Coolhaus - Queens' Coffee

Queen's Coffee - Coffee Ice Cream 

Well, here is an unexpected surprise!  A new flavor from Coolhaus which I stumbled upon at the Whole Foods on Lake & Excelsior in Minneapolis.  It is called Queens' Coffee and I had no idea it was coming.  Also, Whole Foods usually only carries Coolhaus sandwiches and not the pints.  It was only after I got the pint home and in my freezer that I started seeing tweets about the flavor.  I have checked their website again and a link has shown up.  It appears to be a simple coffee ice cream implementation.  The coffee comes from Allegro Coffee headquartered in the Denver area.  Specifically, it includes a coffee which Allegro calls their Three Queens Blend -- coffee from three farms  -- one in Rwanda, one in Malawi and one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- which promote gender equity.  Coolhaus itself is a women-founded and women-owned company, so this partnership makes sense.  Also, there was not previous a coffee flavor in Coolhaus' pint selection, so this pint fills a void in that respect as well.

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid, it looks like Coolhaus has switched from foil to plastic for their extra seal.  Compare the image below from today's pint with that from a previous review with the same message.  I understand the move away from foil, but I'm not sure about the color scheme.  It's just a cosmetic thing.  Peeling back the seal, the coffee base has the expected light brown color.  Digging in, the coffee flavor is quite good.  It has a lot of coffee flavor, but it is not too intense and not at all bitter.  The ice cream has the thick texture that I've come to expect from Coolhaus.  They originally designed their product for use in ice cream sandwiches so it appears to fold onto your spoon as you scoop it.  I shared some of this flavor with my coffee-loving friend and they approved.  It is a homogeneous pint with no mix-ins.

This is a solid implementation of a coffee ice cream from Coolhaus.  Nothing too fancy.  There are no mix-ins or swirls and it does not have a super-intense flavor to appease caffeine junkies.  I have trouble ranking coffee bases against each other, but this is certainly a good coffee ice cream.  I look forward to seeing if they work this flavor into future ice cream sandwich releases.  It would go really well with a chocolate cookie.