Izzy's - Coffee Break

Coffee Break - Coffee Ice Cream with Oreo Cookie Pieces

Today is another flavor from the Saint Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream.  I had come into the store because they had a flavor-of-the-year winner available (Cabernet de l'Orange), but this one looked so good in the scooping bin that I had to get it as well.  This flavor is called Coffee Break.  It is a coffee cookies & cream.  I am surprised that I have not seen this idea for a flavor combination before!  I know coffee goes well with chocolate and I know that Oreos (or Oreo-like cookies) are a common substitute for chocolate chips.  I've seen regular cookies and cream, chocolate cookies and cream, mint cookies and cream, peanut butter cookies and cream -- why not coffee cookies and cream?  The closest I can find in my archive is an Espresso Chocolate Cookie Crumble from Häagen-Dazs, but the cookie swirl there is not quite the same thing as cookies & cream.  So, I'm looking forward to checking this out.

Opening the lid, I see a lot of cookie pieces right away.  Large cookie pieces.  I can even see the white filling of the sandwich cookies in a few places.  I can tell right away that these are Oreo-brand sandwich cookies.  The coffee ice cream is a beige color is a beige color.  Digging in, the coffee flavor of the base is quite good.  I had someone who likes coffee more than me try it out and they liked it.  That said, the flavor is not too intense.  In some coffee ice cream, you can taste the beans and a dose of caffeine hits you.  This is just good coffee flavor.  The Oreo pieces are quite large and quite good.  This is a very generation amount of cookie pieces for a cookies and cream.  Even more so that Izzy's regular Cookies & Cream flavor.  That could be something that varies from batch to batch -- perhaps I just lucked out here? -- or it could be that the regular cookies & cream flavor was pre-packaged while this pint was hand packed.  As I finish the pint, I notice that I am more full than usual.  This is delicious, but it is also quite filling.  It is very good, though.

This is an excellent pint of coffee cookies & cream!  Good coffee and great Oreo cookie mix-ins.  Coffee & chocolate go very well together and Oreos are a great way to deliver chocolate.  There should be more coffee cookies & cream implementations!