Pumphouse Creamery - Local Honeyberry & Raspberry Crisp

Local Honeyberry & Raspberry Crisp - Sweet Cream with a Honeyberry & Raspberry Jam and Crisp

Last week, I returned to Pumphouse Creamery for the first time since the start of the pandemic and I picked up a couple of pints.  The first flavor is called Local Honeyberry & Raspberry Crisp.  There are a couple of instagram posts about it (here and here) which contain details about it.  I guess it is an enhancement of their Black Raspberry Crisp flavor, which I really enjoyed!  The main difference is that the raspberry jam is now a honeyberry and raspberry jam, but also it looks like there is no vanilla in the base this time (it is just sweet cream) and the crisp contains some wheat flour where my notes are telling me that it was previously an oat crisp.

I must admit that I had not heard of honeyberries before trying this ice cream.  It is the fruit of a particular type of honeysuckle -- sometimes referred to as 'haskap' -- which is native to cool climates in the Northern Hemisphere.  It is hardy enough to survive Minnesota winters, so it can grow locally.  It is not closely related to the common edible berries found in grocery stores (blueberries, caneberries, strawberries, etc).  The closest relative that I recognized is the snowberry, and a little more distantly related to the elderberry.  What do they taste like?  I found a couple of articles discussing their use in food (here and here) and the consensus seems to be that their flavor resembles blueberries at first, but then notes of raspberries and other flavors start kicking in.  Also, whether they are sweet or tart can vary depending on the cultivar and its ripeness.  Without further ado, let's dive in!

Removing the lid, the honeyberry jam looks beautiful.  It has a deep burgundy color which looks very strong.  It almost looks like a dye.  Digging in, the berry flavor is delicious.  It is a honeyberry/black-raspberry blend, so I do taste raspberry first, but I can tell it is a more complex flavor.  It is quite delicious.  Then as I eat further down, the berry swirls are not as thick as they are on the top of the pint, but a little bit of berry in the sweet cream base goes a long way.  Plus, I encounter quite a bit of the 'crisp' which is made partly from wheat flour this time.  I don't have gluten issues so I don't mind.  This crisp is excellent and delicious.  It provides a crunchy texture to most spoonfuls which goes very well with the berries. 

This is an excellent pint of ice cream.  Pumphouse took one of my favorite of their flavors, Black Raspberry Crisp, and they made it more interesting by blending honeyberries into the mix.  It's a great way to try out honeyberries if you have never tried them before, but it is still comfortably black-raspberry-esque for those who loved the previous flavor.  Check it out!

Bebe Zito - Breakfast Club

Breakfast Club - Cereal Ice Cream made with Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles

Today, I try the new scoop shop in the Lowry Hill/Wedge neighborhood called Bebe Zito.  There has been some buzz about this place for a while.  It was supposed to open in the spring about when the snow melted but that was delayed due to the pandemic.  They finally opened at the beginning of this month.  It's on 22nd Street just west of Lyndale.  I popped in, bought three pints and popped back out.  I will be reviewing those flavors in the next week or two.

Bebe Zito is owned by chef Ben Spangler and his finacee Gabriella Grant.  Spangler has held a number of local culinary positions in recent years, including executive chef at the Farm Table Restaurant in Amery, Wisconsin, the executive chef at the Mercy Bar & Dining Room in downtown Minneapolis and he helped develop the initial ice cream menu at Milkjam Creamery.  I found a couple of interesting news releases about Bebe Zito here and here.  It should be fun to visit this scoop shop from time to time to sample interesting flavors and their location halfway between Milkjam Creamery and the Sebastian Joe's in Lowry Hill should make it easy for me to pick up pints from multiple places in one trip.

Today's flavor is called Breakfast Club.  It is a cereal-based ice cream made with Lucky Charms and Fruity Pebbles.  I have had a few cereal-based flavors before.  Three from Milkjam Creamery (here and here and here), one from Coolhaus (here) and one from Ample Hills (here).  I wonder if Ben Spangler had anything to do with any of the Milkjam flavors.

On to today's flavor!  The first thing I notice is there is no artwork on the side of the carton.  Beautiful artwok on the lid, but not on the carton.  That messes with my usual photo spread, ha ha.  Not a big deal.  Removing the lid, the top of the pint is beautiful!  It's loaded with recognizable cereal on the top.  I definitely see the marshmallow shapes from the Lucky Charms and the small colored flakes of Fruity Pebbles.  Digging in, the cereal on the top is extra crunchy and delicious.  The density of the cereal in the ice cream below is still pretty good.  The fruity pebbles are a little bit softer as they soak in the milk-and-cream mixture during the churning process, but the marshmallows are just as good as the ones on top.  The base ice cream is good.  I found an article here which tells me that the base is 'citrus and vanilla'.  It has a good texture, but it's main purpose here is to serve as a vehicle for the mix-ins.  In fact, if I hadn't read about the citrus in the mix, I would not have known.  I think it blends well with the Fruity Pebbles.  Overall, the pint is a little bit on the sweet side, but it is not overpowering and I am

I enjoyed this pint from Bebe Zito quite a bit.  Some of the cereal underneath is a little soft but from all the cereal-ice creams I have tried, that is unavoidable for mix-ins added during the churning process.  Using the marshmallow-based Lucky Charms helps in that regard and also a generous sprinkling of dry mix-ins on the top also worked really well.  It is interesting to compare this to Cereal Killers -- the Milkjam flavor which was also developed by Ben Spangler.  Both contain citrus in the base and fruity pebbles, but this Breakfast Club flavor has much less citrus (just a smidge) and much more cereal while Cereal Killers uses an orange-coriander base with a moderate amount of fruity pebbles.  Breakfast Club is a good flavor for cereal lovers, and a good flavor for kids, too.  Check it out.

Sebastian Joe's - Mint Milano

Mint Milano - Mint Ice Cream with Milano Cookies

Today I return to Sebastian Joe's for their Mint Milano flavor.  I got this at the scoop shop in Lowry Hill.  This is an interesting flavor.  Mint-chocolate flavors are everywhere and mint-cookie flavors are not uncommon, but it is usually mint-Oreo (or imitation Oreo).  Here, the cookie used is the Milano cookie from Pepperidge Farm.  A Milano is also a 'sandwich' cookie, but with chocolate in the middle and biscuit-style cookies on the outside.  Let's see how this interesting combination works out.

Removing the lid, the mint base is a bright white color.  I can see lots of green flecks within the mint base.  This appears to be a mint made with mint leaves as opposed to just an oil or extract.  I can see one of the Milano cookies (almost whole) underneath the surface.  There are also little flakes of chocolate floating around which have escaped from the cookies.  Digging in, the leafy mint produces an interesting flavor.  It also tastes like spearmint but since I don't have an ingredient list I cannot confirm that.  At any rate, it is different from the usual mint flavor.  I encounter the cookies next.  Some pieces are large like the one I saw near the top of the pint, but some are smaller.  There is some chocolate, but the predominant flavor is actually the outer biscuits.

This is an interesting an eclectic mint-chocolate combination from Sebastian Joe's.  Although I applaud the uniqueness and creativity of using spearmint-like leafy mint instead of regular mint and the use of Milano cookies with their biscuit outsides and chocolate insides, I did not like this as much as the usual mint-chocolate combinations.  I found myself wanting the mint to be a little more potent and the cookies to be more chocolatey.  So, this is a fun try for me, but on future visits I'll be on the lookout for a more standard mint-chocolate combination.

Talenti - Coffee Chocolate Chip

Coffee Chocolate Chip - Coffee Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips

Today's flavor comes from Talenti Gelato and is called Coffee Chocolate Chip.    Talenti puts "recipe numbers" on the sides of their pints and this is recipe #7, so this was one of their original line of flavors back in 2012.  I bought this locally at Lund's, but I'm sure you can find it at most local grocery stores that carry Talenti.  It looks like a simple coffee-and-chocolate flavor.  I have written before that this is a proven flavor combination perhaps because coffee and chocolate each contain a very similar stimulant (caffeine in coffee and theobromine in chocolate).  I've seen this combination in one of Talenti's layered pints here, let's see how it works in its simplest formulation.

Unscrewing the distinctive Talenti lid, the coffee gelato has a typical burnt beige color to it.  I can see some of the chips already on the top as well.  Digging in, the coffee flavor is quite good.  It has more of a kick to it than I expected and it has a good 'roasted' coffee flavor to it as well.  It has that easy-to-scoop gelato texture as well.  The chocolate chips are dispersed generously throughout the pint.  They are small, flaky and crunchy and they do provide a lot of good chocolate flavor which goes well with the coffee.

I really liked this flavor.  It is so simple -- just coffee and chocolate chip -- but it is surprisingly well done.  The coffee flavor has a good kick and the chocolate is delicious.  This reminds me of their Mediterranean Mint flavor in that it is simple and very well done version of a classic flavor combination.

Milkjam Creamery - Work From Home

Work From Home - Coffee Ice Cream swirled with Milkjam Ice Cream

The next flavor is from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery is called Work From Home -- something a lot of us are doing during the pandemic.  This flavor is a blend of coffee ice cream and their namesame flavor Milkjam (which itself a blend of caramelized goat, cow and condensed milks).  I guess the coffee flavor is good for working -- keeps you alert and blending it with Milkjam makes it their own flavor.  Let's see how this tastes!

Opening the pint, the coffee and milkjam base has a fairly light color.  It is not obvious to me yet whether or not the coffee is blended into the milkjam or if they are swirled or marbled together.  Digging in, I taste the coffee flavor.  It is pretty good.  Soon, I see clumps of milkjam in the mix -- small sections of the pint which have the sweeter and more pure dairy flavor than the rest.  The way the two bases are mixed here is interesting.  I think it is partially blended but also left partially marbled.  It reminds of a coffee drink with thick cream on top which you decide to only start to stir in.

This is a decent pint from Milkjam Creamery.  The coffee flavor is good, but fairly standard while the occasional milkjam-rich sections provide a bit of variation to make it more interesting.  Checking my archives, I found one other coffee ice cream from Milkjam called Saigon Nights.  That was a Vietnamese coffee with a small kick of Hennessey.  This is more coffee with cream.

Sweet Science - Ashlee's Birthday Celebration

Ashlee's Birthday Celebration - A Blend of Salted Caramel, Toasted Coconut and Banana Ice Creams

Today's flavor from Sweet Science Ice Cream in Saint Paul is called Ashlee's Birthday Celebration.  I guess the founder and owner of Sweet Science, Ashlee Olds, is turning forty!  The flavor has an interesting story (told in this instagram post).  Several years ago, she had extra base ice creams (banana, salted caramel and toasted coconut) in her production kitchen and rather than let them go to waste, she blended them together and happened to really like the result.  Let's see this tastes.

Removing the lid, I see sprinkles!  I guess that is part of the celebration.  It looks like they are added on the top after the ice cream is hand-packed but before putting on the lid.  Digging in past the sprinkles, I taste the banana first.  It is not a super-sweet banana like banana cream pie, it is more like banana-bread.  Part of that is the blending with the caramel.  I taste strong notes of caramel in the mix, so this is definitely a banana-caramel blend.  I tried to see if I could taste the coconut and it was not obvious.  If it is in there, it is fairly mild.  I remember that I thought their toasted coconut flavor was on the mild side as well.  All of the flavors here are fully blended together.  It is a homogeneous pint with no mix-ins.

This is a decent flavor-blend from Sweet Science.  By my taste buds, it is mostly banana with a some caramel and a smidge of coconut, but the flavors did blend quite well and I enjoyed eating it.  As far as banana-caramel flavors go, I found their recent Banana Caramel Blondie flavor a bit better -- stronger banana swirled with a stronger caramel sauce.  That said, flavor blends have their place in the scooping bin as well.

Sebastian Joe's - Oreo

Oreo - Vanilla Ice Cream with Oreo Cookie Pieces

In the last review, I mentioned that I had made my first trek to Minneapolis scoop shops since the pandemic started.  That review was for a Milkjam Creamery flavor, this review is for Sebastian Joe's!  This is Oreo, one of their signature flavors.  It looks like a cookies and cream implementation.  It has Oreo cookies mixed into a vanilla base.  Let's check it out.

The first thing I notice is that the pint is overflowing!  They filled it so high that even with the thick rim of the lid, it almost does not cover the rim of the container.  This was quite a generous packing by the scooper.  I had to set it carefully in the freezer to make sure the lid did not pop off, but I am not complaining.  Once the lid is removed, I see the dark charcoal grey of the base.  It looks like the Oreos have been added early in the process allowing the milk and cream to soak up a lot of the color and flavor.  I can taste the distinctive Oreo chocolate flavor in the base ice cream and there are sizeable Oreo chunks throughout the pint.  Yum.

I enjoyed this pint very much.  It is a cookies and cream implementation which emphasizes the flavor of "Oreo milk" in the base rather than relying on only the cookie crumbs and cookie pieces.  It reminds of Coolhaus and Milkjam Creamery's implementations.  Simple flavor that it is, it is definitely worthy of being one of Sebastian Joe's signature flavors.  Enjoy.