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.

McConnell's - Chocolate Covered Strawberries

Chocolate Covered Strawberries - The richly complex, insanely smooth creaminess of McC’s Sweet Cream - Central Coast, grass-fed milk and cream, cage-free organic eggs and pure cane sugar - meets its decadent match in Guittard bittersweet, melted chocolate and perfectly ripe, Santa Barbara strawberries.

Another McConnell's Flavor.  I always feel a little weird pasting the flavor description from the McConnell's website because there are so many salesman-like adjectives interspersed within the list of ingredients.  More simply put, this has a sweet cream base with chocolate & strawberries mixed in.  McConnells does always have fun text on the back of the carton though.

Opening the pint, I was surprised to see a light pink color with specks of chocolate scattered across the top.  Some red strawberry specks were also visible.  I guess with a name like Chocolate Covered Stawberries, I expected large chunks of strawberry coated with chocolate.  That is not the case.  Digging into the pint, the red strawberry specks become more numerous providing a lot of strawberry flavor. It's still a sweet cream base as I believe the pinkish color is just diffused strawberry juice from the shredded strawberry pieces.  Shredding the strawberries has a nice bonus.  I've noted in previous reviews that strawberry chunks will freeze in the ice cream and that biting into a frozen strawberry can be a bit unpleasant.  With the smaller shreds of strawberry that is much less of an issue as the strawberries melt very quickly in your mouth.  The chocolate is also half-melted -- melt in your mouth mix-ins is a McConnell's specialty -- so you can eat the entire pint without need of any biting.

This was a tasty pint.  If you like strawberries and you have McConnells in your area then you should give this a try.

McConnell's - Peppermint Stick

Peppermint Stick - Fresh, Central Coast, grass-fed milk & cream and a dash of R.R. Lochhead® vanilla, mated to bracing, organic peppermint and natural, peppermint candy.

After finishing off all of the current Ben & Jerry's flavors, I was going to wait until November to start venturing into other brands, but I couldn't stay away!  Being a big fan of mint, I have had my eye on this McConnell's flavor for a while.  I noticed that the Peterman-catalogue-esque description on the back of the pint touts that this is a holiday-like flavor that you can get year-round and I was thinking to myself that if I waited too long then it would be the holidays, so I had better eat it now while it is still out of season!   With that rationalization, I restart the reviews a week or two early.

Peppermint Stick is a rare mint ice cream that does not feature chocolate chip.  McConnell's Mint Chip has been previously reviewed here and implemented to the mint-chocolate combination to absolute perfection and being a big fan of mint that had me greatly looking forward to this pint.

Opening the pint, I see a light pink base with brighter pink splotches evident in it.  Eating into the pint, it is indeed very minty.  The description on the carton mentions that there is vanilla & peppermint in the base, but I just tasted mint.  I expected the larger splotches of peppermint candy to be hard or crunchy but it was soft and blended in with the base.  It is like the candy is somehow pre-melted, yet somehow freezer cold, yet somehow dispersed in the pint without being fully blended into the base. 
McConnell's has done this before with its mix-ins, the brittle of Chocolate Almond Brittle had a melt-in-your-mouth quality to it as well as the chip in Mint Chip.  So, this was basically a candy-cane flavored ice cream but without the hard candy texture.

I was quite impressed with this flavor.  One minor quibble I had was that the ice cream did not seem to melt evenly has I got into the lower half of the pint.  There was the usual bit of runny-ness as there is in all pints but parts of each spoonful still felt icy and frozen.  McConnell's doesn't use a lot of air when they make their ice cream and depending on how much eggs get mixed in, their bases can have a dense gelato-like consistency.  That in and of itself is a good thing but the extra icy texture requiring extra in-mouth melting gives it a small deduction from this judge.   I do prefer Mint Chip to this flavor.  I think McConnell's uses extra eggs there (the mint base even has a yellowish tinge) which makes Mint Chip extra creamy.   Still, if you are a mint fan like me and are curious about a chipless mint ice cream, you'll want to try this Peppermint Stick flavor.