Sweet Science - Peppermint Bark

Peppermint Bark - Vanilla Mint Ice Cream Swirled with Chocolate Ice Cream with Homemade Peppermint Bark Pieces

The second of the Saint Paul-based Sweet Science brand's four holiday flavors is called Peppermint Bark.  This is the second Peppermint Bark flavor that I am having this season (Talenti is the other).  I tried the Häagen-Dazs flavor  a couple of years ago.  It will be fun to compare and contrast.  The use of chocolate ice cream as a "swirl" is something that I haven't seen in a while.  Lately, I've been seeing more chocolate sauce or chocolate chunks.  It's a very successful combination, though.  Ben & Jerry's Half Baked does it and that is one of their most popular flavors.  Let's dig in.

Opening the pint, all is visible right away.  The vanilla mint and chocolate ice cream bases are marbled fairly well and I see one or tow of the bark pieces on top as well.    Digging in, the vanilla mint base is very good.  It is quite minty.  The chocolate ice cream swirl adds good chocolate flavor.  The chocolate ice cream has a more cocoa-like flavor than chocolate chips or chocolate chunks.  By that, I mean that it more closely resembles the flavor of hot chocolate or chocolate milk.  The mint and the chocolate go well together, of course.  Long-time readers will know that mint chocolate chip is my favorite ice cream flavor and I am always looking for different ways to combine the flavors.  The peppermint bark pieces that give the flavor its name are distributed through the pint.  These are small nut-sized pieces of mint candy which are coated in white chocolate.  I liked them.  They had a good crunchy-chunky texture.  Some candy-like crunch but not so crunchy that you needed to worry about your teeth.

This is an excellent pint of peppermint bark ice cream.  I does a really good job of delivering a lot of mint and chocolate flavor while still being distinctly 'peppermint bark' and not just 'mint chip'.  Sweet Science is upping its game for the holidays.  The previous holiday pint was excellent as well.  I can't want for the next two pints.