Graeter's - S'mores

S'mores - Graham Cracker Ice Cream with Milk Chocolate Chips & Marshmallows

Today would not be normally an ice cream day -- I just had a pint yesterday -- but I was informed by many tweets today that it is National S'mores Day.  I just so happen to have a pint of S'mores ice cream in my freezer from Graeter's.  What are the odds?!  So, I decided not only move up not the day of next pint of ice cream but my pint of Graeter's leapfrogged several other pints in my freezer as well.  I got a six-pint shipment from Graeter's!  I was going to wait until I finished eating all of the pints from my recent Coolhaus shipment before starting in on the Graeter's, but hey, it is National S'mores Day and I have S'mores ice cream. I don't really have a choice!

I have had S'mores implementations from many brands.  It is almost becoming a standard flavor!  As we know S'mores include three core ingredients:  chocolate, marshmallow, and graham crackers.  Each brand seems to combine these ingredients in a unique way.  Coolhaus used a vanilla base with chocolate mix-ins and a graham-marshmallow swirl.  Sweet Science has a graham cracker base with marshmallow, chocolate and graham mix-ins.  Ben & Jerry's has two flavors.  Their standard flavor has a chocolate base, chocolate mix-ins with graham and marshmallow swirls and they have a recent limited batch flavor with a marshmallow base, graham swirl and chocolatey mix-ins.  So, you see that we have almost all the permutations already.  What is Graeters doing here?  They have a graham cracker base with marshmallow mix-ins and their signature chocolate chips.  Quite close to the Sweet Science implementation, though I'd say this is a more straightforward rendition while Sweet Science   This should be fun.

The of the pint has a small air-pocket visible but it does not seem to affect the consistency of the ice cream.  The graham cracker base is the expected tan color, there is a marshmallow visible already and hints at the chocolate chips buried below.  I dug my spoon in and the base tastes exactly like graham crackers.  If it wasn't cold and creamy, I would think that I was actually eating a graham cracker.  The marshmallows were about the size of mini-marshmallows but they seemed a bit more gelatinous (a bit better than if they came right out of a package).  These were just so-so, but you have to have all the ingredients for it to be s'mores.  The Graeter's chocolate chips were of course amazing.  Soft, chewy and sometimes quite large.  If you have not had Graeter's chocolate chips, watch the videos linked on one of my reviews and check out any flavor with 'chocolate chip' in the name.

This is an excellent pint of S'mores ice cream.  The graham cracker base was extremely well done.  Graham crackers were invented during the 19th century temperance movement that involved minimizing pleasure and stimulation of all kinds, but I think there actually are people today that love the taste of graham crackers.  If you are one of those people, this base ice cream is for you.  Fans of Graeter's chips will like it as well.