Alden's - Caramel Macchiato

Caramel Macchiato - Coffee Ice Cream Swirled with Sweet Cream Ice Cream and a Ribbon of Salted Caramel

I am trying a new brand today.  This is from Alden's Ice Cream of Oregon.  Many local grocery stores stock it (I got my pint at Lunds in Highland Park) and it is mid-premium priced.  At the moment, I am not able to trek around the cities looking for pints as much as normal, so it seems like a good time to try new things (or at least new to me) that are available at the stores that I am shopping at.  The carton says that Alden's has been around since 2004, but some digging shows that they are a subsidary brand of Oregon Ice Cream that has been around since 1938.  Recently, the parent company merged the Alden's and Julie's Organic brands into a single line of flavors. 

Today's flavor is called Caramel Macchiato.  It is a coffee ice cream swirled with a sweet cream a ribbon of salted caramel.  I have seen this flavor combination a couple of times before.  Recently from a 7-11 exclusive Ben & Jerry's flavor Cold Brew Caramel Latte but also older flavors such as Häagen-Dazs' Sweet Cream Coffee Caramel (discontinued) and Ben & Jerry's Coffee Caramel Buzz (discontinued).  Let's see how Alden's compares.

Opening the pint, a hunk of the ice cream stuck to the lid.  That usually does not happen.  Next I noticed there is some frost in the area where the ice cream broke.  My first thought is that I wonder if the pint partially melted and then was refrozen.  My next thought is that I wonder if this brand would be helped with those foil seals between the lid and the ice cream that are growing in popularity these days.  I guess I have to plunge ahead here.  The base is a light brown color -- it looks more caramel colored than coffee colored.  I do notice a nice thick caramel swirl on top near where the lid ice cream broke off.  Digging in, I unfortunately do notice the ice crystals in the cream when I eat it.  I can hold the ice cream in my mouth to melt the ones on the top but I also notice smaller crystals throughout the rest of the pint.  It is giving it a grainy texture.  The caramel swirl tastes fairly good despite this.  The base coffee ice cream is more blended with sweet cream rather than swirled with it giving it a very muted coffee flavor.  The caramel flavor goes well with it.  It wouldn't be a bad pint if it wasn't for the crystallization.  That's a substantial 'if' though.

The ingredient mix seems promising but I can't get past the crystallization issue here.  It is especially frustrating because this is my very first pint from Alden's.  Is this just a fluke?  I got a bad pint which was sitting in a warm spot on a truck?  Or is this a quality issue with the Alden's brand.  Has anyone else had issues with Alden's?  I guess I'll have to try another pint at some point to see.  Interestingly, this did happen with my very first pint from Graeter's a few years ago -- with the famous Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip no less!  That one was a total fluke and I never had an issue with Graeter's again.  I'm not sure what to think here.  Stay tuned for future Alden's reviews (although I do not have another pint in my home freezer just yet).