Milk Bar - Birthday Cake

Birthday Cake - Birthday Cake Flavored Ice Cream with Birthday Crumbs and Birthday Frosting

 

A reader named Reid in a recent review has directed me to a new brand available at Whole Foods called Milk Bar.  I went down to the Whole Foods on Selby in Saint Paul and picked up a couple of pints.  From what I could see in the freezer case, this brand appears to be selling well.  I hope they restock soon.  

Milk Bar was founded by Christina Tosi (homepage, wiki) and started off as a pastry shop on in New York City's East Village as the dessert pastry shop accompanying the nearby Momofuku restaurant in 2008.  It's been quite successful as a pastry shop, has been featured on all sorts of food-oriented television shows and now have over a dozen locations in six cities.  This spring, they've agreed to release a handful of pre-packaged ice cream flavors for Whole Foods (see articles here and here). 

It looks Milk Bar's signature flavor is "Cereal Milk".  I guess I should have started with that one, but I didn't do my write-up research before picked the flavor.  I chose Birthday Cake.  As has been mentioned in several recent review, birthday-cake-themed flavors are really big in the past couple of years. I have recently had flavors from Grand Ole Creamery, Jeni's, 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.  Lot's of flavors!  Each time I right a review, the list gets longer.  Let's add Milk Bar to the list.

Opening the lid, the protective seal has a small hand written note:  "XO. TOSI".  It threw me off for a bit because I did not initially know who "Tosi" was.  Plus, the writing looks so informal.  It looks like some random person with a ballpoint pen just removed lids and wrote secret notes to customers on the seal.  But now that I've read the article linked above, I know that Christina Tosi is the founder of the Milk Bar pastry shops and this message is from her to her customers.  Fun.  Removing the foil, the birthday cake ice cream has a yellowish color.  So not a white cake.  Some egg yolks are in the mix. Some sprinkles are visible on top as well as a bit of frosting.  Digging in, the cake flavored base is quite good.  It is sweet, but not overly so.  The cake pieces below are soft and chewy.  There is occasionally a little flakes of pastry frosting in the mix.  These are like the bits of frosting that fall off a frosted donut or pastry. They hold their consistency on their spoon, but they melt in your mouth when you eat it.

I liked this birthday-cake-themed flavor from Milk Bar very much.  It feels like I am eating birthday cake, but it is still ice cream and it is not too sweet.  I am still going to say that McConnell's Sprinkle Cake is still the gold standard, but that flavor is hard to find outside the west coast.  This is one of the better options here in the Twin Cities.  I liked it better than Cheesecake Factory and Grand Ole Creamery (although those were still good).  I am looking forward to trying out Milk Bar's Cereal Milk flavor soon.

 

 

Ben & Jerry's - Change is Brewing

Change is Brewing - Cold Brew Coffee Ice Cream with Marshmallow Swirls and Fudge Brownies

 

Ben & Jerry's has a new limited batch flavor for the fall called Change is Brewing.  I found it at the Target in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul.  Every once in a while, they release a flavor where the proceeds go to some charitable cause.  The previous flavor of this type was Justice Remix'd,  I am always excited for new Ben & Jerry's flavors.  Long-time readers know that a full survey of this brand's flavors is how these reviews got started.  Since that initial survey was completed, I moved on to other brands which has been interesting and exciting but it's always fun to return to Ben & Jerry's.  This flavor has a cold-brew coffee base with marshmallow swirls and fudge brownies.  This is a fairly surprisingly unique flavor combination.  There are countless coffee-and-chocolate flavors but this is the first that I can find in my archives that uses brownies to deliver the chocolate.  Also, marshmallows are common with chocolate, but not as much with coffee.  The closest that I can find is Ben & Jerry's own One Sweet World from a few years ago or Milkjam Creamery's Zoë François flavor from this past spring.  This is still quite different, though.  So, familiar and appealing ingredients combined in a new way sounds like a fun flavor to try.  Let's dig in!

First, let's take a look at the beautiful artwork on the side of the carton.  They narrowed the "flavor title" part of the carton so that they could include more images.  I took more pictures below.  Popping the lid off, the cold brew coffee base has a gritty beige color to it and hints of both the marshmallow swirl and the brownie mix-ins are visible on the very top.  Digging in, the coffee base is quite good.  This is the same cold-brew base used in their 7-11-exclusive Go-To-Cold Brew / Cold Brew Caramel Latte flavor.  You can tell that the coffee is not 'brewed'.  There are hints of coffee grounds in the mix of this base -- sort of like coffee bean specks instead of vanilla bean specks.  The brownie mix-ins are good as usual and provide a lot of chewy chocolate flavor.  The marshmallow swirls are larger than usual, but not overly done.  You can taste the marshmallow -- it doesn't just dissolve into the base and make it gooey -- and it goes well with the coffee and brownies without being too strong.

I enjoyed this flavor from Ben & Jerry's quite a bit.  Each of the three ingredients is quite good and they are combined quite well here.  Check it out.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Tim Thumb

Tim Thumb - Mini Donut Ice Cream with Cinnamon Sugar Donut Chunks

 

Today is the fourth and final of the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery's "State Fair" flavors for September (instagram link here).  This one is called Tim Thumb (instagram link here).  This flavor is based on the little bags of mini-donuts that are sold almost everywhere at the State Fair.  The ones that are still warm and covered with loads of cinnamon and sugar.  Here the base is infused with by soaking the milk and cream with donuts, but then donut "croutons" are also added as a mix-in.  In addition to spicing the donuts with cinnamon, their instagram link mentions that they also blend in some garam masala spice blend (used in their Masala Holla flavor).  It'll be fun to see how much that jazzes up the flavor.

Before I begin, I'll mention that my previous Milkjam review mentions the October Halloween-themed flavors which are now available.  Just giving you a heads up so that you can look into those earlier in the month (sometimes it takes a while before my reviews show up in print).

On to today's flavor!  Removing the lid, the donut-based base has an off-white color to it.  If I look really close I might imagine that there is a bit of cinnamon in the mix, but it is not obvious.  Digging in, I can taste a little bit of cinnamon and the ice cream is simple and subtle yet quite good.  Soon, I run into the mix-ins, these donut "croutons" which are the main focus of the pint.  These are quite good!  They are still soft like the donuts and provide quite an appealing amount of spice to the mix.  My palate tells me that this is mostly cinnamon but its possible that some other "spice cake" type of spices like nutmeg, ginger and allspice are in the mix.  It's very delicious.  As I eat my way down, the spice from the donuts is balanced very well, but the simple and more subtle base.

This is an excellent donut-based flavor by Milkjam Creamery.  I like the texture of the donut mix-ins and I love the cinnamon-and-spice flavoring accenting it.  This is actually the second donut-based flavor from Milkjam Creamery this summer.  I liked today's flavor better than the first one, D'Oh, as I think the spices added more flavor than sprinkles.  This is actually my favorite of the four September State Fair flavors.  Check it out if they still have pints available, otherwise I hope they bring this back next year.

 

 

Grand Ole Creamery - Sweet Cream

Sweet Cream - Sweet Cream Ice Cream

 

Today I return to the Grand Ole Creamery on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul for a pint of their Sweet Cream flavor.  This flavor has been around since I was a kid.  One of the neighbors used to say "Sweet Cream is what they call Vanilla".  Now, that I've been writing these reviews for several years, I have come to learn that sweet cream is distinct from vanilla.  It's actually 'vanilla without the vanilla'.  That is mainly milk, cream and sugar.  It is a popular ice cream to go with cake and pie because it's basically a thicker, milkier whipped cream.  I have had simple sweet cream implementations from Tillamook and Milkjam Creamery.  Let's see how this flavor compares.

Removing the lid, the sweet cream base looks very thick.  I can tell by the way it is packed into the carton.  Digging in, it has the expected milky cream flavor.  It is quite good.  Nothing too exciting as there are no added flavors or mix-ins, but as an ice cream lover I still appreciate the simple flavors.

This is a solid implementation of a simple sweet cream flavor from the Grand Ole Creamery.  I can see why it has been a popular pre-pack flavor in my neighborhood for many years.  It is not going to wow you by itself, but it works really well with cake or pie.  It's extra thickness works well for that purpose.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Sweet Martin's

Sweet Martin's - Oat Milk Ice Cream with Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Today is the third of the four September "State Fair" flavors from Milkjam Creamery (instagram link here).  This flavor is called Sweet Martin's (instagram link here) and is an obvious play on the popular Sweet Martha's Cookies stands at the Minnesota State Fair.  I did not attend the State Fair this year, but I did by some Sweet Martha's cookie dough at my local grocery store so that I could pretend that I was there.  This Milkjam flavor is actually a vegan flavor.  The chocolate chip cookie mix-ins are suspended in an oat milk base.  This should be fun.

Before I start, I should mention that as I write this, the October flavors have been released (instagram link here).  I have already tried three of the four in previous seasons:

• Death by Chocula
• Shall Not Be Named
• Poison Apple
• Candy Corn Killa (new for me)
  

I will try to get my hands on the Candy Corn Killa flavor as soon as possible.

Back to "today"'s Sweet Martins flavor!  Removing the lid, the oat milk base has a bright white color to it.  Milkjam has used oat milk as a non-dairy base a few times before, but in the ones that I have tried it has always been combined with coconut milk (here and here) or chocolate (here).  This base is not bad.  It is definitely less 'creamy' than a dairy base but it doesn't have the gritty texture that some non-dairy bases have.  Here it serves as a vehicle for the cookie mix-ins.  The cookies uses here are vegan in order to keep the entire flavor vegan, but I honestly cannot tell.  They have a rather crunchy-chewy texture and there are chocolate chips in each one that deliver a good amount of chocolate flavor.  My one complaint is that there were not more of them.

This is a solid vegan implementation of a milk-and-cookies flavor from Milkjam Creamery.  For dairy lovers, the top option for this type of flavor is McConnell's Sea Salt Cream & Cookies with Ben & Jerry's Milk & Cookies close behind.  Today's vegan Milkjam flavor would have been closer if there were more cookie mix-ins, but it was still not bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Science - Vegan Cashew Caramel

Vegan Cashew Caramel - Vegan Vanilla Cashew Milk Ice Cream with Crunchy Cashew Praline and Ribbons of Coconut Caramel

 

The Twin Cities-based Sweet Science Ice Cream has a new non-dairy flavor for the fall.  This flavor is called Vegan Cashew Caramel and I picked it up at the Golden Fig market on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul.  I am never quite sure if I should try all the non-dairy flavors for each brand that I follow -- I missed Sweet Science's earlier Vegan Chocolate Chip flavor -- but this one looks interesting.  It features a non-dairy vanilla cashew milk base with ribbons of coconut caramel and crunchy cashew praline pieces.  The mix-ins look very good!

Before I start, as I write this review (a bit late), the October seasonals have been announced (instagram link here).  They feature four flavors that I have already had:

• Pumpkin Pepita Brittle
• Black Sesame
• Snicker Doodle
• Hazelnut Brownie

These are all quite excellent!  I actually tempted to go off-script and sneak a pint of one of those in between my review flavors.

Back to today's Vegan Cashew Caramel flavor!  Removing the lid, I see quite a bit of the cashew praline pieces as well as the caramel swirls right off the bat.  Digging in, I taste the caramel swirl right away.  This is a similar swirl to the one Sweet Science uses in several of my favorite flavors of theirs.  I think Salted Caramel Swirl would be the signature version of that swirl.  Here, there is a bit of coconut flavor in the mix as well which is good.  The cashews praline tastes quite good and provides substantial crunch.  The vegan vanilla cashew milk base is not bad, but I would prefer a dairy ice cream here.  They are very generous with the caramel swirl here which is normally a great thing, but I don't think the vegan base balances that as well as the dairy base does, so by the end of the pint, a sticky-sweet feeling was building up on my palate.  That could easily be resolved with portion control (i.e. don't eat the whole pint at once).

This is a solid non-dairy flavor from Sweet Science.  The caramel and cashew mix-ins were amazing.  Overall, it might be a flavor to enjoy a scoop at a time, but it is good to know that vegans now have access to Sweet Science's excellent caramel.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Mouse Trap

Mouse Trap - Cheese Curd Ice Cream with Crunchy Fried Batter Pieces

 

Today brings the second of the four September flavors from Milkjam Creamery having the "State Fair" theme (instagram link here).  This flavor is called Mouse Trap (instagram link here) and is a cheese-curd-based ice cream!  Cheese curds are a very popular treat at the State Fair.  I have never had cheese-curd-based ice cream before.  I am quite curious to see how this will turn out.  I guess crunchy piece of fried batter have been added to the mix adding to the state fairs tendency to deep fry everything.  On to the ice cream!

Removing the lid, the ice cream has a light yellow color.  Digging in, I find that there are no pieces of cheese curds, but that this is ice cream that has been infused with cheese curd flavor by steeping the milk and cream with curds for a while before straining the curds back out and then churning and freezing.  Does it taste like cheese curds?  I guess so.  I can taste a bit of curd-like flavor in the mix, but it is not too strong.  It definitely is a bit saltier than the usual ice cream.  Dispersed through the mix are small pieces of fried dough which add a little bit of textural variation from time to time, but there is not as much of these pieces as I was expecting.

This is an interesting experimental flavor from Milkjam Creamery.  I must admit, I was expecting chunks of cheese curds in the ice cream, but I guess that must not have worked out in their kitchen so they went with flavor infusion instead.  Although, I could taste a bit of the salty cheese in the mix, the flavor did not wow me as much as I was expecting.  The result was not bad, but Milkjam already has their namesake Milkjam flavor which I found to be a bit better.

 

 

Sweet Science - Cherry Sorbet

Cherry Sorbet - Morello Cherry Sorbet

 

Twin Cities-based Sweet Science has a new fruit sorbet for the fall called Cherry Sorbet.  Their scoop shop is now in Edina, but I picked up this flavor at the Golden Fig on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul.  Other places such as Whole Foods, Kowalski's and several co-ops also stock Sweet Science, but the Golden Fig does well to keep up with the latest seasonal flavors (which is usually what I am looking for).  Checking the ingredient list, today's sorbet uses Morello cherries which is the darker variety of a sour cherry -- which I recall from a previous review is not all that "sour" in absolute terms (in fact that flavor was quite delicious).  I have had many cherry flavors before (see flavor tag here), but I think this is my first simple cherry sorbet.  The closest I have come is the old Izzy's flavor Pomegranate Pizzazz! which was a cherry-pomegranate sorbet.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the sorbet has a beautiful bright red color.  Digging in, the cherry flavor is quite delicious.  The flavor of the Morello cherry is not as dark as a dark cherry but not as bright as a Bing cherry.  A melted version of this would make for a delicious juice.  The texture of the sorbet is quite good.  It is a sorbet, which means there is no dairy or even non-dairy or imitation 'creams' -- it is just fruit juice and ice. Sweet Science does a very good job of churning their sorbets so that they are still easy to scoop and don't get hard or slushy.  The flavor is good, but not overwhelming and I am easily able to eat the entire pint in one sitting.

This is a very delicious cherry sorbet from Sweet Science.  It makes me think that there should be more cherry sorbets.  It's worth checking out if you're in the mood for a fruit sorbet this fall.

 

Dolcezza - Mascarpone & Berries

Mascarpone & Berries - Mascarpone Gelato with a Berry Sauce Swirl

 

I am back to the Dolcezza Gelato brand for their Mascarpone & Berries flavor.  I picked this pint up at the Whole Foods on Selby in Saint Paul.  This has a mascarpone base with a swirl of berry sauce.  Checking the ingredient list on the side of the pint, the berry sauce is a blend of raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, cherry and blackberry.  Elsewhere on the pint, they describe this particular blend of fruits as originating from the gelato parlors of Buenos Aires.  Anyhow, I do like berries and I love how mascarpone (the italian 'dessert cheese') blends with other flavors in ice creams.  I am looking forward to this.

Removing the lid, the berry sauce swirl is visible right away on top of the pint.  It is quite a dark purplish color and it also looks to have a very thick consistency.  Digging in, the berry sauce tastes a lot like a jam.  It's an interesting flavor blend, though.  I am sure all the ingredients contribute to the blend, but I do specifically taste the raspberries, blueberries and blackberries.  This jam-like sauce would be too much by itself, but mascarpone is the perfect base to balance that.  It is thicker than a sweet cream or a vanilla, yet still sweeter than a cream cheese base would be.

This is a very good berry swirl pint from Dolcezza.  My favorite flavors which are similar to this would be Jeni's Brambleberry Crisp and Pumphouse's Local Honeyberry and Raspberry Crisp.  I think the 'jammy' nature of the berry sauce here kept this Dolcezza pint a notch below those, but it was still tasty.  If you're a fan of berry swirl pints, you'll want to check this out.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Uncle Spud

Uncle Spud - French Fry Ice Cream with a Chocolate Covered Potato Chips

 

Today is the first of Milkjam Creamery's September flavors with a State Fair theme (instagram link here).  I have fallen way behind in my write-ups but I did try to forward along instagram links in previous Milkjam reviews.  Anyhow, this flavor is called Uncle Spud (instagram link here).  It is a french-fry-infused base with chocolate covered potato chip clusters.  I have had a french fry based flavor once before from Coolhaus (it turned out to be shoestring potatoes) and I have had potato chips a few times from Ben & Jerry's recent Chip Happens (the old Late Night Snack predates this blog) and a couple of flavors from Ample Hills, most notably their Commodore flavor.  Let's see how Milkjam Creamery compares.

Removing the lid, the base has an off-white cream color to it and I can see a couple of chunks of chocolate which I presume are the chocoalte-covered potato chips.  Digging in, the chocolate covered potato chips are excellent.  Crunchy potato chips and the salt that they deliver make for excellent ice cream mix-ins.  The challenge is usually trying to keep them crunchy in the pint (it is a bit easier in the scoop shop when you can mix it in right before you eat it.  The solution to keeping the potato chips crispy is often to coat them in chocolate.  It succeeds quite well here!  The base ice cream is said to be 'french fry infused'.  I can indeed taste a bit of starchy potato flavor in this base and that does go well with the potato chip mix-ins.  But 'infused' means that the fries themselves have been strained out before the final churn and freeze.  Just setting expectations here for what is billed as the 'french fry' flavor.  It's understandable that french fries themselves would likely get too soggy in the cream (unless they were coated with chocolate or something).

This is a very delicious pint from Milkjam.  It is perhaps misleading that this gets billed as the 'french fry' pint when the base is only 'infused' with the flavor of french fries.  But I still must recommend this for the excellent chocolate covered potato chip mix-ins.  They are salty, tasty and still very crunchy.  If you love potato chips, check this out.

 

 

 

Sebastian Joe's - Turtle Latte

Turtle Latte - Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Caramel Truffles

 

Today I am back with another flavor from the Minneapolis-based Sebastian Joe's.  This flavor is called Turtle Latte and I picked it up at the scoop shop in Lowry Hill in Minneapolis.  The 'latte' means that it has a coffee flavored ice cream base and the 'turtle' means that it has chocolate caramel truffle mix-ins.  Checking my archives, I have not had this flavor combination too often.  Of course there are loads of coffee-chocolate flavors (too many to count) and several coffee-caramel flavors, but all three flavors is much less common.  The closest I can find is a limited batch Caramel Macchiato flavor from Graeter's.  Let's check out Turtle Latte!

Removing the lid, this pint is stuffed!  It is a bit overflowing (thanks Sebastian Joe's scoopers!) and there are lots of large chocolate-caramel truffles visible right away.  I have seen truffles like this before, but normally they don't put so many of them into a pint.  Digging in, these truffles are a bit like Rolo candies, but with a higher chocolate to caramel ratio.    I took some close-up pictures below.  The coffee ice cream base has a decent flavor, but its main purpose here is to serve as a vehicle for delivering all the truffles.

This is packed chocolate-caramel-coffee flavor from Sebastian Joe's.  If you like Rolo Candies, then you'll love this pint.  I must say that I had a similar reaction than I had to the previous Sebastian Joe's flavor -- it was almost too much.  That says quite a bit, because I do not get full that easily.  If you are feeling indulgent, then go for it!  Otherwise, perhaps not a full pint -- or share!