Van Leeuwen - Marionberry Cheesecake

Marionberry Cheesecake - Cheesecake Ice Cream with a Marionberry Swirl and Graham Cracker Crumble

Today we return to Brooklyn's Van Leeuwen brand.  Kowalski's carries this brand locally.  They carry less than ten of their flavors, but thankfully Kowalski's has switched up which ten flavors they carry.  So I have more ice cream to try!  Today's flavor is Marionberry Cheesecake.  A marionberry is a cultivated caneberry hybrid -- related to blackberries, raspberries and boysenberries.  I have had marionberry flavors from McConnell's (see link for more marionberry background) and Tillamook.  I am glad to see another brand trying out this very underrated berry flavor.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, the foil seal has a funny joke on it.  These foil seals (and their jokes) are becoming more common.  Peeling back the seal, the ice cream is quite marbled.  The cheesecake base has a yellowish color, lots of pink from the marionberry is visible as well as some implied texture from the graham cracker swirl.  Digging in, the marionberry swirls are more pronounced under the surface.  The flavor of this swirl is excellent.  If you have not tried marionberry, it is similar to its raspberry and blackberry cousins but it has a deeper and darker flavor.  I like it.  The cheesecake base mainly serves as a complement to the swirl.  It does this job quite well.  The graham cracker swirl is pretty good.  It provides the occasional chunky/chewy texture.

This is a very well-done implementation of the very underutilized marionberry flavor.  It is about as good as the sadly recently retired Tillamook flavor.  So if you were a fan of that flavor, you could just switch to this one.  (I did buy them both at Kowalski's so that would be convenient).  The McConnell's flavor is excellent, but it uses a lemon base so it is harder to make a direct comparison.  All this talk of marionberries makes me want to check out produce sections for fresh versions of these berries.  I hear they look like blackberries but are noticeably larger.  I am not aware of any local grocery stores which sell these berries though.  They are an Oregon berry, so if I ever make it to that state, I may check them out.

 

 

Cheesecake Factory - Salted Caramel

Salted Caramel - Premium Caramel Cheesecake ice Cream with a Signature Cream Cheese Blend, Sour Cream, Sea Salt Caramel and Graham Swirls

 

Today's flavor comes from the Cheesecake Factory brand and is called Salted Caramel.  I bought it at the Target in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul, but I have also seen it at local Cub and Hyvee stores.  With the exception of Key Lime and Birthday Cake, many Cheesecake Factory flavors are the basic front-of-the-scooping bin classics covered by almost every brand -- chocolate, strawberry, etc.  Salted Caramel would definitely qualify as one of those.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, there are big air pockets around the rim.  I always feel like I'm getting cheated out of an ounce of ice cream when this happens.  It does make the caramel cheesecake base look think, though.  Digging in, the base is indeed thick and creamy and has a mild caramel flavor.  Most of the caramel flavor is delivered in the swirls which are pretty good.  The graham cracker crust swirls are the same as the once used on many of the other Cheesecake Factory flavors -- good flavor and a nice gritty crust-like texture.  I do not specifically taste the sour cream as I do in some of the other flavors from this brand -- perhaps the sweet caramel is enough to balance it out.

This is a well-done implementation of a caramel cheesecake flavor from the Cheesecake Factory.  I like flavors that have swirls of caramel as well as caramel flavor.  My favorite caramel-swirl flavor is still Salted Caramel Swirl from Sweet Science but this is still quite good.  The gritty graham cracker crust is a highlight of this pint -- as it is with other Cheesecake Factory flavors.  Cheesecake Factory flavors are becoming easy to find in Twin Cities grocery stores.  These are worth checking out if you like the flavor which is being implemented.

 

 

Jeni's - Cold Brew with Coconut Cream

Cold Brew with Coconut Cream - Light and Bright Slingshot Coffee Cold Brew Sorbet Twisted with Lush Coconut Cream

 

Today I return to Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream for another flavor in their non-dairy line.  As mentioned in previous reviews, I do not always survey the non-dairy lines of my favorite brands but Jeni's has had a number of special releases this year which I did not want to miss out on.  For each of these releases, I have had to pad my shipment with other flavors.  I have already tried all the dairy flavors that they are currently offering so I dipped into their non-dairy line.  Today's flavor is Cold Brew with Coconut Cream.  Since I bought it online, I am not sure if local grocery stores are carrying it.  The best bet would be Whole Foods.  Today's flavor is rather interesting.  They use the same coconut cream base that they use for half the other non-dairy flavors -- so far I have seen two non-dairy bases: coconut and chocolate -- and the coffee is then made into a sorbet which is swirled into the coconut cream.  For the coffee, they use Slingshot brand coffee.  Let's see how this turns out!

Removing the lid and peeling back the seal, the top of the pint looks like mostly coffee-colored with some white from the coconut cream visible on one of the edges.  Digging in, the blending that I see on the top surface is misleading.  I quickly see that there are two distinct sections in below.  One is plain coconut cream and the other is a thick and dense coffee sorbet.  The two sections are more marbled than swirled.  Each section is quite large, but it does not take much spoonwork to be able to fit some of each into each spoonful.  The coffee sorbet tastes quite good.  The texture is much more dense than I am used to with sorbets.  It is a bit icy/slushy at times.  I think if the entire pint was just this sorbet, then it would be too icy, but marbling it with the coconut cream works very well.  The coconut cream is excellent.  This base has been used in other non-dairy flavors from Jeni's but it is more isolated here and I can really appreciate it for what it is.  This is excellent!  They could sell just pints of this.  I can taste the coconut, but it is not too strong.  The goal here is to balance out the coffee sorbet and it does a good job of that.

This is a very interesting non-dairy flavor from Jeni's.  I applaud that this is not just a clone of their Coffee with Cream and Sugar flavor with coconut cream instead of dairy cream.  Marbling a coffee sorbet against a creamy base is unique and fun.  The denseness of the coffee sorbet was a little weird for me personally, but others may love that idea.  People who love coffee ice creams may want to try this one out even if they don't have dietary restrictions because the sorbet-in-cream experiment is so interesting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tillamook - Dark Chocolate & Red Raspberry

Dark Chocolate & Red Raspberry - Dark Chocolate and Red Raspberry Frozen Custard with Red Raspberry Swirls

 

We return to the Oregon-based Tillamook Creamery for this Dark Chocolate & Red Raspberry flavor.  I bought this at Kowalski's on Grand in Saint Paul, but I have noticed that they have started selling Tillamook pints at Target!  So, if you frequent the Target freezer cases, keep an eye out for this quality brand.  Today's flavor features a dark chocolate raspberry base with raspberry swirls.  Raspberry and chocolate is a very common combination, but it's usually a raspberry base with chocolate mix-ins and not the other way around.  Checking my archives, this is the first chocolate-base-with-raspberry-mix-ins that I have tried.  I did find a couple of cherry flavors with chocolate bases:  the limited-batch Chocolate Cherry Garcia from Ben & Jerry's and Dark Chocolate Cherry (Layers) from Talenti.  Let's see how this raspberry flavor turns out.

Removing the lid, I see one of my favorite emoji jokes on the seal.  Peeling back the seal, the chocolate-raspberry base has a deep brown color -- it looks like chocolate.  Digging in, I taste primarily chocolate but there are some raspberry notes and some raspberry flavor in the 'finish'.  This is good.  Closely examining some spoonfuls, I can see dark pink streaks in the base where the 'swirl' is but it is hard to isolate this flavor because there is so much chocolate.

This is a good raspberry-tinged chocolate flavor from Tillamook.  Raspberry lovers should note that this is for the most part a chocolate pint.  But you do get interesting raspberry accents in each spoonful.  It tastes a bit like one of those 'flavored chocolates' that you may find at a fancy chocolate store.  A good pint for chocolate-lovers to try for a twist on their favorite flavor.

 

 

Cheesecake Factory - Strawberry

Strawberry - Strawberry Cheesecake Ice Cream with a Signature Cream Cheese Blend, Sour Cream, Strawberry and Graham Swirls

 

Today, I return to the Cheesecake Factory brand for their implementation of a Strawberry flavor.  I appear to be on a strawberry kick of late.  I did not plan this, it just happens to be what is in my freezer this week.  Since this is the Cheesecake Factory, this is cheesecake-based strawberry flavor.  Sour cream is another Cheesecake Factory signature as well as swirls of graham cracker which act as the crust in this slice-of-cheesecake flavor.  Strawberry Cheesecake is a common flavor combination.  I have had it from Ben & Jerry's, Graeter's and Coolhaus.

Removing the lid, the strawberry cheesecake base has a light pink color.  A couple of the strawberry swirls are visible around the edges as well as a couple of chunks of the graham cracker crust.  Digging in, the strawberry cheesecake base is quite delicious.  It is not as thick as some strawberry cheesecake bases are.  It could almost pass for a simple strawberry ice cream base.  The sour cream in the mix is fully blended in and not specifically noticeable as it is in a couple of the other Cheesecake Factory flavors (Original and Key Lime).  It could be the sweetness of the strawberry which is doing that.  Strawberry is a very sweet flavor which is often muted with things such as sour cream and cream cheese.  The strawberry swirls are delicious and like previous Cheesecake Factory flavors, I really enjoy this graham cracker swirl.  It has a good flavor and a very gritty texture reminiscent of pie crust.

This is a good strawberry cheesecake flavor from Cheesecake Factory.  It has a simple strawberry flavor where the cream cheese is fully blended in (no chunks).  The gritty graham cracker crust is a highlight.  Strawberry lovers looking to try this brand will not be disappointed.

 

 

Jeni's - Strawberry Pretzel Pie

Strawberry Pretzel Pie - Cream Cheese Ice Cream, Pretzel Streusel, and a Whole Lotta Strawberry Sauce

Jeni's released a special flavor last month in collaboration with Dolly Parton called Strawberry Pretzel Pie.  I did manage to get my hands on a pint of it, but it was quite an adventure.  The first online release crashed their website and it took them a week to fix the website and they had an extremely limited supply.  Normally, this is almost good publicity when something like this happens, but Jeni's is a big player in the ice cream business now and I think the frustration level from buyers distracted from what was supposed to be a fun partnership with Dolly which benefitted her Imagination Library.  The flavor is totally sold out now, but my order did go through and I can review it now.  This is a flavor based on strawberry pretzel pie.  I have never had this type of pie, but there are lots of recipes online for it.  The main elements in the recipes are a salted pretzel crust, cream cheese and a strawberry sauce -- all elements which are included in this ice cream flavor.  Let's check it out!

The packaging is nice.  There is a nice drawing of Dolly on the side of the carton.  There is a nice feel-good message on the protective foil when I remove the lid.  Peeling back the foil, I see the creamy white cream cheese base with one of the strawberry swirls prominently displayed on top.  I like it when this happens.  Digging in, the cream cheese base is thick -- I can tell that it is thicker than their usual ice cream.  The cream cheese flavor is mild and does not have the aftertaste that some cream cheeses and cheesecakes have.  That's good.  The strawberry swirl is quite delicious.  It is not too sweet and not too tart.  It does not take a lot of strawberry to fill your mouth with flavor so the cream cheese here serves as a balance to that.  There are quite a bit of sizeable pretzels pieces in here (see pictures below).  Some of these pieces are crunchy, but not all of them.  Mix-ins like this tend to soften up when immersed in ice cream.  On the whole, this is quite delicious.

This is a solid strawberrys and pretzels pint from Jeni's.  I liked it quite a bit, but I did not love it as much as their previous two 'special batch' flavors this year - White House Chocolate Chip and Everything Bagel.  I think I would have loved it more if all the pretzel pieces were crunchy.  But I know keeping pretzels crunchy in ice cream is a hard problem and you cannot fall back on coating them with chocolate in this recipe.  Maybe the expectations for this 'special batch' and all the trouble involved in ordering it raised my expectations too high.  It's still a very enjoyable pint!  I would say to check it out, but I don't know when or if this flavor will be available again.  Some of those strawberry pretzel pie recipes look fun, though.  So you could try that.

 

 

Talenti - Strawberry Shortcake

Strawberry Shortcake - Layers of Strawberry Gelato, Shortbread Pieces, Strawberry Rhubarb Sauce, Strawberry Gelato (2) and Shortbread Pieces (2)

 

Today's flavor is the last of the four new Layers flavors released this year by Talenti Gelato.  It is called Strawberry Shortcake.  I cannot remember which grocery store I bought this in, but the new layers flavors are popping up in grocery stores across the Twin Cities.  Earlier this week, I reviewed a strawberry shortcake flavor from Tillamook and I have also reviewed flavors from Milkjam Creamery and Ben & Jerry's.  In Talenti layers flavors there are usually three layers of mix-ins sandwiched between and below two layers of gelato.  Here both gelato flavors are strawberry, the two layers sandwiched between are strawberry rhubarb sauce and shortbread pieces and there is an additional layer of shortbread pieces on the bottom of the pint.  Let's check it out.

Like all layers pints, when I unscrew the lid, all I see is the top layer.  For the purposes of taking photos, I then cut out a vertical slice of the pint in order to see all the layers.  The layering here is well done.  How does it all blend together?  The strawberry gelato is quite delicious.  I can see a little bit of texture in the gelato as though there are tiny pieces of strawberry or perhaps seeds in the mix, but they are so small as to not affect the texture.  The layer of strawberry rhubarb provides a thick and tangy swirl of flavor into the mix.  It is a mostly strawberry flavor with the rhubarb providing a mild tangy kick.  I liked it quite a bit.  The shortbread pieces are quite good.  Shortbread by design is a mild confection but these little goldfish-cracker sized nuggets provide quite a lot to chew on as you are eating the pint.

This is an excellent new layers flavor from Talenti.  Fans of strawberry will want to check this out.  This concludes my survey of the four new layers flavors.  The other three flavors were Chocolate Pretzel, Cookies & Cream and Confetti Cookie.  Today's Strawberry Shortcake flavor might be my favorite, but the Chocolate Pretzel flavor with it's delicious salted cone pieces might be a close second.  Then comes Cookies & Cream which was still quite tasty.  Confetti Cookie was my least favorite because I did not think the layering worked well.

Finally, I should note that Talenti has two new non-layers flavors this year:  Honey Graham and Vanilla Peanut Butter Swirl.  I cannot seem to find these in Twin Cities grocery stores yet.  I know there is often a shortage of space in freezer cases.  Perhaps stores are prioritizing the layers flavors?  Hopefully, they turn up eventually.  If anyone spots either of these flavors, let me know in the comments section.