Honeymoon - Blueberry Lavender

Blueberry Lavender - Blueberry Ice Cream with a Hint of Lavender

It is time for another Honeymoon flavor.  This time it is their Blueberry Lavender flavor.  This is the first pint I've reviewed which includes lavender.  Lavender is a flowering herb of the mint family which is native to the Mediterranean region, the Middle East and India.  It's use is as old as civilization itself.  The name has become synonymous with the color of its flowers and also the aromatic flavor of the herb.  Mixing it with blueberry is a good match color-wise, we'll see if it is a good match flavor-wise.

Unscrewing the lid of the distinctive mason jars shows the, um, lavender color of the ice cream.  Most of the color probably comes from the blueberry, but it is cool that it matches the lavender as well.  With the first spoonful I did notice the aromatic lavender flavor right away.  It does not overpower the blueberry but I certainly noticed it.  The blueberry was good.  Honeymoon bases always have a soft and creamy texture.  This is a super-premium brand and you do get the feeling that they put a little more care into crafting their bases.  As I ate my way down into the pint, the lavender faded a bit but I that's just that my mouth had reached saturation.  They did advertise it as a 'hint' of lavender and a little bit was enough.

This is a fun flavor.  It is a simple and homogeneous flavor but it well done and contains the lavender herb which is hard to find in pre-packaged pints (though I have seen in appear in scoop shops from time to time).  Honeymoon has a knack for giving you flavors that you cannot find elsewhere, whether it be lavender here, or bay laurel, tarragon or plum from previous reviews.  This one a bit more subtle than those, but it is still well done.

  

Honeymoon - Chocolate Laurel

Chocolate Laurel - Sweet Cream infused with Bay Laurel Leaves with Chocolate Sablee Cookie Pieces

Shopping around for new pints, I appear to exhausted all of the 'new' flavors released by Ben & Jerry's and Häagen-Dazs this year -- at least all the ones that I can find.  I was in the mood for something new, so I went to Whole Foods to see what the super-premium brands were offering.  The honeymoon brand caught my eye.  That's the Bay Area brand that comes in small glass mason jars.  I decided to go with their Chocolate Laurel flavor.  Bay leaves in ice cream?  And the mix-ins are crushed chocolate sable cookies?  Part of me thinks that just knowing that this ice cream exists will help my hipster cred.  I suppose I did find it at Whole Foods.

I was curious about sable cookies because I was unfamiliar with the term.  It turns out that I do know this cookies just under a different name.  I know them as sand cookies -- 'sable' is the French word for sand - and they are so named because they crumble like sand when you eat them.  The ones I've had before are flavored with almond extract.  Here they are flavored with chocolate.

Unscrewing the mason jar shows a white ice cream base with a lot of chocolate cookie crumbs present even on the very top.  With the first spoonful, I immediately taste the bay leaves.  It is quite good actually.  I was not expecting laurel to be a flavor that would go well in a dessert.  I guess mint comes from a leave, too, but something seems different about that.  The crushed sable cookies added a lot of crunchy chocolate flavor into the mix.  They reminded me a bit of what a thin mint girl scout cookie would taste like without the mint.  Sure enough, after some googling I found recipes for homemade thin mints which described them as 'mint chocolate sables'.  So maybe that is the connection.  If mint can go with chocolate, why not bay leaves, too?  

This was a surprisingly successful pint for me.  There was plenty of bay laurel flavor in this pint and it actually went well with the chocolate and the ice cream.  I wonder why this combination is not done more often.  Anyhow, if you have access to the Honeymoon brand and are looking for a new flavor combination then certainly give this one a try.  It was fun.

  

Honeymoon - Strawberry Tarragon

Strawberry Tarragon - Sweet Cream with a Swirl of Strawberry Tarragon Jam

The cute mason jar image above means that we are return to the San Rafael-based Honeymoon brand this week for their Strawberry Tarragon flavor.  I have never had tarragon in an ice cream before -- in fact, I'm not even sure what tarragon is!  It sounds familiar, but I had to google and consult a friend or two to prepare.  I guess tarragon is an herb similar to anise or fennel with a licorice-like aftertaste.  As noted in reviews here before, strawberry is a very strong and sweet flavor which can be overpowering by itself.  So, something is often used to 'cut' the flavor, we've seen cheesecake or balsamic vinegar used before.  It will be interesting to see how tarragon turns out.

Unscrewing the lid of the mason jar reveals a solid white color of the sweet cream base.  Uh oh... it looks like there might be mixing issues.  All of the strawberry visible on through the glass seems to be only on the sides of the jar.  That's a bit worrisome.  Eating my way into the pint, the strawberry jam is quite flavorful, the tarragon mutes the sweetness while the tarragon gives it a bit of an earthy aftertaste.  For some reason, its the same flavor that I'd imagine a strawberry newton would taste like -- although I've never had one of those.  The mixing issue persisted throughout the pint.  In a previous pint this was a big problem because many spoonfuls would only contain the plain base -- which is no fun.  But here, it actually worked out.  The entire lining of the jar contained strawberry tarragon flavor and it didn't take much of it to take over a spoonful.  I think two things help here.  First, the sweet cream base is very soft so it was not tough to slice through it with your spoon.  Second, the jar itself is a bit narrower than most ice cream container -- so it was easier to get a bit of the sides into every spoon.  As a side effect, I got to try some of the plain sweet cream in the middle and it is good.

So, a successful pint.  The mixing issue may be a warning flag for future flavors from this brand but it worked out here.  If you like strawberry and you are curious about how it mixes with tarragon, then you should check this out.

  

Honeymoon - Brown Butter Plum

Brown Butter Plum - Sweet Cream with a Plum Jam Swirl and a Brown Butter-Roasted Oat Crumble

Scanning freezer cases across southern California, I occasionally come across the Honeymoon brand of premium ice cream where the pints come in these glass jars.  I decided to finally give it a try and picked up a pint.  This brand seems to have some interesting flavor combinations.  For my first pint, I went with the Brown Butter Plum flavor.

Honeymoon Ice Cream was founded in 2013 in the San Rafael, California by David Young.  A typical premium brand with locally-sourced ingredients and interesting flavor combinations, Honeymoon does a few things differently than others.  First, it gets its dairy products from Jersey cows in nearby Sonoma County.  I guess most dairy products come from Holstein cows, second of course are these glass jars with the metal screw-top lid.  This does give you a peek inside before you dive in.

Unscrewing the lid shows that the pint shows a gob of plum jam visible on the very top with little specks of what is probably the oat crumble.  Eating my way into the pint, the oat crumble is quite tasty.  There are whole bits of toasted oatmeal flakes within the crumble which are crunchy and a bit sweet at the same time.  The plum jam is not always visible but it is always noticeable.  As noted in the past, a little bit of jam can go a long way and this pint is no exception.  

This was a very interesting pint.  I've never had plum in an ice cream before and the crumble simulated the effect of eating plum pie with ice cream.  Of course, if you like plum, you should check this out.