Ample Hills - Peanut Butter Jamboree

Peanut Butter Jamboree - Vanilla Bean Ice Cream with Strawberry Cake, Ribbons of Peanut Butter Frosting and Mickey-shaped Peanut Butter Pieces filled with Strawberry Jam

I am in New York visiting my sister for the Thanksgiving holiday.  That means New York City brands!  Right after I get off the plane and drop off my luggage at my sister's apartment, the first stop is Whole Foods to see what local ice cream they have in stock.  I notice right away that they have the entire Mickey Mouse Collection from the Ample Hills Creamery.  This came out in September and I had been debating whether or not I should get a shipment, but with the pints right there in the freezer case, I couldn't pass them up.  I picked up all three.

A few things about the Mickey Mouse Collection.  Ample Hills has had a relationship with Disney for a few years.  They have a scoop shop inside Disney World and they have released an ABC News flavor in the past (Disney is the parent company of ABC).  Secondly, the collection is to celebrate Mickey's 90th Birthday -- Mickey first appeared in an animated short called Steamboat Willie back in 1928.  Next, the pints all come in square cartons!  The folks at Ample Hills like to create artwork for their flavors and they've notes how difficult it is to show off their artwork on a curved surface.  With a square carton, they effectively have four panels to fill.  Naturally, the artwork for this particular collection is Mickey-themed.  Then we have the ice cream itself.  All three flavors are birthday-cake themed.  They all have either a simple or muted base (vanilla bean for one, sweet cream for another and malted chocolate for the third), and the same types of mix-ins:  a cake swirl, a frosting swirl and crunchy Mickey-shaped mix-ins that have one flavor for the shell and another inside.  For the three flavors, they have three types of cake:  a traditional white sheet cake, a chocolate cake, and a strawberry cake with peanut butter frosting.

Today's flavor is the strawberry and peanut butter cake -- Peanut Butter Jamboree.  The idea of this reminds me a bit of peanut butter and jelly.  Hmm... I am just getting the jam/jamboree pun as I type this...  lets dig in!  Opening the pint here is a bit different.  I've never had a square pint before!  You have to break a seal on one of the corners and then the lid pops off.  It looks like it would pop back on easily enough if you wanted leave some of it for later.  I usually eat my pints in one sitting so it doesn't affect me, but I know many people who enjoy smaller portions.  Two things I notice after removing the lid, first there is a card on top of the ice cream.  This contains a factoid about the company.  The one hear is numbered "009" so there must be others.  The card doesn't act as an extra 'seal' but it doesn't hurt.  Then inside the lid itself are two small plastic spoons.  That's handy.  Finally on to the ice cream.  The top of the pint is sort of a light beige.  I've never had Ample Hills's straight vanilla bean flavor so I don't know what color it would be.  I know they use a fair amount of eggs in their bases so it could be a little more off-white than other vanillas.  Digging in, I taste a bit of the peanut butter flavor right away.  As I continue to eat, I encounter some pinkish streaks that taste like strawberry and some peanut butter streaks that taste like peanut butter.  I like the balance of flavors -- the peanut butter is not at all 'heavy' and the mild strawberry flavor accents it very well.  That said, it's not all like a 'cake swirl' and a 'frosting swirl'.  Perhaps it is overly mixed?   Ample Hills is known for their intense over-the-top mix-ins this here is a subtly-balanced blend of flavors.  It's quite good, though.  The Mickey-shaped mix-ins are fun.  I cleaned one off and showed it below.  They were crunchy and added more peanut butter flavor.  It wasn't obvious that they were filled with strawberry jam.  In my mouth, that strawberry was hard to separate from the strawberry swirl in the ice cream.  But the filling probably kept it from being too much peanut butter at once.  Lastly, I was a bit worried at first that the square pint looked a little smaller than the usual pint.  That appears to be an illusion.  The top half looks a little smaller but then the bottom half looks larger.  After I finished I did feel like I ate a full pint.  And nothing got stuck in the corners on the bottom.

This is a pretty good pint of ice cream. That said, it is not the 'wow' flavor that you'd expect from a special birthday cake collection from Ample Hills.  It's still a very good blend of peanut butter and strawberry flavors though.  Fans of peanut-butter-and-jelly themed pints will certainly enjoy it.  I am looking forward to the other pints in this collection.