for more info about this shipment.  A note to Twin Cities readers that I bought this online and it is not available in local stores.  Today's flavor is called Chico Stix and it is a peanut butter ice cream with coconut candy mix-ins.  This flavor is based on the Chick-O-Stick candy which is a peanut butter and toasted coconut candy which has been around since the 1950s.  I must admit that I had not heard of this candy!  I did not even know about this flavor combination before but a check of google online shows quite a few recipes for cookies, balls, bars, etc.  It should be fun to see if this makes a good ice cream.

Removing the lid, I see a lighter than usual color for a peanut butter base.  I'm not sure if I see any mix-ins yet.  Maybe one in the four-o-clock position of the photo below, but I'm not sure.  Digging in, it is a mildly sweet peanut butter base.  It is tasty, but with not as rich or heavy as some peanut butter bases can be.  I quickly encounter the coconut candies.  These are light in color and do not stick out visually in the base, but they are crunchy and provide quite a bit of coconut flavor.  A little bit of coconut goes a long way.  The resulting peanut butter and coconut mix is quite good!

I was pleasantly surprised by this peanut butter and coconut flavor from OddFellows.  It is a fairly simple implementation, but quite successful.  I may have to track down one of these Chick-O-Stick candies the next time I visit New York.  Until then, maybe I will try one of those recipes I linked to above.  More brands should try to combine these flavors.

 

Bebe Zito - Lemon Party

Lemon Party - Lemon Buttermilk Ice Cream with Spiced Streusel and Spiced Blueberry Jam

 

Today's flavor is from the Minneapolis-based Bebe Zito and is called Lemon Party.  I picked it up from their scoop shop in the Wedge/Lowry Hill neighborhood of south Minneapolis.  This particular flavor is not on their current scooping list, but I found a pint of it in their freezer case.  I imagine this flavor will cycle back into the scooping bins at some point.  This is a lemon buttermilk ice cream with spiced blueberry jam and some spiced streusel.  Sounds like a good combination of flavors!

Removing the lid, I see a lot of crumble!  Bebe Zito likes to sprinkle mix-ins across the top of the pint before putting the lid on and that has definitely happened here.  Digging in, I get a lot of flavor all at once.  I do taste the lemon right away despite all the mix-ins.  It is a good lemon flavor.  I think the buttermilk is used just to help blend the lemon into the ice cream and does not provide any of its own flavor -- it is not a sour pint.  The blueberry jam is delicious.  I was surprised to note that the jam is spiced a bit.  I checked the ingredient list and note that there is coriander and cardamom mixed into the jam.  This is a nice effect and reminds me a bit of the jam used in Jeni's Claire's Cabinet flavor.  I still primarily taste the blueberry, but there's subtle and spicy 'finish'.  Good stuff.  The crumble provides a bit of grit to the pint and I note spiciness in there was well.  Checking the ingredient list, it says they use a five-spice powder.  It's not super-spicy, but I can definitely taste the cinnamon and nutmeg in the mix.  

This is a delicious pint from Bebe Zito.  This is not simple a lemon berry or a lemon pie pint as they a tasteful amount of spice to both the jam and the crumble.  Lots of flavor in here without overwhelming the lemon either.  This flavor is a winner and I highly recommend it.

 

 

 

 

 

OddFellows - Sweet Tea & Lemonade

Sweet Tea & Lemonade - Sweet Tea Sorbet and Fresh-Squeezed Lemonade Sorbet

 

The third pint from my recent six-pint "Bodega Capsule" shipment from OddFellow's Ice Cream is called Sweet Tea & Lemonade.  For more information on this shipment, see my first review in the series.  Also, a note to local readers that I bought these pints online and had them shipped to me.  They are not available in Minnesota grocery stores.  Today's flavor is a sorbet -- or really I suppose it is two sorbets mixed together:  Sweet Tea and Lemonade.  I have had a few lemon sorbets (alone here and swirled with raspberry sorbet here) but this is my first sweet tea sorbet.  As its name suggests, sweet tea is a form of ice tea which has some sort of sweetener added (sugar, simple syrup, etc).  Let's check this out.

Removing the lid, the top of the pint has a blurry brown color to it.  It looks like the tea and lemon sorbets may be partially mixed.  As I dig down with my spoon, I notice that the blurry color is only on the top surface.  Below, I see two distinct sorbet sections marbled together.  The sweet tea sorbet is quite good.  It does taste like sweet tea and is quite sweet.  The lemonade sections have good lemon flavor with only a hint of tartness.  It goes quite well with the sweet tea.  I think some of the sweetness from the tea sections might be offsetting the tartness of the lemon sections but I imagine that's the point of this combination.  The flavors hold up as I continue eating.  One thing I notice is that my spoon is getting quite sticky from the sweet tea sections.  At the end of the pint, my fingers have actually gotten sticky from holding the spoon.  I had to wash my hands when I was done.  I have never had that happen before.  Still, there was enough lemonade in the mix that flavor was still appealing right until the end.  I was able to easily eat the whole pint in one sititng.

This is a fun and enjoyable sweet tea sorbet from OddFellows.  The lemonade did a good job of keeping it from being too sweet.  It is a sorbet and not an ice cream, so be prepared for that, but this is a good flavor for fans of sweet tea.

 

 

 

Talenti - Dark Chocolate

Dark Chocolate - Dark Chocolate Sorbet with Dark Chocolate Sauce

Today's flavor is a relatively new flavor released earlier in 2020 from Talenti Gelato.  It is a sorbetto called Dark Chocolate.  I am surprised that they had not released a dark chocolate sorbet before this year.  Often sorbets are associated with fruit flavors, but a few flavors like peanut butter, coconut and dark chocolate make for very good sorbets because their flavors supply their own 'butter' or oils which help add a creaminess to the texture with the use of dairy.  Here, Talenti adds a swirl of dark chocolate into the mix as well.  I bought this at a local grocery store (probably Target or Lund's).  Keep in mind that this pint is different than their Double Dark Chocolate flavor.  Double Dark Chocolate is a gelato that uses dairy also has chocolate chip mix-ins.  Today's flavor is a non-dairy sorbet with a swirl of chocolate sauce swirl.

Unscrewing the lid, I see the deep brown color of the chocolate sorbet with a couple of the dark brown swirls of chocolate sauce visible on the top.  I have seen darker colored chocolate bases, but it is still fairly dark.  Digging in, the sorbet does have a creamy texture and not at all icy or slushy -- Talenti does texture well.  The dark chocolate flavor is quite good and tasty.  The swirl of sauce is half blended into the sorbet base.  Instead of creating sections of different texture, it creates darker colored sections in the base which have a more biting chocolate flavor.  This biting flavor reminded me a bit of chocolate syrup that I used to use when I was a kid.  

This is an excellent chocolate sorbet from Talenti.  It has a good chocolate flavor with a good bite to it and it has a creamy texture.  The sauce creates sections which have a more biting flavor to it than the rest of the base, but it's half blended in, so it does not create a different texture.  So, you like to use ice cream as an ingredient in other things (shakes, as a coffee additive, etc), don't worry about the sauce.  I really liked this flavor.  For the mid-premium price, it's hard to beat this implementation.

 

 

OddFellows - baconeggncheese

baconeggncheese - Smoked Cream Ice Cream with Candied Bacon, Whipped Cheese Cream and Candied Egg Yolks

 

Today is the second pint from my recent "Bodega Capsule" shipment from OddFellows Ice Cream in Brooklyn.  (A quick note to local readers that this flavor is not available in Minnesota grocery stores).  For my first review from this shipment, I chose Bodega Counter Crunch (see for more background info on this collection) because it had "bodega" in the flavor name, but today's flavor, 'baconeggncheese' is arguably the headline flavor from the collection.  This is the one with bacon and it is also the flavor that Desus & Nero had Stephen Colbert try on the Late Show.  Not only is this my first pint which includes bacon, this is my first pint which includes any type of meat product.  How do you convert bacon, egg and cheese into an ice cream?  Let's find out!

Removing the lid, the off-white base ice cream contains bacon bits right on top as well yellow sections which look like bits of egg yolk.  It really does look like bacon and eggs are blended into ice cream.  Digging in, the first thing I notice about the bacon bits is that they are salty.  They are crunchy and provide a bacon flavor --  not the bacon I usually have with breakfast, but the bacon bits I would add to salad.  Next I notice the 'egg' sections.  These are surprisingly sweet!  It tastes like small pockets of custard in the mix.  I guess that is basically what custard is -- a frozen dessert made with lots of eggs.  I have seen this effect with egg-nog-themed ice creams as well.  I am at first apprehensive about what egg nog in ice cream would taste like and end up pleasantly surprised because it tastes like custard.  The 'cheese' in the mix is not quite as distinct.  I think it got blended into the base.  It is a good base consistent which containing a cream-cheese-like ingredient (rich, creamy and no vanilla).

This is a fun and interesting flavor from OddFellows.  The salty and savory bacon bits go well with the sweet and custardy egg sections and the whipped cheese ice cream does a good job of holding it all together.  It is a bit saltier than I expected, so be prepared for that, but that is not a deal breaker for me.  This flavor is definitely worth trying out if you live in an area that sells OddFellows.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Fun-Sized

Fun-Sized - Sea Salt Ice Cream with Halloween Candies

Milkjam Creamery has four flavors for this Halloween season.  One of them is Death by Chocula I reviewed last winter (out of season) and the other three are called "Fun-Sized", "Poison Apple" and "It Shall Not be Named...".  I picked up those three and took them home.  The first of pints is called Fun-Sized (instagram link here) and is basically a flavor where assorted Halloween candies are the mix-ins inside a simple base.  I have seen this once before from Izzy's with their Trick or Treat flavor.  Let's see how Milkjam compares.

Removing the lid shows lots of mini M&M's on the top.  They are very colorful.  I like the way the candy coating has bleed a little into the base.  Digging in, the M&M's are very good.  The base ice cream is a sea salt sweet cream which has a good texture and does a very good job of holding all the mix-ins below.  I did not specifically notice the salt, but it's effect must be subtle.  As I continue eating my way down, I run into other types of candy.  There are some chunks of chocolate which are good.  I notice some chocolate-covered caramels which remind me of Rolo's but they are the wrong shape.  These are shorter and more lozenge-shaped and are excellent.

I enjoyed this Halloween-candy-themed ice cream from Milkjam Creamery.  My batch was mainly mini-M&M's and little chocolate caramels, but I imagine this would vary from batch to batch.  Check it out if you are in the mood for Halloween candy this holiday.