Steve's - Brooklyn Blackout Cake

Brooklyn Blackout Cake - Ovenly Dark Chocolate Stout Cake folded into rich dark chocolate ice cream made with grass-fed milk and cream with a swirl of dark chocolate pudding.

Back to Steve's for this week's ice cream review.  Steve's is the old Boston scoop shop which pioneered the use of the mix-in and its brand has recently been revived as a provider of premium pints.  I was in the mood for chocolate so I thought I'd try out the Brooklyn Blackout Cake flavor.  I was not familiar with the cake version of Brooklyn Blackout Cake so I looked it up.  It is a layered chocolate cake with chocolate pudding between the layers and chocolate frosting on the outside.  Sounds very chocolatey!  I can't wait to dig in.

Opening the lid of Steve's DIY-style packaging, I see a light-brown color of the chocolate base with some of the pudding swirl evident on top.  Digging into the pint, the pudding swirl seemed to disappear but I think what happened is that it got blended into the chocolate base because that base was very delicious.  The cake pieces revealed themselves below as well and they were quite tasty.  They were very soft and had a kick of dark chocolate bitterness to them.  All of the chocolate ingredients were billed on the carton as being 'dark' but really only the cake was a true dark chocolate.  A few of the cake pieces near the bottom of the pint were a bit frozen but that's a minor quibble.

I really enjoyed this pint and would have it again.  It's kind of a fancier version of Ben & Jerry's Chocolate Fudge Brownie but cake pieces instead of brownies and a more flavorful chocolate base.  I would go so far as to say that I like this better than Chocolate Fudge Brownie.  So, if you are a chocolate fan and you like your chocolate mix-in's in soft and chewy form then give this one a whirl.

McConnell's - Salted Caramel Chip

Salted Caramel Chip - A uniquely deep and complex salted caramel. Almost toffee-like in flavor, brought together with our stunningly rich mix of cage-free organic eggs, pure cane sugar and fresh, Central Coast, grass-fed milk and cream, then topped-off by our signature, Guittard bittersweet, melted chocolate.

Happy New Year!  Welcome to the second year of ice cream reviews.  All of the extant Ben & Jerry's flavors have been reviewed so we are currently exploring other premium brands.  Today, it is back to McConnells for their Salted Caramel Chip.  As always, the McConnell's carton contains a colorful extended blurb on reverse side.  In the past, I've referred to this as their "Peterman Catalogue-style description" but recently I've learned the official term for this is "romance copy".

Opening the pint, I was surprised to see a solid beige color for the base.  I was expecting to see swirls of salted caramel, but here they've actually created a base ice cream salted caramel.  Some of the chips are visible on the top as well.  Digging into the pint, the caramel flavor was quite distinct.  It actually felt like tasting a "sugar daddy" candy bar.  The chips were the same as those in Mint Chip.  They are soft and half melted and had a bit of randomness to its concentration -- some spoonfuls had more chips than others.  I am not sure how one achieves this chip distribution but I actually approve.

Overall, I was not entirely satisfied with the pint.  The "sugar daddy" flavor was a hoot for a few spoonfuls but there were diminishing returns as I finished the pint.  Most importantly, it was not what I was expecting.  I expected little salted caramel mini-swirls of caramel blended with chips.  Sort of like their chocolate covered strawberries flavor but with small caramel bits instead of strawberry pieces.  So I'm kind of left craving that idea in my head.  Still, if you really like "sugar daddy" candy bars, then you could give this a try.

Häagen-Dazs - Peppermint Bark

Peppermint Bark - White Chocolate Ice Cream with Peppermint Bark Pieces and Peppermint Twists Candy Pieces

Christmas is upon us and Häagen-Dazs has a seasonal flavor available to help us celebrate.  It's based on two common snack candies available this time of year: peppermint bark and candy canes.  Interestingly, they've chosen a white chocolate base for these mix-ins which I have not seen before.  So, in the spirit of the holidays, let's dig in.

Opening the pint, I mostly see the white color of the white chocolate base.  A few dark and pinks are also visible indicative of the mix-ins that undoubtedly lie below.   Sure enough, I found the relatively large peppermint bark pieces right away as I dug in.  They were big hunks of crumbly chunky chocolate with a strong mint flavor blended in.  The occasional candy cane piece was also found.  These pieces where fairly small but I did notice that characteristic candy-cane crunch for one bite each time.  The white chocolate base was fairly subtle but I did notice the mild flavor of cocoa butter.  In previous pints, I've commented that the white chocolate pieces do not taste like much at all, but when its in the base I was allowed to focus in on the flavor and I did notice it.

This flavor was not bad, but I didn't think it was as good as a well-done mint-chocolate chip.  If you like peppermint and you're up for something holiday-specific then you can pick it up while it is still in season, but otherwise I'll stick to my favorite mint-chip flavors.

Steve's - Southern Banana Pudding

Southern Banana Pudding - Honey-coated vanilla wafers in fresh banana ice cream with a swirl of banana cream pudding

Trying a new brand for this week's review.  Steve's!  From the bare-bones simple packaging, this appears at first glance to be a newcomer do-it-yourself brand but it is actually a premium brand ($7.99/pint) with a long corporate history.  Steve's is named after Steve Harrell who opened an ice cream shop in Somerville, Massachusetts (just north of Boston) back in 1973.  Steve pioneered the use of mix-ins in ice cream shops.  The the famous Amy's ice cream shop in Austin, Texas was started by one of his former employees.  So successful was his ice cream shop that Steve was able to sell out to a local restaurant chain in 1977.  The restaurant chain experimented with franchising and pre-packaged pints with some success at first but it discontinued the Steve's brand in the early 1990s.  In 2009, the Steve's brand was reacquired in David Stein -- one Steve's original employees in Somerville from the 1970s -- who opened up shops in Brooklyn & Manhattan and also made pints available in grocery stores.  Some of the flavors and flavor combinations look pretty interesting so I thought I'd give it a try.

This particular flavor is called Southern Banana Pudding.  I picked it to start because I've always been a fan of banana cream pie.  After opening the pint and removing the foil wrapper between the lid and the ice cream, I see the off-white color of the banana base with a hint of the banana cream swirl evident.  Also, it has sort of a unique look to the top of the pint as the ice cream appears to have pushed up a bit and also separated from the side of the plastic pail. (see photo).  Digging into the pint, the banana flavor is very strong.  Quite good, but very strong.  The base ice cream has a thick and pasty texture.  I'm not sure if that's the work of the banana cream swirl or if Steve's mixing their base ice creams this way.  The vanilla wafer bits become common as I dug further down.  They were quite good -- its often good for a flavor based on a pie filling to be offset by a bready mix-in to simulate the presence of a pie crust.  I did not taste any honey-coating on the wafers but the wafers still tasted quite good.  A couple of quibbles as I got to the bottom of the pint.  First, the ice cream got a bit runny as it melted.  Instead of a soft melted cream at the bottom, it was more like ice cream floating in milk.  Second, the very strong banana flavor got overwhelming at the end of the pint.  This might not be one to eat all in one sitting.  It is probably a flavor best split in half and shared with a friend.

Quibbles aside, I still enjoyed the pint.  Steve's a few other interesting flavors which I'll probably give a try in the coming months.

Ben & Jerry's - New Belgium Salted Caramel Brown-ie Ale

New Belgium Salted Caramel Brown-ie Ale - New Belgium Brown Ale Ice Cream with Fudge Brownies & Salted Caramel Swirls

A new Ben & Jerry Flavor!  This is a limited batch flavor done in coordination with the New Belgium brewing company.  Ben & Jerry's is doing a beer-flavored ice cream and New Belgium is doing a chocolatey salted caramel beer. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3On2ekTi3YI

Similar to this summer's "Save Our Swirled" flavor, the proceeds go to a climate-change related charity.  There is more information at the Ben & Jerry's site:

http://www.benjerry.com/flavors/salted-caramel-brownie-ale-ice-cream

It is funny that they make you enter your date of birth before entering the page.  I double-checked with other alcohol-selling websites such as Budweiser and Coors.  Annoyingly, you have to repeat this process every time go back to the webpage.  You'd think that Ben & Jerry's would know about browser cookies since they have so many cookie-related mix-ins in their ice cream.  (*groan*)   I am not familiar with New Belgium Ale -- though I must admit I'm not much of a beer aficionado.  I am more of a margarita guy.

Opening the pint, you see that the brown ale ice cream base has a very light beige color and some of caramel swirls and brownie bites are visible on the top.  You'll notice that I was so excited to dig in that I forgot to take a picture right after opening but I think enough of the very top is visible in the picture that I did take.  Digging into the pint, you do really taste the beer in the ice cream.  Checking the ingredients, sure enough it reads "Beer (Water, Malted Barley, Hops, Yeast)".  I don't know if its the barley or the hops that I tasted (or perhaps both) but it has the same kind of back-of-the-throat bite that a beer gives you.  I couldn't tell if it had any alcohol in it.  The carton did not explicitly mention that it did, but I imagine that even if it did it was not very much. 

As always, the chocolate brownies are excellent.  Its been mentioned so many times, but it is a marvel how they keep them soft, chewy and flavorful while being frozen in a pint of ice cream.  The salted caramel was also quite good.  I liked it better here than in the 'salted caramel core' flavor.  There is was a bigger core of salted caramel and blondies were used instead of brownies.  Unlike the brownies, there is a freezing issue with the blondies.

I did enjoy this pint more than I expected.  I'm not really a beer guy, but the bitterness of the ale actually complements the sweetness of the ice cream and its mix-ins.  Plus, chocolate & caramel is always a good combination.  I imagine there may be a wide range of reactions to a beer-flavored ice cream.  Beer lovers might go 'yes!' while others might go 'yech!'.  If your curious and not averse to the idea, then I'd give it a try.  Its worth it just for the caramel and brownies in my opinion.

McConnell's - Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie - A seasonally delicious puree of house-roasted pumpkin, molasses, Sri Lankan cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice and R.R. Lochhead® vanilla, mated to California Central Coast, grass-fed milk & cream.

It is Thanksgiving Week so I am appropriately reviewing a seasonal Thanksgiving flavor, McConnell's Pumpkin Pie ice cream.  McConnells offers this flavor each year seasonally between mid-October and the end of the calendar year.  This week seemed like the idea week to give it a try.  The flavor is a mixture of pumpkin, molasses the standard pumpkin pie spices (cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice) plus vanilla.  I did not know vanilla was in pumpkin pie but it represents a scoop of vanilla that commonly goes with ones slice of pie.

One bonus of pints of McConnells is the witty prose they put on the side of the carton.  This flavor's is especially long and silly and worth checking out.

Opening the pint, I see the solid tan color indicative of pumpkin pie.  My initial reaction while eating the first few spoonfuls is that this is very tasty.  There is no spicy kick like in my aunt's pumpkin bread, but the pumpkin and spices are well balanced as you would find in a good slice of pumpkin pie.  You can really taste the vanilla as well.  This is a homogeneous pint, all of the ingredients are blended into the base -- no extra mix-ins.  Sometimes pie flavors of ice cream incorporate a graham cracker swirl, but not here.  This homogeneity leads to my issue with the pint -- it was hard to finish in one sitting.  At the bottom of the pint, I was thinking to myself that this was a lot of pumpkin.  There was quite a bit of diminishing returns here.

Those first few spoonfuls were quite good though.  I think this is one to enjoy at the scoop shop one scoop at a time instead of by the pint.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Häagen-Dazs Artisan - Spiced Pecan Turtle

Spiced Pecan Turtle - Chocolate Ice Cream with a Caramel Swirl and Chocolate-covered Spiced Pecans

Trying a new brand for the ice cream reviews -- the "Artisan Collection" from Häagen-Dazs.  Much of the regular Häagen-Dazs line is dominated by simple flavors (chocolate, vanilla, etc).  In the "Artisan Collection, they commissioned six different bakers invent their own ice cream flavor.  These six flavors contain eclectic mixtures of ingredients which make for interesting reviews.  Today's flavor is Spiced Pecan Turtle which was developed by Christopher Elbow an Artisanal Chocolate specialist in Kansas City.

The first thing I noticed about the pint is that it is a little smaller.  At some point in their history,  Häagen-Dazs switched to a 14 oz 'pint' as a way of raising their price without the number on the price tag.  This is more than a little devious, but its not uncommon.   Half gallon jugs of orange juice generally contain 59 oz and cereal boxes have been shrinking for years.  The second thing I noticed opening the pint is a plastic wrapper across the top.  This is the first brand I've reviewed which has this.  Easy enough to peel off.    This reveals the chocolate base which is a more lighter shade of brown than I was expecting.  Some specks of chocolate are also visible.

Eating into the pint, the chocolate base is quite good by itself.  Ben & Jerry's has a fairly mild chocolate base (their specialty is the mix-ins) but I could tell that a little more care is put into the base flavor here.  The mix-ins here are the caramel swirl and the chocolate covered spiced pecans.  The caramel swirl is tasty though I suppose there could have been a little bit more of it.  The best part of the pint is the pecans.  There really is a bit of a spicy kick as you bit into one.  I checked the ingredient list on the side of the pint and all I could find was "natural flavor" -- sounds like Mr. Elbow doesn't want to give away his secrets.  It was a ginger, nutmeg or cinnamon type of spice.  It was good.  My first thought was that there could have been more pecans but since there was such a nice kick when you bit into one it might have actually helped that there weren't too many of them.  Plus it allowed for more enjoyment of the chocolate base. 

I did enjoy the pint (or almost pint).  If spiced pecans in chocolate intrigue you, then give this a try.