Ample Hills - Be Mine

Be Mine - Strawberry Ice Cream with Dark Chocolate Flakes

The Brooklyn-based Ample Hills Creamery had a free-shipping deal for their Oscar-themed flavor.  Their Valentines flavor was also still available as well.  I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get two limited batch flavors in one shipment, so I got four pints.  I decided to have the Valentine's Flavor first because we're already a week late.  The flavor is called Be Mine and it's a strawberry ice cream with dark chocolate flakes.

Opening the pint, I see the light pink color of the strawberry base.  I also see a bunch of small chocolate specks, but I only see them on one side.  Sometimes that happens on the top layer.  Digging in, the strawberry base is fully strained -- no solids or seeds -- and it is quite tasty.  The chocolate chips on the one side are fairly dense and provide a lot of crunchy flavor.  As I continued eating the pint, the mixing issues persisted.  There are large sections of the pint which are only the strawberry base and other sections which are chip-heavy.  I get the impression that this is not intentional, but I actually didn't mind.  The strawberry base is quite delicious so it was good to have some spoonfuls which contained only that so that I could appreciate it more.  As I got further down, I encountered a spoon-sized chunk of aggregated chocolate chips.  It was almost as if I was eating a crunchy version of Graeters.  Like the semi-accidental super chips in a Graeters pint, the big chunk of chocolate near the bottom was quite tasty.

I enjoyed this pint.  The mixing flaw was a bit strange -- I am almost positive that it is accidental -- but I went with it and I almost want to say I liked it better this way.  The smooth and fully-strained strawberry base was easier to appreciate this way and the denser sections of chips were fun.  I'm not sure how reproducible this mixing would be if I got this pint again, though.  Anyhow, it's a fun flavor for Valentine's Day.