OddFellows - Mandarin Jasmine Brulee

Mandarin Jasmine Brulee - Jasmine Tea Ice Cream with Mandarin Orange Marmalade Jam and Coconut Sugar Crunch

The next pint from my recent shipment from the Brooklyn-based OddFellows Ice Cream is called Mandarin Jasmine Brulee.  Another interesting blend of flavors!  Jasmine tea ice cream, a marmalade jam and a coconut sugar crunch.  Again, I was drawn  As usual with OddFellows, I'll add a note to local readers that I bought this online and it is not available in local grocery stores.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the ice cream has a yellowish color and I see lots of little yellowish-orange specks in it.  Digging in, I taste the orange right away.  The orange specks are chunks from the marmalade jam mix-in.  In the background, I do taste some tea flavor.  My palate is not refine enough to specifically recognize jasmine, but I do taste tea and the jasmine is likely adding to the overall flavor mix.  The coconut sugar crunch described on the carton blended in with the orange chunks in my pint.  Again, I did not specifically notice a coconut flavor but knowing that this is in there, I can see how it probably added chunky/crunchy texture to the marmalade.

Another fascinating and eclectic blend of flavors from OddFellows.  Not every listed flavor was specifically recognizable to me, but I don't doubt their contribution to the overall blend.  What I did taste was a sweet orange against a tea background which is quite delicious.  It is almost like an inverse Earl Grey flavor -- orange with a twist of tea instead of tea with a twist of orange.  If you have this flavor available to you and are curious, then check it out.

Ben & Jerry - Boots on the Moooo'n

Boots on the Moooo'n - A Universe of Milk Chocolate Ice Cream with Fudge Cows & Toffee Meteor Clusters Orbiting a Sugar Cookie Dough Core

Ben & Jerry's has released another Netflix-themed flavor called Boots on the Moooo'n!  I was not expecting a new one so soon.  The first Netflix flavor was about the streaming service itself and is called Netflix & Chilll'd and flavors after that are limited batch releases based on specific Netflix shows.  The first show to get a flavor was Nailed It! with its Chip Happens flavor.  Boots on the Moooo'n is the second show-themed flavor and is based on the Space Force comedy with Steve Carell.  Looking at the flavor description, this appears to be a "core" flavor where a thick mix-in occupies a central cylinder of the pint with ice cream and additional mix-ins surrounding it.  Here, the central core is sugar cookie dough, the base ice cream is chocolate and there are additional toffee pieces (in the shape of meteor clusters) and fudge pieces (in the shape of cows).  Why cows?  Maybe a Hey Diddle Diddle reference (The cow jumped over the moon)?   Or maybe it's just because it is Ben & Jerry's and they love cows. Ben & Jerry's has used a sugar cookie dough core before with Sweet Like Sugar but other flavors were totally different (almond and cherry).  Let's see how this all blends together.

Removing the lid, I see the brown color of the chocolate base with some of the sugar cookie dough core visible on top.  I have discussed in the past about how Ben & Jerry's is delivers chocolate much better though their fudge chips and chunks than their chocolate ice cream base.  That is definitely the case here.  The fudge cows are great which a strong flavor but the chocolate base is just decent.  I encounter the toffee pieces next.  These are interesting.  I don't think I have seen another Ben & Jerry flavor with this type of toffee before.  They are tasty and crunchy but not in a jawbreaking way like in their signature imitation-heath-bar flavors (here and here).  They are almost chewy and crunchy at the same time.  The sugar cookie dough is gritty and chewy like it is in the Sweet Like Sugar flavor but it is interesting to see how it interacts with all the chocolate.  Sugar cookies do not have a very strong flavor themselves and blending but I am not used to them being mixed with chocolate.  Usually sugar cookies are served plain or with a decorative vanilla frosting.  It works though.  Next time I have sugar cookies, I might try adding chocolate frosting.

This is an interesting and eclectic limited batch flavor from Ben & Jerry's.  There's a lot of different things going on here, mixing sugar cookie dough and chocolate, a new chewy-crunchy toffee mix-in plus the old reliable fudge chips (in the shape of cows).  On the whole it is fairly good it can have a bit of a "kitchen sink" effect where there's so many ingredients that it is hard to enjoy each one individually.  But sometimes one in in the mood for that type of flavor.  I am looking forward to seeing if this toffee mix-ins returns in future flavors.

Izzy's - Sugar Cookie

Sugar Cookie - Sugar Cookie Ice Cream

Today we return to the Saint Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream for a flavor called Sugar Cookie.  I saw the flavor on their flavor up page which I often check while riding the bus home from work.  I had not seen this flavor before -- I have not seen a similar flavor from other brands either -- so I figured that I should check it out.  Interestingly, the flavor is not listed on their main flavor page, so perhaps it is an experimental flavor (though they often say 'test batch' for those).  Anyhow, it should be a fun to see what this flavor is like.


Removing the lid, I see the base ice cream is a light off-white color -- the same color as a sugar cookie.  That makes sense!  The first spoonful tastes like a sugar cookie -- not just the sugar, but the cookie, too.  It tastes pretty good.  I do not notice any mix-ins.  As I eat my way through the rest of the pint, I only notice a couple of larger crumbs of cookies, so it appears that the cookies here have been ground into a powder before being blended into the base.  I noticed the same thing with their Norwegian Chai flavor.  The ice cream retains its smooth, rich homogeneous texture, but attains the flavor of the ground cookies that are mixed in very early in the churning process.

This ice cream very accurately re-creates the flavor of sugar cookies inside, that thick, creamy texture that I know and like from Izzy's.  It is a very simple pint, though and sugar cookies are the cookies with perhaps the simplest flavor, and the flavor is ground in so there are no chunky cookie mix-ins.  It's still great sugar cookie flavor so if you're in the mood for that, this is a great flavor to try.  If it is too simple, you might want to pair a scoop of it with a scoop of something else.

Ben & Jerry's - Pucker Upper

Pucker Upper - Raspberry Sorbet with an Extra Tart Lemonade Sorbet Swirl & Sour Sugar Bits

Ben & Jerry's has a new summer flavor and it is a sorbet!  I know they have a non-dairy line, but I believe this is the first sorbet that I have seen from them.  At least in a past few years since I started surveying their collection.  This is a raspberry lemonade sorbet that they call Pucker Upper.  Sounds like they are preparing us for tartness!  I am looking forward to checking this out.

Removing the lid, the raspberry sorbet is a dark pink color.  I can tell right away that this has a sorbet-like texture.  A sorbet is non-dairy by design.  It's main ingredients are flavor (fruit juice here), sugar and ice -- and then it is churned like an ice cream.  I can tell just by looking at the top of the pint that it's a sorbet.  It has a 'frozen slush' texture to it that many sorbets have.  Digging in, the raspberry flavor is a bit tart -- they warned us didn't they? -- but it is quite tasty.  As I dig further down, I start to uncover sections of lemonade sorbet.  The raspberry and lemonade sorbets are marbled rather than blended.  The lemonade sorbet is also delicious, but it is even more tart -- as lemonade often is.  The sugar bit mix-ins are in the lemonade sorbet, but not the raspberry sorbet.  I notice the texture difference more than the flavor, but it is likely that the lemonade sorbet would be even more tart without them.

This is a totally different kind of pint than we normally see from Ben & Jerry's.  They are known for their mix-ins -- cores, truffles, brownies, fudge chips, etc -- but here we have a marbling of two sorbets.  It is a bit tart, but not as sour as you might expect a flavor named "Pucker Upper" to be.  It is all about managing expectations.  One minor quibble is that this sorbet is not completely dairy free.  If you check the ingredients, you'll see that it says "Warning: Contains Milk and Soy" and the list does contain "nonfat milk" and "milk".  It still feels and tastes like a sorbet.  Perhaps a smidge of milk helps it churn a bit better like a sherbet does?  I doubt it is enough to bother people unless your dairy allergy or lactose intolerance is very strong, but you figure if they wanted to cheat on their sorbet implementation that they could have used something non-dairy like coconut milk or almond milk.  Anyhow, for those without dairy issues, this is a fun change of pace from Ben & Jerry.  Check it out if a frozen raspberry lemonade sounds good on a hot day.

Ben & Jerry's - Sweet Like Sugar

Sweet Like Sugar - Sweet Cream Ice Cream with a hint of Almond flavor & Shortbread Cookies & Cherry Ice Cream with Cherries & a Sugar Cookie Dough Core

Ben & Jerry's has new flavors for 2019!  Ben & Jerry's is the brand that got me started with these reviews.  I don't get to have their ice cream as often any more because I've reviewed all of the items on the current menu.  So, I'm relegated to waiting for new flavors to come out so that I can have Ben & Jerry's again.  For 2019, Ben & Jerry's is releasing three new "Core" flavors.  As has been mentioned in previous reviews, a "Core" flavor is where a there is a cylinder of a non-ice cream mix-in in the center of the carton with ice cream on the outside.   The first set of core flavors all contained thick and gooey mix-ins -- like caramel, fudge, jam, and later cheesecake and brownie batter.  Then in 2015 they came out with "cookie cores" where the core was made from cookie butter (baked cookies that are ground up and mixed with condensed milk to form a spreadable paste).  This year, they're releasing "cookie dough cores".  If cookie butter worked well, why not cookie dough?  The three cookie dough core flavors use three different types of cookie dough: sugar cookie dough, chocolate chip cookie dough and a 'no bake' cookie dough core.  I trekked down to my local scoop shop to pick them up.  They had one of them.  It is called Sweet Like Sugar and has a core of sugar cookie dough.  Surrounding the core is sweet cream, a hint of almond flavor, shortbread cookies, cherry ice cream and cherries.  That's a lot of flavors!  Let's see how this all works out.

Opening the pint, I actually see almost all the ingredients right away -- which is impressive because there are so many of them.  The two bases are split.  Sweet cream on one half, and cherry on the other.  The cherry base is a very light pink.  The top of the sugar cookie dough core can be seen.  Expectedly, it is the light yellow color of sugar cookies.  I can see one of the cherry pieces as well.  Digging in, the cherry base is light and subtle while the cherry pieces are larger than I expected and delicious.  The emphasis on the cherry side is on the cherry pieces.  It is quite good.  On the sweet cream side, I don't taste the hint of almond much -- perhaps too subtle for me.  I first confused the shortbread cookie mix-ins with the core.  They are different though.  The shortbread cookies are soft, but have certainly been baked.  The sugar cookie dough core is the most distinctive part of the pint.  It has an interesting texture.  It is softer and gooier than I expected -- some cookie doughs are thicker and have some grainy sugariness.  It is quite fun to eat.  There is not a very large amount of it compared to other core flavors though.  That was OK, because the surrounding ice creams were good.

This is a very interesting and flavorful pint of ice cream.  I don't know how Ben & Jerry's is able to mass-produce this blend of ingredients -- core in the middle with cherry base and cherries on one side and sweet cream and shortbread cookies on the other.  It all has the potential to go awry in the mix but each flavor remains distinct and delicious.  I did like the pint.  It's worth a try if you like cookie dough flavors.  There is more cherry flavor in this mix than I was expecting -- it isn't obvious when you see the pint in a freezer case that there will be this much cherry.  I really liked the cherry flavor, but people might be surprised.  I am anxious to try out the other two cookie dough core flavors.  I hope my local scoop shop stocks them soon.