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.