Graeter's - Mocha Chocolate Chip

Mocha Chocolate Chip - Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips

We return to Graeter's for another pint from their signature chip line:  Mocha Chocolate Chip.  I was very happy to see this pint.  The grocery stores near me do not carry a lot of different Graeter's flavors so I am always happy when a pint I have not tried gets cycled into one of their freezer cases.  A coffee/mocha flavor is a natural choice for their signature chip line because as mentioned in previous reviews the active chemicals in coffee (caffeine) and chocolate (theobromine) are so similar.  I am looking forward to checking this out.

 The coffee base is sort of a burnt beige in color and many of the chocolate chips are visible right away.  With the first spoonful, the coffee flavor is fairly strong right away.  It has a dark-roast flavor not unlike when you start chewing on a roasted coffee bean.  I shared a spoonful with someone who is a bit more coffee-knowledgeable and they said that it tasted like a dark Sumatra roast and sure enough the side of the pint said that they used Columbian and Sumatran Arabica beans.  The chips were excellent as usual.  I will never tire of these Graeter's chips.  They are chewy and chocolatey and of variable sizes (though I did not get any ridiculously large ones in this particular pint).  As I continued eating the pint, the dark-roasted coffee flavor stayed sharp but it was not so strong as to give me a headache.  An ideal combination for me.

This was an excellent pint of ice cream.  Graeter's chocolate chips get top billing here, but they did not phone it in with the coffee base either.  It was soft, creamy, with sharp dark coffee flavor but not ridiculously potent that only espresso-junkies can handle it.  If you like coffee and chocolate, this is a flavor that you should try.