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.

Sweet Science - Chai Tea

Chai Tea - Masala Chai Tea Ice Cream

 

Sweet Science has new flavors for September and fall (instagram link here).  Half of them I have reviewed in previous years:  Caramel Apple Cider Crisp, S'mores, and Oatmeal Cookie.  Today's flavor is a chai tea flavored with lots of spices (the ingredients list ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg and cloves).  I have had spiced tea ice creams a few times.  Looking in my archives, it looks like the closest flavor to this would probably be Blue Mountain Spice from Izzy's (although I preferred their Norwegian Chai flavor which is similar).  McConnell's also had a limited batch flavor with a similar base called Masala Chai, Dates & Walnuts but it had crunchy mix-ins.  So, it has been a while since I've had a spicy tea flavor and I am looking forward to it.

Removing the like the tea ice cream has the expected tan/beige color.  Digging in, I taste the spices right away.  It's quite delicious!  The tea flavor is quite good and I can tell that there is cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom in the mix, but I don't taste too much of one particular spice.  This is very well blended. The other flavors above are probably in there as well, but they play a more subtle part in the mix.  The texture is quite good.  This is a light and creamy base and very easy to scoop.  This flavor also smells very nice.  It is a homogeneous flavor with no mix-ins.  This is good stuff.

This is an excellent spicy tea implementation from Sweet Science.  You can tell a lot of thought was put into creating an appealing spice blend which accents the tea quite well without being overpowering.  It's a fun pint to smell as well.  Even though this is not a pint which is overloaded with mix-ins the flavor is so well done, I feel like I am getting my money's worth with this one.  Enjoy.

 

 

Izzy's - Norwegian Chai

Norwegian Chai - Chai Tea Ice Cream mixed with Finely Ground pieces of Cardamom Toast

Today I review a flavor from Saint Paul's Izzy's Ice Cream called Norwegian Chai.  My ancestry is half Norwegian -- my father's father and mother's mother were both 100% Norwegian, so both of my haplogroups come from Norway.  So, I just had to get this flavor.  Izzy's has me covered for the inner parts of my family tree as well.  I have already reviewed Irish and Swedish flavors, so this flavor finishes off my ancestral flavor tour.  This is a chai tea flavor which is blended with finely ground cardamom toast from the local Wuollet's Bakery.  Here is a link to the specific toast -- it looks like a Norwegian version of biscotti.  Cardamom always intrigues me, so I am looking forward to this.

Removing the lid, the chai tea base is a fairly light beige color.  I can smell the spices right away.  Cardamom specifically is known as much for its aroma as it is its taste.  Digging in, it is quite good.  I don't know how to describe it, though.  It's like the tea and spices have blended into their own flavor.  It is not at all bitter, but not too sweet.  As described, the toast pieces are finely ground.  They are the same color as the base ice cream so they don't stick out visually, but I do feel a bit of grit in my mouth and I can see some of the crumbs on my spoon.  The flavor they provide is quite good though.  Later on in the pint, I did encounter a larger toast piece or two that was not fully ground.  Those were fun, but fairly rare.

I liked this pint quite a bit.  This is fun spicy tea flavor.  It's actually the second spicy tea flavor that I have had from Izzy's -- the first was Blue Mountain Spice which I reviewed a couple of years ago now.  The flavors are similar enough that it's difficult to judge them without retrying them side-by-side.  I think I like this Norwegian Chai flavor a bit better, but that could be personal preference.  If I had to describe a distinction between the two flavors, I'd say that Norwegian Chai has a sweeter and blended flavor and did remind me of pieces of cardamom toast dunked in tea while the Blue Mountain Spice had more of a pronounced herbal tea flavor and had stronger spices like cinnamon in the mix.