Van Leeuwen - Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

Kraft Macaroni & Cheese - Macaroni & Cheese flavored Ice Cream

 

Earlier this year, loyal reader Mike M. was egging me on in the comments of another review trying to get me to try the new Kraft Macaroni & Cheese flavor from the Brooklyn-based Van Leeuwen Ice Cream.    The flavor had made national news. I saw more than one network mention the flavor in the lighter and offbeat news of the day sections of their broadcast.  Stephen Colbert even did a bit on it on the Late Show.  I passed on the opportunity back then because I had an order from another vendor on the way and then the flavor quickly sold out.  I had missed a similarly eclectic mustard flavor from Coolhaus a couple of years ago.  These types of flavors are fun, but they require an online purchase and I can't always splurge for one of those.  I thought that was the end of it.  But recently, this flavor came back!  I checked the online shop and saw that they had five more flavors which I never see at Kowalski's in Saint Paul and made an online purchase.  Note to readers, that I bought this flavor with an online shipment and I am not aware that it is available in any Twin Cities grocery stores.

So, here it is!  Kraft Macaroni & Cheese Ice Cream!  The front of the carton has that familiar single noodle logo that they are now using on the boxes of the regular macaroni and cheese product.  Macaroni and Cheese has been around for a long time.  Pasta and cheese dishes can be found in Italy as far back as the 14th century.  Here in the United States, its popularity was helped by Thomas Jefferson who enjoyed similar dishes in France and brought back recipes to the United States -- eventually serving it at State Dinners in the White House.  There is actually a similar story about Thomas Jefferson bringing back recipes for ice cream from France.  So, that's a fun mac-and-cheese and ice cream connection there!  Of course, Jefferson (and the slaves who cooked for him) do not deserve all the credit for bring these foods to America but spotlighting the dishes in the White House could not have hurt.  The modern meal of boxed Kraft macaroni and cheese dates from 1937 which was during the Great Depression.  You could feed a family of four this filling comfort food full of carbohydrates and dairy protein for just 19 cents.  It has been a true American staple dish ever since.

But I digress.  Back to the ice cream!  Removing the lid, the foil seal has a nice message from that lid telling me to enjoy the pint.  I will!  Peeling back the foil, the color of the ice cream is just perfect.  It is the same shade of orange-ish yellow as the noodle dish.  I do not see any noodles, though.  Checking the ingredient list on the side of the carton, it does not look like there are any.  I guess this ice cream is based on the cheese sauce.  Digging in, the ice cream has a very creamy texture to it.  This is not unusual for Van Leeuwen who use a "French style" recipe which includes extra egg yolks creating a more custard-like consistency.  The flavor is surprisingly appealing.  I was expecting it to taste exactly like the cheese sauce that goes with the noodles, but this mostly tastes like ice cream.  I mean, I can taste some cheese and it is a bit saltier and less sweet than a plain ice cream but they have definitely muted the cheese flavor to make it more palatable.  That's great news.  I must admit that I was a bit fearful of eating an entire pint of cheese sauce in one sitting, but blended into ice cream it was actually quite easy for me to eat the entire pint in one sitting. No noodles, though.  That might be a fun topping or mix-in to add at home.  Not a huge amount, but just a few to be festive.

This is a very fun and entertaining flavor from Van Leeuwen.  They've created an ice cream which looks just like the cheese sauce from macaroni and cheese but has the appealing flavor of a french-style ice cream.  If you have this flavor available to you (Van Leeuwen scoop shop nearby?) it would be great conversation-starting dessert to have with friends.  You can look like a daredevil eating it when it really isn't that bad.

 

 

 

 

Milk Bar - Birthday Cake

Birthday Cake - Birthday Cake Flavored Ice Cream with Birthday Crumbs and Birthday Frosting

 

A reader named Reid in a recent review has directed me to a new brand available at Whole Foods called Milk Bar.  I went down to the Whole Foods on Selby in Saint Paul and picked up a couple of pints.  From what I could see in the freezer case, this brand appears to be selling well.  I hope they restock soon.  

Milk Bar was founded by Christina Tosi (homepage, wiki) and started off as a pastry shop on in New York City's East Village as the dessert pastry shop accompanying the nearby Momofuku restaurant in 2008.  It's been quite successful as a pastry shop, has been featured on all sorts of food-oriented television shows and now have over a dozen locations in six cities.  This spring, they've agreed to release a handful of pre-packaged ice cream flavors for Whole Foods (see articles here and here). 

It looks Milk Bar's signature flavor is "Cereal Milk".  I guess I should have started with that one, but I didn't do my write-up research before picked the flavor.  I chose Birthday Cake.  As has been mentioned in several recent review, birthday-cake-themed flavors are really big in the past couple of years. I have recently had flavors from Grand Ole Creamery, Jeni's, the Cheesecake Factory and Talenti to go with older flavors from Coolhaus, Graeter's and McConnell's as well as retired limited releases from Ample Hills and Ben & Jerry's.  Lot's of flavors!  Each time I right a review, the list gets longer.  Let's add Milk Bar to the list.

Opening the lid, the protective seal has a small hand written note:  "XO. TOSI".  It threw me off for a bit because I did not initially know who "Tosi" was.  Plus, the writing looks so informal.  It looks like some random person with a ballpoint pen just removed lids and wrote secret notes to customers on the seal.  But now that I've read the article linked above, I know that Christina Tosi is the founder of the Milk Bar pastry shops and this message is from her to her customers.  Fun.  Removing the foil, the birthday cake ice cream has a yellowish color.  So not a white cake.  Some egg yolks are in the mix. Some sprinkles are visible on top as well as a bit of frosting.  Digging in, the cake flavored base is quite good.  It is sweet, but not overly so.  The cake pieces below are soft and chewy.  There is occasionally a little flakes of pastry frosting in the mix.  These are like the bits of frosting that fall off a frosted donut or pastry. They hold their consistency on their spoon, but they melt in your mouth when you eat it.

I liked this birthday-cake-themed flavor from Milk Bar very much.  It feels like I am eating birthday cake, but it is still ice cream and it is not too sweet.  I am still going to say that McConnell's Sprinkle Cake is still the gold standard, but that flavor is hard to find outside the west coast.  This is one of the better options here in the Twin Cities.  I liked it better than Cheesecake Factory and Grand Ole Creamery (although those were still good).  I am looking forward to trying out Milk Bar's Cereal Milk flavor soon.

 

 

Ben & Jerry's - Change is Brewing

Change is Brewing - Cold Brew Coffee Ice Cream with Marshmallow Swirls and Fudge Brownies

 

Ben & Jerry's has a new limited batch flavor for the fall called Change is Brewing.  I found it at the Target in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul.  Every once in a while, they release a flavor where the proceeds go to some charitable cause.  The previous flavor of this type was Justice Remix'd,  I am always excited for new Ben & Jerry's flavors.  Long-time readers know that a full survey of this brand's flavors is how these reviews got started.  Since that initial survey was completed, I moved on to other brands which has been interesting and exciting but it's always fun to return to Ben & Jerry's.  This flavor has a cold-brew coffee base with marshmallow swirls and fudge brownies.  This is a fairly surprisingly unique flavor combination.  There are countless coffee-and-chocolate flavors but this is the first that I can find in my archives that uses brownies to deliver the chocolate.  Also, marshmallows are common with chocolate, but not as much with coffee.  The closest that I can find is Ben & Jerry's own One Sweet World from a few years ago or Milkjam Creamery's Zoë François flavor from this past spring.  This is still quite different, though.  So, familiar and appealing ingredients combined in a new way sounds like a fun flavor to try.  Let's dig in!

First, let's take a look at the beautiful artwork on the side of the carton.  They narrowed the "flavor title" part of the carton so that they could include more images.  I took more pictures below.  Popping the lid off, the cold brew coffee base has a gritty beige color to it and hints of both the marshmallow swirl and the brownie mix-ins are visible on the very top.  Digging in, the coffee base is quite good.  This is the same cold-brew base used in their 7-11-exclusive Go-To-Cold Brew / Cold Brew Caramel Latte flavor.  You can tell that the coffee is not 'brewed'.  There are hints of coffee grounds in the mix of this base -- sort of like coffee bean specks instead of vanilla bean specks.  The brownie mix-ins are good as usual and provide a lot of chewy chocolate flavor.  The marshmallow swirls are larger than usual, but not overly done.  You can taste the marshmallow -- it doesn't just dissolve into the base and make it gooey -- and it goes well with the coffee and brownies without being too strong.

I enjoyed this flavor from Ben & Jerry's quite a bit.  Each of the three ingredients is quite good and they are combined quite well here.  Check it out.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Tim Thumb

Tim Thumb - Mini Donut Ice Cream with Cinnamon Sugar Donut Chunks

 

Today is the fourth and final of the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery's "State Fair" flavors for September (instagram link here).  This one is called Tim Thumb (instagram link here).  This flavor is based on the little bags of mini-donuts that are sold almost everywhere at the State Fair.  The ones that are still warm and covered with loads of cinnamon and sugar.  Here the base is infused with by soaking the milk and cream with donuts, but then donut "croutons" are also added as a mix-in.  In addition to spicing the donuts with cinnamon, their instagram link mentions that they also blend in some garam masala spice blend (used in their Masala Holla flavor).  It'll be fun to see how much that jazzes up the flavor.

Before I begin, I'll mention that my previous Milkjam review mentions the October Halloween-themed flavors which are now available.  Just giving you a heads up so that you can look into those earlier in the month (sometimes it takes a while before my reviews show up in print).

On to today's flavor!  Removing the lid, the donut-based base has an off-white color to it.  If I look really close I might imagine that there is a bit of cinnamon in the mix, but it is not obvious.  Digging in, I can taste a little bit of cinnamon and the ice cream is simple and subtle yet quite good.  Soon, I run into the mix-ins, these donut "croutons" which are the main focus of the pint.  These are quite good!  They are still soft like the donuts and provide quite an appealing amount of spice to the mix.  My palate tells me that this is mostly cinnamon but its possible that some other "spice cake" type of spices like nutmeg, ginger and allspice are in the mix.  It's very delicious.  As I eat my way down, the spice from the donuts is balanced very well, but the simple and more subtle base.

This is an excellent donut-based flavor by Milkjam Creamery.  I like the texture of the donut mix-ins and I love the cinnamon-and-spice flavoring accenting it.  This is actually the second donut-based flavor from Milkjam Creamery this summer.  I liked today's flavor better than the first one, D'Oh, as I think the spices added more flavor than sprinkles.  This is actually my favorite of the four September State Fair flavors.  Check it out if they still have pints available, otherwise I hope they bring this back next year.

 

 

Grand Ole Creamery - Sweet Cream

Sweet Cream - Sweet Cream Ice Cream

 

Today I return to the Grand Ole Creamery on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul for a pint of their Sweet Cream flavor.  This flavor has been around since I was a kid.  One of the neighbors used to say "Sweet Cream is what they call Vanilla".  Now, that I've been writing these reviews for several years, I have come to learn that sweet cream is distinct from vanilla.  It's actually 'vanilla without the vanilla'.  That is mainly milk, cream and sugar.  It is a popular ice cream to go with cake and pie because it's basically a thicker, milkier whipped cream.  I have had simple sweet cream implementations from Tillamook and Milkjam Creamery.  Let's see how this flavor compares.

Removing the lid, the sweet cream base looks very thick.  I can tell by the way it is packed into the carton.  Digging in, it has the expected milky cream flavor.  It is quite good.  Nothing too exciting as there are no added flavors or mix-ins, but as an ice cream lover I still appreciate the simple flavors.

This is a solid implementation of a simple sweet cream flavor from the Grand Ole Creamery.  I can see why it has been a popular pre-pack flavor in my neighborhood for many years.  It is not going to wow you by itself, but it works really well with cake or pie.  It's extra thickness works well for that purpose.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Sweet Martin's

Sweet Martin's - Oat Milk Ice Cream with Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Today is the third of the four September "State Fair" flavors from Milkjam Creamery (instagram link here).  This flavor is called Sweet Martin's (instagram link here) and is an obvious play on the popular Sweet Martha's Cookies stands at the Minnesota State Fair.  I did not attend the State Fair this year, but I did by some Sweet Martha's cookie dough at my local grocery store so that I could pretend that I was there.  This Milkjam flavor is actually a vegan flavor.  The chocolate chip cookie mix-ins are suspended in an oat milk base.  This should be fun.

Before I start, I should mention that as I write this, the October flavors have been released (instagram link here).  I have already tried three of the four in previous seasons:

• Death by Chocula
• Shall Not Be Named
• Poison Apple
• Candy Corn Killa (new for me)
  

I will try to get my hands on the Candy Corn Killa flavor as soon as possible.

Back to "today"'s Sweet Martins flavor!  Removing the lid, the oat milk base has a bright white color to it.  Milkjam has used oat milk as a non-dairy base a few times before, but in the ones that I have tried it has always been combined with coconut milk (here and here) or chocolate (here).  This base is not bad.  It is definitely less 'creamy' than a dairy base but it doesn't have the gritty texture that some non-dairy bases have.  Here it serves as a vehicle for the cookie mix-ins.  The cookies uses here are vegan in order to keep the entire flavor vegan, but I honestly cannot tell.  They have a rather crunchy-chewy texture and there are chocolate chips in each one that deliver a good amount of chocolate flavor.  My one complaint is that there were not more of them.

This is a solid vegan implementation of a milk-and-cookies flavor from Milkjam Creamery.  For dairy lovers, the top option for this type of flavor is McConnell's Sea Salt Cream & Cookies with Ben & Jerry's Milk & Cookies close behind.  Today's vegan Milkjam flavor would have been closer if there were more cookie mix-ins, but it was still not bad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet Science - Vegan Cashew Caramel

Vegan Cashew Caramel - Vegan Vanilla Cashew Milk Ice Cream with Crunchy Cashew Praline and Ribbons of Coconut Caramel

 

The Twin Cities-based Sweet Science Ice Cream has a new non-dairy flavor for the fall.  This flavor is called Vegan Cashew Caramel and I picked it up at the Golden Fig market on Grand Avenue in Saint Paul.  I am never quite sure if I should try all the non-dairy flavors for each brand that I follow -- I missed Sweet Science's earlier Vegan Chocolate Chip flavor -- but this one looks interesting.  It features a non-dairy vanilla cashew milk base with ribbons of coconut caramel and crunchy cashew praline pieces.  The mix-ins look very good!

Before I start, as I write this review (a bit late), the October seasonals have been announced (instagram link here).  They feature four flavors that I have already had:

• Pumpkin Pepita Brittle
• Black Sesame
• Snicker Doodle
• Hazelnut Brownie

These are all quite excellent!  I actually tempted to go off-script and sneak a pint of one of those in between my review flavors.

Back to today's Vegan Cashew Caramel flavor!  Removing the lid, I see quite a bit of the cashew praline pieces as well as the caramel swirls right off the bat.  Digging in, I taste the caramel swirl right away.  This is a similar swirl to the one Sweet Science uses in several of my favorite flavors of theirs.  I think Salted Caramel Swirl would be the signature version of that swirl.  Here, there is a bit of coconut flavor in the mix as well which is good.  The cashews praline tastes quite good and provides substantial crunch.  The vegan vanilla cashew milk base is not bad, but I would prefer a dairy ice cream here.  They are very generous with the caramel swirl here which is normally a great thing, but I don't think the vegan base balances that as well as the dairy base does, so by the end of the pint, a sticky-sweet feeling was building up on my palate.  That could easily be resolved with portion control (i.e. don't eat the whole pint at once).

This is a solid non-dairy flavor from Sweet Science.  The caramel and cashew mix-ins were amazing.  Overall, it might be a flavor to enjoy a scoop at a time, but it is good to know that vegans now have access to Sweet Science's excellent caramel.