Milkjam Creamery - Ugly Sweater

Ugly Sweater - Chai Gingerbread Ice Cream with Molasses Meringue and Crunchy Toffee

 

The next December flavor (instagram link here) from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery is called Ugly Sweater (instagram link here).  This flavor blends gingerbread with chai tea in the base and has a molasses meringue swirl and crunchy toffee pieces.  Looks interesting.  Checking last year's December flavors, Milkjam did have a gingerbread-themed flavor called the Great American Bake-Off but it is substantially different than today's flavor.  Last year's flavor had a gingerbread base and a pumpkin swirl.  Today's flavor has no pumpkin and blends in chai tea into the base and adds molasses meringue and crunchy toffee pieces.  On to today's flavor.

Removing the lid, the color I see is mostly creamy beige.  So, a light colored gingerbread (or the chai tea is helping to lighten it).  The toffee is a similar color and I don't see the molasses swirl yet.  What it does not look like is an ugly sweater!  I think of ugly sweaters being lots of red and green with ridiculous patterns -- not these earth tones.  I kid.  I love the flavor name and I guess it doesn't really have to resemble the ice cream.  Anyway, as I eat my way down, the gingerbread base has a lot of brown sugar flavor which is good.  The effect of the chai tea is noticeable, but subtle.  The toffee pieces are crunchy and good.  I did see some of the 'molasses meringue' around some of the clumps of toffee as I ate my way further down.  It was not the blackish goo that I was imagining.  It was more like a dark brown sugary paste.  Good flavor though.  

I enjoyed this pint of from Milkjam.  Rather than a simple homogenous pint of gingerbread flavored ice cream, this is a very chunky mix of gingerbread and gingerbread-adjacent flavors (brown sugar, molasses, toffee).  It worked pretty well.  The twist of chai was a nice touch as well.