McConnell's - Seavees Sprinkled with Pride

Seavees Sprinkled with Pride - Strawberry Ice Cream with Shortcake Pieces, Strawberry Jam and Rainbow Sprinkles

I made an online order from Santa Barbara's McConnell's Ice Cream!  It has been a while, but I was surfing the web for ice cream one day and found that they had enough new flavors for me to purchase a shipment.  The first flavor is called Seavees Sprinkled with Pride.  

Seavees is a shoe company which like McConnell's is also based in Santa Barbara.  It has an interesting history.  It started in the 1960s as a casual sneaker company, first as a subsidiary of BF Goodrich and then as a subsidiary of Converse.  In the early 1970s, a court ruled that Converse controlled too much of the sneaker market to also own Seavees, so Converse discontinued the brand.  Fast-Forward to 2008 and the brand is relaunched -- this time as an independent company.  They've teamed up with McConnell's to sponsor this LGBTQIA+ themed flavor with 5% of the proceeds going to the Pacific Pride Foundation.  

What is in the flavor?  It's a strawberry ice cream with shortcake pieces, a swirl of strawberry jam and rainbow sprinkles.  I have had strawberry shortcake-themed pints before from Ben & Jerry's (limited batch no longer available), Tillamook and Talenti Layers.  This is the first with sprinkles, but sprinkles are mainly a cosmetic addition so it should still be easy to compare.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid and peeling back the foil, I see the pink color of the strawberry base and lots sprinkles.  Digging in, the strawberry ice cream is very good.  McConnell's has just about the densest ice cream around while still being cream-based.  The swirls of jam add additional strawberry flavor.  I worried a bit that the jam might be frozen it softens up very quickly in my mouth the shortcake pieces are scattered throughout the pint.  The spoon cuts through them very easily, they provide a little bit of a change in texture as I eat it.  The pieces are not as gritty in texture as the ones in their Earl Grey & Shortbread Cookies flavor, so it does appear that this is a different mix-in.  The difference between shortbread cookie and shortcake I suppose.  The sprinkles are a nice visual touch.  I notice that some of the sprinkles have a darker color than I expected.  I checked the ingredient list and sure enough some of them are chocolate sprinkles.  I don't find that sprinkles add much flavor but your palate may be more sensitive than mine.

This is an excellent strawberry shortcake themed pint from McConnell's.  I love the thickness of McConnell's Ice Cream and the two strawberry flavors (base and swirl) are delicious.  Compared to the other strawberry shortcake implementations linked above, I liked the flavor of this the best which says a lot because I really enjoyed the Talenti and Tillamook flavors as well.  If McConnell's is available near you, check this out.