McConnell's - Cherry Cheesecake & Graham Cracker Crust

Cherry Cheesecake & Graham Cracker Crust - Cheesecake Ice Cream with a Sour Cherry Swirl and Graham Cracker Crumble

 

The third pint from my recent four-pint shipment from the Santa-Barbara-based McConnell's Ice Cream is called Cherry Cheesecake & Graham Cracker Crust.  That's a bit of a mouthful for a flavor name, but I guess it does tell you exactly what is in it.  Checking my archives, the most similar flavor would be Tillamook's Bing Cherry Cheesecake.  I thought I had other slice-of-cherry-cheesecake flavors, but other flavors included chocolate.  My favorite flavors that are close include Sweet Science's Tipsy Cherry Pie, and Pumphouse Creamery's Door County Sour Cherry.

Removing the lid, I can see the cherry swirl right away on top.  I like it when that happens.  The cheesecake base is a bright white color.  I see a couple of other dark objects below the surface which could be more of the swirl or it could be some of the graham cracker pieces.  Digging in, I taste the cherry right away and it is quite delicious.  It is not as bright and sweet as the Pumphouse flavor I mentioned above -- this has more of a jam feel to it.  It is quite good, though.  The graham cracker chunks are of a decent size and are chewy rather than having a gritty pie-crust texture of some graham cracker swirls.  The flavor is quite good.  The chewy nature of the chunks lets more of the flavor of graham crackers to come through.  The cheesecake base is thick and creamy and holds it all together.

This is an excellent cherry-cheesecake based pint from McConnell's.  I liked it better than the recent Tillamook flavor with the same ingredients (thicker, more flavorful swirl, better mix-ins) but McConnell's is a more expensive brand so that is not unexpected.  If you have access to McConnell's and like cherry, then check this one out.