Izzy's - Chocolate

Chocolate - Chocolate Ice Cream

Today's flavor is a pre-packaged pint from the Saint-Paul-based Izzy's Ice Cream.  This flavor is simply Chocolate.  The scoop shop is temporarily closed, but you can buy pre-packaged Izzy's pints at many local grocery stores.  I got my pint at Lunds, but I've also seen them at Hyvee, Whole Foods and Kowalski's.  I have reviewed most of the pre-packaged flavors from Izzy's, but I noticed I have not gotten around to doing a write-up for their implementation of chocolate.  Now seems as good of a time as ever.  The packaging proudly states that they get their cocoa powder from Guittard.  Let's see how it tastes!

Opening the lid, the chocolate brown has a solid brown color as expected.  I don't usually comment, on the surface texture, but it looks really good.  You can almost tell that it'll be extra creamy just by looking at it.  Digging in, the ice cream is indeed thick and creamy.  It is surprisingly easy to scoop despite still being firm and frozen.  The chocolate flavor is quite good, there is very little bitterness but not overly sweet, so the cocoa/sugar balance is very well done.  It does not have the taste of a frozen hot chocolate like some bases do -- this is more the taste of a very good chocolate bar.

This is a very well done and delicious implementation of a simple chocolate ice cream from Izzy's.  Since scoop shops are closed these days, buying pints is a way to support your local brands.  If your grocery store carries Izzy's and you are in the mood for chocolate, try this pint and see if you like it.

Milkjam Creamery - Diane Moua

Diane Moua - Pandan Ice Cream with a Coconut Pandan Jam Swirl

Today's flavor is from Milkjam Creamery in Minneapolis.  I bought it at their scoop shop on Lyndale.  Since I bought this, there have been a lot of closures due to the virus, but last I checked the World Street Kitchen next door still has takeout/delivery and since they are under the same ownership as Milkjam, you can get pints of ice cream when you order from them.  I don't want to dwell too much on current events because I still plan on eating whatever ice creams I can get a hold of, but just leaving a note for local readers about the current flavor availability.

The flavor is called "Diane Moua".  March is Women's History Month and Milkjam renames their flavors each year after famous women.  "Diane Moua" is a new flavor this year and as far as I can tell this is its original name (it is not renamed just for this month.  Diane Moua is the Executive Pastry Chef at Spoon and Stable, Bellecour and Demi in Minneapolis.  An Instagram link to the flavor release from Milkjam is available here.  This flavor features pandan as the primary ingredient.  Pandan is a tropical plant common in southern and southeastern asia which has fragrant leaves which are frequently used in cooking.  Here the base ice cream is flavored with pandan and there is also a swirl which contains a coconut pandan jam.  I am looking forward to trying this out.

Popping off the lid, the ice cream is an off-white yellow color with a slight greenish tinge to it.  Digging in, it has a bright, herbal and fragrant flavor.  It is a bit familiar, but I can't quite place it.  It is not very intense -- most of the flavor comes from its fragrance -- but it is sweet and pleasant.  Looking for the coconut pandan jam swirl, I see some sections which are a little denser than the rest but no distinct swirl.  I think it got mostly blended into the base.  That is OK as the flavor is good.

This is a very interesting pint from Milkjam.  Pandan is a new flavor for me, so I am not sure what to judge it against, but it has a pleasing flavor.  I follow Milkjam's twitter and it looks like they are still selling pints for pickup.  If you like pandan -- or feel like trying something new -- give it a try.

Häagen-Dazs - Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough - Vanilla Ice Cream with Cookie Dough Pieces and Chocolate Chips

There was a one-day sale at Lund's a couple of weeks ago for pints of Häagen-Dazs so I picked myself up a pint.  The Lund's in Highland Park did not have any of the new 2020 flavors yet, so I had to find a flavor which I had not yet tried.  I have tried all of the newer and more unique flavors, so I had to scan my phone for a while to find a flavor I have not yet tried.  It turns out that I have not had their Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor yet!  Let's see how their implementation compares to other brands!

Inside their vanilla ice cream, I see lots of chocolate chips and a couple of pieces of cookie dough.  They are using a separate mix-ins for the chocolate chips.  I have seen that before with Graeter's.  Many other brands mix the chocolate chips into the dough, though keeping them separate is not a bad way to put more chocolate into the mix.  The cookie dough is chewy and had a buttery flavor.  The chips are simple but quite good, they are the same ones that they use in their other 'chip' flavors such as Mint Chip.

This is a good implementation of a cookie dough flavor from Häagen-Dazs.  Splitting the chocolate chips into a separate mix-in makes me feel like there is a little less cookie dough than some implementations, but it does deliver more chocolate.  If you like the 'chip' part of chocolate chip cookie dough, this might be for you. 

Ben & Jerry's - Cannoli

Cannoli - Mascarpone Ice Cream with Fudge-Covered Pastry Shell Pieces & Mascarpone Swirls

I have been waiting to see what the new flavors from Ben & Jerry's would be this year.  Last month, I reviewed Netflix & Chilll'd, but I figured that could be the only one for this year.  In recent years we've seen Core flavors, Cookie Core flavors, Truffles flavors, Cookie Dough Core flavors, what could be next?  It turns out that they've decided to bring back three recent and particularly successful limited batch flavors as fan favorites:  Gimme S'more (previously reviewed here), Peanut Butter Half Baked (previously reviewed here) and Cannoli (not previously reviewed, so today's flavor!).  I have had one cannoli-themed pint before -- from Coolhaus.  It will be interesting to see how this one compares.  Note to local buyers, I saw this flavor first at the Hyvee in Eagan, so I bought it there but I am starting to see it appearing in other grocery stores like Lunds.  I imagine that will spread to places like Target and Lunds soon.

Popping off the lid, I see the marscarpone base is a bright white color and I see quite a few fudge-covered pastry pieces right away -- including one piece where the fudge has not completely covered the pastry.  Digging in the mascarpone base is delicious.  I am a big fan of mascarpone... the 'dessert cheese'.  It is a sweet creamy cheese which does not have the aftertaste of cream cheese.  Next I encounter the fudge-covered pastry pieces.  These are crunchy and the fudge delivers quite bit of chocolate flavor.  These remind me quite a bit of cone pieces -- not exactly, but quite close.  So this flavor might have a similar appeal to Americone Dream.  There are some key differences -- mascarpone is a richer base than vanilla and there is no caramel -- but the mix-ins are quite similar.  The pastry shell pieces here might be a little bigger and crunchier.

I really enjoyed this pint from Ben & Jerry's.  Mascarpone is one of my favorite ingredients, so I'm quite happy to have another way of enjoying it.  I liked this pint slightly better than the Coolhaus implementation that I tried last year (I enjoyed that pint, but it was a bit sweeter than I was expecting).  Even during these interesting times, I am starting to see this flavor being rotated into local grocery store freezer cases.  So fans of cannoli and/or mascarpone can try out this flavor at home soon.  Keep a lookout for the other two new flavors (Gimme S'more and Peanut Butter Half Baked) as well.

Sweet Science - Lemongrass Ginger Bark

Lemongrass Ginger Bark - Lemongrass Ice Cream with White Chocolate-covered Ginger Bark Pieces

The Saint Paul-based Sweet Science has new flavors for March.  The first flavor is Earl Grey with White Chocolate which I have reviewed previously and the second is today's flavor Lemongrass Ginger Bark.  The description on the carton says that they originally released this flavor back in 2014, but I have only been following Sweet Science closely since late 2017 so this flavor is new for me.  I am fairly excited about this as I have not had a lemongrass-based flavor of ice cream yet.

Lemongrass is an Old World grass which smells like lemons.  It is a source of Citonella oil.  I found a good article on the use of lemongrass in cooking here.  Another article comparing lemongrass to lemons is here.  I like the flavor of lemons, it will be interesting to see if I like lemongrass.  By "ginger bark", they mean creating a confection with ginger and white chocolate which is similar to peppermint bark and almond bark.  Let's see how these two mix.

Removing the lid, the lemongrass base has a very light yellow color and I can see chunks of ginger bark right on top of the pint.  Digging in, the lemongrass flavor is quite interesting.  The smell of lemon is in my mouth as I eat it, but the flavor is a bit more herbal than the lemon fruit would be.  It's good.  The ginger bark pieces are hard and crunchy.  In my pint, ginger was very mild and I had to focus to taste it.  Perhaps it was dominated by the lemongrass or perhaps the white chocolate bark meant to mute the ginger a bit was doing too good of a job.

This was an interesting flavor from Sweet Science.  Lemongrass is an interesting flavor.  I do prefer lemon -- their Lemon Meringue Pie flavor from January was amazing -- but this is not bad.  If you like lemongrass I'd check this out, but otherwise I'd see if I could get a sample first.  That's the problem, though, as I write this the Keg & Case Market where I got this is closed due to the coronavirus.  You can probably still find it at grocery stores like Whole Foods or Kowalski's.

Pumphouse Creamery - Fresh Banana

Fresh Banana - Banana Ice Cream

Today's flavor is from Pumphouse Creamery in South Minneapolis.  It is a simple flavor:  Fresh Banana.  Pumphouse has been having fun experimenting this winter with some eccentric flavors.  Recent flavors have included Black Garlic and Corn Masa (plus there is a pickle flavor in my freezer).  I wanted to mix a normal flavor in there as well to show although *I* am drawn to the weird and unusual, they still have a lot to offer in their standard line.  Perusing their flavor page, I saw that the banana flavor is described as having a 'cult following' so I figured I would check it out.  I have had quite a few flavors which have included banana (banana chip, bananas foster, banana caramel, banana vanilla wafer, etc), but I believe this is my first straight banana flavor.

Removing the lid the top of the ping is a bright white color.  Knowing that it is banana, I can look and see a hint of yellow in there, but it is as white as most vanillas or sweet creams.  Digging in, the ice cream is thick and creamy and tastes like bananas.  I've written before about the two types of banana ice creams:  ones that have the earthy flavor of banana bread and the sweet banana of a banana pudding or banana cream pie.  This just tastes like fresh bananas!  I guess it would be closer to the banana cream pie bananas but without the gooey sweetness.  It tastes so much like bananas that even though there are no chunks of bananas in this mix, I can almost imagine the texture of a ripe banana in my month as I eat it.  This is delicious.

This is a very simple flavor -- fresh banana -- but very well done.  If you just want banana ice cream, you can't do much better than this.  Enjoy.

Milkjam Creamery - Masala Holla

Masala Holla - Garam Masala Spice Blend (Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Allspice, Ginger, Peppercorns and Cardamom) spun into a Dairy-Free Base with Oat and Coconut Milks

Today is another flavor from the Milkjam Creamery of Minneapolis.  This flavor is called Masala Holla (instagram link here).  It is a dairy-free flavor made with oat and coconut milks and then seasoned with a garam masala spice blend.  I have had two ice creams specifically billed as 'masala', one from McConnell's and one from Pumphouse.  That said, this specific spice blend is very similar to that of "5-spice" or even the "spice" of "pumpkin spice", so it would appear that many cultures have discovered that cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and ginger go well together.  Masala Holla was part of Milkjam's "Silk Road" series from the month of January, but I found a pint in their freezer case just a couple of weeks ago.  It is not unusual for pints to continue to be available after they've cycled the flavor out of their scooping pints.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, the ice cream has a off-white color consistent with oatmeal.  Knowing that oat milk was used may have led me to use that description, I might have used a linen color.  Digging in, the base is sweeter than I expected.  Not candy sweet, but almost a cereal-milk type of sweetness to it.  I do taste the masala spice blend in the mix, but it is surprisingly mild.  'Garam' means 'hot', so perhaps this is just masala.  The texture of the non-dairy base is interesting.  It has a bit of gritty oiliness to it.  It is not extreme -- it is still pleasing to eat -- but I do note the difference when I compare it to dairy bases.  The texture reminded me a bit of Indian or Thai desserts -- cold, sweet with a little bit of graininess in there.

I enjoyed this flavor.  It was not nearly as spicy as I was expecting for a masala flavor, but it was still cool and refreshing.