Van Leeuwen - Praline Butter Cake

Praline Butter Cake - Sweet Cream Ice Cream with Praline Pecans and Brown Butter Cake Pieces

 

Today is another flavor from the Brooklyn-based Van Leeuwen brand.  They are carried locally at Kowalski's Markets.  This year, Kowaski's has rotated which flavors from this brand that they carry which gives me some ice cream to try.  Today's point is called Praline Butter Cake.  It has a plain sweet cream base with praline pecan and brown butter cake mix-ins.  That is an interesting combination of mix-ins.  I have had many flavors with praline pecans and a handful of flavors with butter cake, but I would not have thought to combine those two.  Plus, this is a brown butter cake.  Brown butter is butter which has been heated up to caramelize and concentrate it a bit.  I have had a couple of brown butter pecan pints from Graeter's and Sweet Science, but in today's pint the brown butter is in a cake and the pecans are praline coated.  This should be itneresting.

Removing the lid, the sweet cream base had a creamy off-white color to it and several of the mix-ins are visible right away on top.  Normally, I do think of sweet cream as being extra white, but Van Leeuwen makes "French-style" ice cream which mean that they use twice as many egg yolks.  Digging in, the ice cream is thick and the extra eggs make it creamier -- almost like a custard.  I quickly encounter all the mix-ins.  The praline pecan pieces are the size of crushed pecans (i.e. not full-sized).  They taste quite good.  The butter cake pieces are also small in size but are large enough that you notice the chewy texture.  The texture reminded me a little bit of cookie dough because it is a dense cake.  The flavor of the cake pieces is not as noticeable as the praline pecan pieces but I can tell there some caramelized flavor in there if I focus in on them.  The main thing I notice is the texture which keeps me guessing as I eat my way down the pint.  That is, some mix-ins are crunchy and some are chewy and I am never sure which one I am going to get.

This is an interesting and unique flavor from Van Leeuwen.  I would never have thought to mix butter cake and praline pecans.  It is not too exciting, but it works.  This may appeal to pralines and cream fans looking for a twist on their favorite flavor.

Tillamook Creamery - Salted Caramel

Salted Caramel - Caramel Frozen Custard with Salted Caramel Swirls

 

Today's flavor is from Oregon's Tillamook Creamery and it is called Salted Caramel.  I bought it at Kowalski's on Grand in Saint Paul, but Tillamook pints are also sold at Target now.  I had to double-check my archives to see if I had done a salted caramel flavor from Tillamook before.  It turns out that they used to have a Salted Caramel Toffee flavor which had a salted caramel base and a hard layer of toffee across the top.  Today's flavor does not have the toffee layer on top, but instead has swirls of salted caramel.  I think this is probably going to be an improvement as I did not care for how Tillamook did their layering.  Their layers tended to be too hard and tough and it was hard to integrate it into the rest of the pint.  Let's check this out.

Removing the lid, I see the caramel base has a very light color -- and some evidence of the swirls is visible on top.  The swirls are more pronounced down below.  The caramel custard base is mildly flavored but tastes pretty good.  The light color and mild flavor tells me that the base here is serving just as a vehicle for the swirls.  The swirls are thick and syrupy and have a strong caramel flavor with a bit of a kick of salt to them.  They are quite delicious.

This is a very well done implementation of a salted caramel flavor where the flavor is primarily delivered in a swirl instead of the base.  I just had another flavor like this from the Cheesecake Factory brand.  This flavor is simpler in that it is all caramel (no cream cheese or graham cracker).  If you are looking for a solid homogenous caramel base, check out Coolhaus or if you like extra salty then Sweet Science.  For the caramel swirl, today's flavor is one of the better options but I also like Sweet Science.

Pumphouse Creamery - Chocolate, Coffee, Roasted Almonds, Cocoa Nibs

Chocolate, Coffee, Roasted Almonds, Cocoa Nibs - Mocha Ice Cream with Roasted Almonds and Cocoa Nibs

Spring is rhubarb season at Pumphouse Creamery in Minneapolis.  I would be remiss if I did not recommend their signature Fresh Rhubarb flavor which is only available through the end of June.  Today's review is not for that flavor though, it is for their new Chocolate, Coffee, Roasted Almonds, Cocoa Nibs flavor.  That is one of those flavor names which basically describes itself.  A mocha (chocolate-coffee) base with roasted almond and cocoa nib mix-ins.  Sounds interesting.

Removing the lid, I see the base has a deep brown color.  It looks like chocolate.  Digging in, chocolate is the dominant flavor but if I focus I can tell there is a bit of the bite of coffee flavor in the mix.  As I spoon my way further down, I encounter the mix-ins.  The almonds pieces are fairly small in size, but still large enough to provide some crunch when I encounter them.  The cocoa nibs appear to be chocolate-coated.  The nibs are also crunchy, but in a different way.  The density of the mix-ins is not as much as I was expecting at first, but I do encounter more of them as I dig my way further down into the pint.

This is a solid new flavor from Pumphouse Creamery.  I just noticed that this looks like a tweak or update on a previous flavor of theirs called Mocha Almond Toffee.  The cocoa nibs and plain almonds in today's pint create a crunchier texture than the previous toffee mix-ins. 

Tillamook - Maple & Candied Pecan

Maple & Candied Pecan - Maple Frozen Custard with Candied Pecan Pieces

 

Today is another new flavor from the Oregon-based Tillamook Creamery.  As mentioned in recent reviews, Tillamook has re-imagined their pint flavors this year.  Most of their previous flavors were cycled out.  Today's flavor is called Maple & Candied Pecan.  It looks like a replacement for their old Pendleton Whisky & Maple flavor.  So pecans are in and whisky is out (for now).  I bought this pint at Kowalski's on Grand in Saint Paul, but I believe local Target stores now also carry Tillamook pints.  Let's dig in!

Removing the lid and peeling back the protective foil, the maple syrup base has an off-white color non-inconsistent with the color of maple syrup.  None of the mix-ins are visible on top.  Digging in the maple syrup flavor in the base is quite delicious.  It is a frozen custard.  It is not soft-serve, but it is thick yet easy to scoop.  Soon I encounter the mix-ins.  The pecan pieces are quite sizeable and crunchy.  The side of the container bills them as "candied" but it is not a hard candy like a praline pecan.  Here, the candy coating seems to have melted in the ice cream creating a small pool of syrup surronding each pecan piece.  I have seen this happen before and I actually quite like this effect.  The overall effect of the syrupy coating to the crunchy pecan pieces is quite delicious.

This is a very well done maple pecan flavor from Tillamook Creamery.  I have seen some similar flavor combinations but nothing exactly like this.  The closest was probably Ample Hills which had a limited-batch flavor called Maple Bourbon Barrel which included bourbon in its base and swirl.  Izzy's had a couple of maple nut flavors (here and here) in their scoop shop days.  I like this Tillamook flavor quite a bit.  Maple syrup fans should not hesitate to try this out.

Milkjam Creamery - Iris

Iris - Lemon-Chamomile Cheesecake with Lemon-Poppyseed Cake

Today is the fourth and final flavor in the May-"Flower" series from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery.  This flavor is called Iris (instagram link here).  It has a lemon-chamomile cheesecake base with lemon poppy seed cake pieces for mix-ins.  I love lemon flavors, so I am very much looking forward to trying this.  Let's dig in.

Removing the lid, the base ice cream has a light off-white color which some crumb pieces visible.  Digging in, the lemon flavor is very delicious.  I do not specifically taste the chamomile, but I do not doubt that it is in there.  Milkjam uses a lot of flavor blends to balance out their ingredients.  The base is also a cream cheese base which perhaps makes it a bit thicker than their usual bases (Milkjam bases are often on the soft side) but there is no distinctive cream cheese flavor.  I imagine cream cheese also helps to set the lemon flavor in as well (lemon juice does not mix well with milk).  The mix-ins are bite-size pieces of lemon-poppy seed muffins.  Some of these are fairly large which is great.

This is a very delicious and unique lemon-based flavor from Milkjam Creamery.  I really liked the lemon-poppy seed muffin pieces and the lemon-cheesecake base was very delicious as well.  This is definitely my favorite of the May flavors.  They mention in the instagram link above that this is one of the most popular flavors they have ever had.  Perhaps there is hope that this might get promoted into a more regular flavor?  We will see.

Cheesecake Factory - Cookies & Cream

Cookies & Cream - Premium Cookies & Cream Cheesecake Ice Cream with a Signature Cream Cheese Blend, Sour Cream and Chocolate Cookie Swirls

 

Today's flavor comes from the Cheesecake Factory At Home brand.  It is their implementation of Cookies & Cream.  Just about every brand implements a cookies & cream flavor.  I have had pints from Sebastian Joe's, Jeni's, Graeter's, Coolhaus, Ben & Jerry's (limited batch), Sweet Science, Izzy's, Häagen-Dazs, and McConnell's.  That's just the most straightforward implementations that I could find.  Milkjam has a very good one which includes pieces of Peanut Butter.  Izzy's has a current pint which includes a caramel swirl.  There are a lot of other variants which include chocolate bases or coffee bases, or they use chocolate-chip cookies instead of Oreo-style sandwich cookies.  I could go on.  Today's pint looks fairly straightforward with the exception of the use of a thicker cheesecake base.  Let's see how it tastes.

Removing the lid, there are pockets of air around the rim again.  I have seen this from Cheesecake Factory before.  It is possible that it doesn't affect the amount of ice cream that I get, but it always makes me feel like I am missing out of an ounce.  The base ice cream itself is very white with lots of speck-sized cookie crumbs immersed in it.  Some larger cookie pieces are visible as well.  The white base tells me that the chocolate from the crumbs has not bled into the base -- no 'cookie milk' in this pint.  Digging in, the cheesecake base is thick.  I do not taste the distinctive sour cream and cream cheese blend that I taste in their Original flavor, but it serves as a good vehicle for all the cookie mix-ins.  The cookie pieces are not specifically Oreo's but they quite Oreo-like.  As I dig down further, I see some bigger cookie pieces in the mix.

This is a good cookies & cream implementation from the Cheesecake Factory.  As mentioned above, there is a lot of competition for this flavor.  My favorite straight rendition is probably Graeter's.  Coolhaus has a cookie milk base.  Locally, Sebastian Joe's is excellent.  But you can't really go wrong with any of them -- including today's flavor.  

This concludes my survey of Cheesecake Factory flavors.  They just have seven flavors so far:  Original, Key Lime, Chocolate, Strawberry, Salted Caramel, Birthday Cake and Cookies & Cream.  My favorites were probably the first two: Original and Key Lime.  I could taste the distinctive sour cream and cream cheese blend in both of those pints.  They made me feel like I was eating a slice of their cheesecake from the restaurant.  That flavor blend seemed to be missing from the rest of their flavors -- or maybe it got overwhelmed by the other ingredients.  The gritty graham cracker swirl present in many of their pints was also excellent.  It was one of the better pie-crust swirls that I have encountered.  The caramel flavor had a nice caramel swirl that I don't see often enough and although the birthday cake flavor doesn't fit their slice-of-cheesecake flavor pattern, it was very well done.

Milkjam Creamery - Yasmeen

 

Today I return to Milkjam Creamery for the third of their four May "flower" flavors.  This one called Yasmeen (instagram link here).  Yasmeen is a variant of the name Jasmine and jasmine is the flower that flavors this ice cream.  It is a jasmine milk tea ice cream with white chocolate chunks.  I have had jasmine rice before, but not jasmine tea, so this should be interesting.

Opening the container, the ice cream has a light beige color to it.  It is lighter than I was expecting from a tea base so I can see why they call it a "milk tea" in the flavor description.  Digging in, I can taste the tea flavor right away but it is fairly muted.  The jasmine flavor in the tea is also quite mild.  That is consistent with how a jasmine tea is flavored though.  I do like the flavor.  The white chocolate chunks are dispersed throughout the pint.  White chocolate is a fairly neutral flavor for my palate, but it was good to have something to chew on from time to time. 

This is a pleasant and agreeable milk tea pint from Milkjam.  The "milk tea" description is apt.  When blended with cream and churned, it creates a milder and more subtle flavor than other tea-based ice creams that I have tried (see reviews tagged with tea here).  It is still delicious even if it doesn't grab you has much as other flavors.

Pumphouse Creamery - Strawberry

Strawberry - Strawberry Ice Cream

 

Today's flavor is from the Pumphouse Creamery in south Minneapolis.  This time of year, Pumphouse is famous for their amazing Rhubarb ice cream which I reviewed a couple of years ago.  I picked up a pint for a relative.  While I was there, I also pinked up a pint of Strawberry to work on completing my survey of their flavor offerings.  It looks like a simple implementation of the popular flavor.  They get the strawberries from a grower named T Berries in Avon, Minnesota (up I-94, just past Saint Cloud).

Removing the lid, I see the light pink color of the strawberry base.  I can see some darker pink specks so there are some strawberry solids in the mix as well.  Digging in, the ice cream is quite thick -- not a lot of air whipped into it -- but it is still creamy when you put it into your mouth.  The strawberry flavor is good.  It tastes a bit like a strawberry shake.  The solids add some visual speckling, but they do not noticeably affect the texture or flavor too much.  It is not seedy and the specks are not large enough to be 'frozen'.

This is a well-done implementation of a simple strawberry base from Pumphouse Creamery.  Nothing fancy, but still very delicious.  Their famous Rhubarb flavor is available until the end of June and Strawberry is known to go well with Rhubarb.

Milkjam Creamery - Ispahan

Ispahan - Raspberry Rose Lychee Parfait

 

Today, I return to the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery for the second of their May flavors which is called Ispahan (instagram link here).  This is an ice cream flavored with raspberry, rose and lychee.  From the instagram link, the name "Ispahan" refers to a family of pastries developed by famous pastry chef Pierre Hermé which contain these three fruit ingredient.  If you google 'ispahan herme', you get all sorts of links including a French language cookbook.  He named these desserts "Ispahan" after the ancient Persian city (modern-day Iran) famous for the roses which bare its name.  Raspberry and rose is not an uncommon flavor combination.  I have seen a base with this flavor from Sweet Science and swirls of this flavor from Jeni's and a different monthly flavor from Milkjam.  This is the first pint that has included lychee in the mix.  Let's check it out.

Opening the pint, I see a beautiful bright pink color.  It is very striking.  A scoop of this would definitely be very aesthetically pleasing in your bowl.  Digging in, it has a very delicious raspberry flavor which is accented a bit by the rosewater.  The lychee adds a bit of sweetness in the mix which I find very appealing.  A flavor like this is all about balance.  Too much lychee and it could have been too sweet, but they don't overdo it here.  Milkjam has experience blending lychee with other fruits.  I have seen them blend it with passion fruit in their Uma Thurman flavor and with pineapple in one of their fruit sorbets.  This is an ice cream and not a non-dairy sorbet so this has a nice soft texture and is quite creamy.

This is a delicious fruit-blend ice cream from Milkjam.  It is primarily raspberry, but the rosewater and lychee make it lighter and sweeter than a simple raspberry flavor.  Sample the flavor to see if this blend is for you.  Also, even though the ingredients are a bit exotic, I think this flavor would be very kid-friendly.

Jeni's - Buttercream Birthday Cake

Buttercream Birthday Cake - Buttercream Frosting, Golden Cake, and a Rainbow of Sprinkles

 

Today we return to Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream of Columbus Ohio for a new flavor that I actually found locally.  I usually have to make an online purchase to get the latest Jeni's flavors because local grocery stores generally just carry the classics.  They have had several new releases this year already but they release them one-by-one instead of in batches, so I have not been able to order a separate shipment for each one of them.  So, I thought I had missed this Buttercream Birthday Cake release, but lo and behold, I spotted it at the Whole Foods on Lake & Excelsior in Minneapolis.  So I picked it up.  Birthday cake ice creams are big this year.  I have already seen new flavors from the Cheesecake Factory and Talenti to go with older flavors from Coolhaus, Graeter's and McConnell's as well as retired limited releases from Ample Hills and Ben & Jerry's.  Let's see how Jeni's compares.

First, the packaging is really nice.  I like all the sprinkles on the side as well as the candles on the lid.  Removing the lid and peeling back the foil, I see most of the ingredients right away.  The buttercream base has a very light color.  The sprinkles are small -- they appear to be sprinkle pieces.  Then I can see small crumb-sized pieces of the cake in there as well.  Digging in, it is a very appealing combination of flavors.  The buttercream, the small cake pieces and the sprinkles.  It is definitely not too sweet like some cake implementations are, but I wonder if it might not be sweet enough.  The buttercream is fully blended into the base instead of as a swirl of frosting and the cake pieces are so small that they blend in a bit themselves.  The combination was a little 'dryer' than I expected.

This is a fairly good implementation of a birthday-cake ice cream from Jeni's.  Don't get me wrong, the flavor is very good, but my expectations are higher with Jeni's.  I think I would have liked either a swirl of buttercream to moisten up the base a bit or larger cake pieces or both.  So, my favorite birthday cake implementation is still from McConnell's.

Milkjam Creamery - Leila

Leila - Oatmilk Chocolate with Blackberry-Lavender Jam

Milkjam Creamery of south Minneapolis has released their May flavors.  They are going for a May-Flower theme -- all flower-based flavors (instagram link here).  I must apologize for being way behind in my write-ups.  It's not a big deal for the grocery-store brands, but the monthly scoop shop flavors go out of rotation at the end of the month.  Often, they still have pints of the previous month available early in the next month, though.  I will try to do better at keeping up in the future.  Also, keep an eye on their instagram page for flavor release announcements.  Today's flavor is called Leila (instagram link here).  It is their vegan flavor of the month -- so it is non-dairy.  It features a chocolate base made with oat milk and a swirl of blackberry-lavender jam.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, the oatmilk-chocolate base is very dark.  It is not as dark as their famous Black flavor but it is quite dark.  Digging in, it is very creamy, rich and super-chocolatey.  Chocolate makes for a very good non-dairy base because it chocolate has its own innate creaminess -- there is cocoa butter in the mix.  So, it doesn't become icy or slushy.  Scooping further down, I encounter the blackberry lavender swirl.  The chocolate base overwhelms it a bit.  I think it mainly serves here to accent the chocolate rather than stand alone as its own flavor.  It reminded me of those fruit-accented chocolates that you often find at a fancy chocolate store.  I just had a Dark Chocolate & Red Raspberry flavor from Tillamook which was the same way.

This is a rich and decadent berry-accented chocolate pint from Milkjam Creamery.  It is non-dairy, but there is so much chocolate that you do not really miss the chocolate.  As mentioned above, the chocolate was so strong and rich that it overwhelms the berry a bit -- but if you just expect accents of berry then you won't be disappointed.  As mentioned above, it does remind me of a recent Tillamook pint, but this flavor is clearly better -- more chocolate, thicker berry.  I was able to finish it in one sitting, but it was rich enough that I could see that being a problem for some.  So get a second spoon and share with a friend.  Enjoy.

 

 

 

Cheesecake Factory - Chocolate

Chocolate - Premium Chocolate Cheesecake Ice Cream with a Signature Cream Cheese Blend, Sour Cream and Rich Chocolate Fudge Swirls

Today I return to the Cheesecake Factory brand for their Chocolate ice cream.  I bought it at Target in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul.  Chocolate is a very basic flavor, but since this is the Cheesecake Factory, it is not a simple chocolate base.  The base is a chocolate cheesecake and there are swirls of fudge.  No graham cracker swirls for the 'crust' of the slice of cheesecake this time, though.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, the chocolate base has a good brown color, not too dark but not that light.  I think I can see hints of one of the fudge swirls.  Digging in, this a good chocolate flavor.  It tastes a lot like a good, thick chocolate base.  The cream cheese may be adding to the thickness, but I do not specifically taste it.  I do not specifically taste the sour cream either.  As I scoop my way down, I encounter the fudge swirls.  They are swirl-shaped, though.  It is almost like there are little dollops of fudge which are mixed in.  These are soft and provide an extra kick of strong fudge flavor into the mix.

This is a decent chocolate-based pint with a chocolate mix-in.  The fudge swirls adds a bit more chocolate into the mix, but it does not quite make it one of those decadent super-chocolate pints.  It is still quite agreeable though.  Chocolate fans who are enjoying this brand will want to give it a try.