McConnell's - Vanilla Bean

Vanilla Bean - Vanilla Ice Cream with Vanilla Beans

Today is the final pint of my recent four-pint shipment from McConnell's Fine Ice Creams, Vanilla Bean.  I am often hesitant to do reviews of vanilla pints because there implementation is quite simple and without a side-by-side comparison it's hard for me to judge them, but I needed an extra pint to fill out my four-pint shipment and they only had two spring flavors (Passionfruit Custard and Pineapple Rum and Guava Jam).  McConnell's proudly gets their vanilla from the R. R. Lochhead company -- so much so that they list the name parenthetically on the side of the carton.  This is a Madagascar vanilla -- from that island and extracted from the bean with a 'cool extractor'.  Let's check it out.

Popping off the lid and removing the extra seal, the top of the pint is an off-white color and many vanilla bean specks are visible.  The pictures are below.  The texture is thick, dense, but creamy as is quite common with McConnell's pints.  The vanilla flavor is quite good.

This is a very good pint of vanilla ice cream.  It is a simple implementation and has that excellent McConnell's texture.  Unless you are like me and doing a full survey of their product line, you probably wouldn't include it in an online shipment -- they have more interesting flavors for that -- but if you are in the mood for vanilla and are at a McConnell's scoop shop or you see a pint in a freezer case, you can't go wrong here.