Sebastian Joe's - Chocolate Cinnamon Pretzel

 

Chocolate Cinnamon Pretzel - Cinnamon Chocolate Ice Cream with Chocolate-Covered Pretzel Pieces

Today's flavor comes from the Sebastian Joe's scoop shop in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis.  This flavor is called Chocolate Cinnamon Pretzel.  The flavor is self explanatory.  It is a relatively unique combination of flavors.  There are lots of chocolate-cinnamon flavors (sometimes called Mexican Chocolate) and lots of chocolate pretzel flavors, but I believe this is the first pint I have had which contains all three.

Removing the lid, I see the cinnamon chocolate base has a deep brown color.  I can see at least one of the pretzel mix-ins as well.  Digging in, the chocolate flavor is quite good and I notice the notes of cinnamon in the mix right away.  The mix is good.  It is more of a sweet cinnamon than a hot cinnamon.  Scattered throughout the pint are little chocolate coated pretzel balls.  There is not a whole lot of them, but they provide quite a bit of crunch when you do encounter one in your spoonful.

This is a fun flavor from Sebastian Joe's.  It's basically a Mexican chocolate implementation with pretzel balls mixed in.  The pretzel balls played more of a supporting role in this ensemble.  If you like a non-hot cinnamon-chocolate blend and you see this in the scooping bin, then give it a try.  The pretzels are a bonus.

Ben & Jerrys - Justice ReMix'd

Justice ReMix'd - Cinnamon & Chocolate Ice Creams with Gobs of Cinnamon Bun Dough & Spicy Fudge Brownies

Long-readers may recall that Ben & Jerry's is the brand that started these reviews.  I was dared into trying every flavor by one of my sisters.  Eventually, I completed my survey of their flavors and I had to try other brands.  I still get excited when Ben & Jerry's releases new flavors, though.  Today's flavor is a new flavor that they have released this fall called Justice ReMix'd.  It is a limited batch flavor with a political theme.  I found it at the Target store in the Midway neighborhood of Saint Paul.  Proceeds of the flavor will go to organizations interested in the advancement of criminal justice reform.  Not everyone likes mixing politics with ice cream -- even Stephen Colbert who has a popular flavor named after him is making jokes about it.  That said, a new flavor is a new flavor and unlike the recent Pecan Resist which was just a clone of New York Super Fudge Chunk this is a new flavor and I am eager to check it out. 

What this flavor appears to be is a blend of two other flavors: Cinnamon Buns and Chocolate Fudge Brownie.  That sounds a bit derivative at first, but Ben & Jerry's has had big success doing just this with their Half Baked flavor -- which is a blend of their Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavors.  When Ben & Jerry's releases their list of top ten most popular flavors each year, Half Baked tops the list almost every year.  Will a similar pint with cinnamon bun dough instead of cookie dough be just as successful?  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, I see a lot of chocolate, but hints of the cinnamon base as well.  Like in Half Baked, the two bases here are marbled instead of fully blended together.  With the first spoonful, I taste both chocolate and cinnamon together.  It is good.  This gives the feel of a Mexican chocolate which I have seen several times from other brands but not from Ben & Jerry's.  There are two types of mix-ins scattered throughout the pint.  Each mix-in stays within its corresponding base.  The cinnamon dough within the cinnamon base sections and the brownies within the chocolate sections.  The cinnamon dough are like little nuggets of chewy cinnamon-and-sugar bites.  They are fun to chew on and provide extra cinnamon flavor.  The brownies are soft and chewy and provide extra chocolate.  The side of the container says the brownies are 'spicy', but any spice that is in there does not stick out amongst the cinnamon that is in the other ingredients.  The brownies are good though.  Ben & Jerry's pioneered the use of brownies as a mix-in back in the 1980s and the have not lost their touch.

This a fun and successful blend of chocolate and cinnamon from Ben & Jerry's.  Everyone knows and loves their Half Baked and Chocolate Fudge Brownie flavors.  This pint blends in their underrated Cinnamon Buns flavor instead of regular cookie dough and this blend does work out really well.

Sebastian Joe's - Chocolate Coyote

Chocolate Coyote - Chocolate Ice Cream flavored with Cinnamon and Cayenne Pepper

 

I stopped Sebastian Joe's on Franklin & Hennepin a couple of weeks ago on one of my ice cream runs and picked up a couple of pints.  That area of Minneapolis is also home to Bebe Zito and Milkjam Creamery so it's convenient to visit all three in one trip.  Today's flavor is Chocolate Coyote.  They actually didn't have enough for a full pint, so one of my pictures is missing below, but I was able to eat enough to write a review.  This is a chocolate ice cream flavored with cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  This type of spicy chocolate is often known as "mexican chocolate" and I have had several versions of this from brands like McConnell's, Steve's and Häagen-Dazs plus more complex variants from Izzy's (with orange), Jeni's (with rosé) and even a previous Sebastian Joe's flavor (with pretzels).  Let's see how this flavor compares.

Opening the container, the chocolate ice cream is a fairly dark brown color.  Digging in, I taste the cinnamon right away.  It is a strong and hot cinnamon -- like what is found in red hot candy or a stick of Big Red chewing gum.  Then I taste the chocolate which is quite delicious.  The cayenne pepper blended quite well with the cinnamon.  This is the hottest cinnamon-chocolate pint that I have had, but it still feels like the flavor of cinnamon and not hot pepper. So, the pepper here serves to amplify the cinnamon in the mix.

This is a delicious and hot implementation of a spicy chocolate from Sebastian Joe's.  As I mentioned above, this is like a very spicy cinnamon without feeling like super-spicy hot pepper.  I really enjoy this blend.  This is for those that like their mexican chocolate on the spicy side.

 

 

Grand Ole Creamery - Chocolate Cinnamon

Chocolate Cinnamon - Chocolate Cinnamon Ice Cream

 

I was at Grand Ole Creamery (on Grand Avenue) the other day and saw they had a "special batch flavor" in their freezer case, so I picked up a pint.  This is called Chocolate Cinnamon.  I see this combination quite a bit.  Often it is called "Mexican Chocolate".  I have had implementations from Steve's, Sebastian Joe's, McConnell's (a sorbet),  Izzy's (with orange), and several other more complex mixtures which can be found if you include both chocolate and cinnamon in the search box for this blog.  Today's flavor looks like a simple implementation.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, I see the expected brown color of the chocolate base.  It's not too dark, not too light.  Digging in, I can taste a bit of mild cinnamon right away.  This is a sweeter type of cinnamon.  A lot the brands mentioned above go for a hotter type of cinnamon to 'spice up' the chocolate.  The flavor is still quite delicious though.  This is a homogeneous ice cream with no mix-ins.  As with other Grand Ole Creamery bases, as it melts it gets soft and almost buttery.  I was able to eat the whole pint in one sitting before it got too soft.

This is a decent chocolate and cinnamon pint from Grand Ole Creamery.  It uses a sweeter cinnamon flavor rather than a hot and spicy flavor which is not my own personal preference -- I like things spicy.  Still, if at Grand Ole Creamery and are in the mood for chocolate and you see this available, then try this as a alternative to mix things up a bit.  The sweeter pastry-style cinnamon is still quite appealing.

 

 

 

Izzy's - Mexican Chocolate Fiesta

Mexican Chocolate Fiesta - Chocolate Ice Cream with a dash of Cinnamon and a hint of Orange Extract

Izzy's Ice Cream has 32 flavors available in their scoop shops at any given time, but they many more flavors available than that.  There are 8 core flavors that seem to be always available (vanilla, vanilla bean, chocolate, strawberry, salted caramel, bubble gum, cotton candy & cookies and cream) and the other 24 slots rotate.  Thankfully, they have an online system to help me find out when flavors I am interested in have been rotated in which is called the Flavor Up system.  I signed up for all the award-winning flavors and a handful of others which look interesting.  The system works.  I actually got on email when the 2001 People's-Flavor-Award-winning flavor Mexican Chocolate Fiesta become available and I was able to run down and pick up a pint.  This is a chocolate ice cream with cinnamon and orange flavoring added.  I have had several 'mexican chocolate' flavors which include cinnamon (from Steve's, Jeni's, and McConnells) and one surprisingly good orange chocolate flavor.  I am curious to see how well this pint compares.

Opening the pint, I mainly see chocolate -- as expected.  With the first spoonful, I taste the cinnamon right away.  It is quite noticeable, but it is not at all a 'hot' cinnamon.  Then of course, the chocolate flavor.  It is good chocolate flavor -- sort of a milk chocolate, but most chocolate ice creams are rather milky because milk and cream are a natural part of ice cream ('dark' chocolate implementations have to try hard to stay 'dark').  Then after I swallowed, I actually noticed the orange flavor.  Often when I read that a flavor contains a 'hint' of something, I wonder if the effect will be too subtle for my palate, but I can definitely taste it here.  It provides cool orange flavor at the end of every spoonful. 

I really enjoyed this pint.  This is thick, dense and rich chocolate which is quite good by itself, but the cinnamon and orange definitely make it more interesting.  It is not as hot of a cinnamon flavor as some Mexican chocolates, and it is not as orangey as some orange chocolates, but all the flavors are balanced quite well.  This is quite delicious and I can see why it won one the first People's Flavor Award contest back in 2001.  They are holding the People's Flavor Award contest again next month and I am looking forward to checking it out.

Häagen-Dazs - Mayan Chocolate

Mayan Chocolate - Mayan Chocolate Ice Cream with a Fudge Swirl and Chocolaty Truffles

The latest in Häagen-Dazs' "Destination Series" takes us south of the border to Mexico for their Mayan Chocolate Flavor.  What makes the chocolate "Mayan"?  Cinnamon is added.  That makes this a bit similar to the previously reviewed Steve's Mexican Chili Chocolate flavor except here the only added spice is cinnamon whereas Steve's also added cayenne and guajillo pepper into the mix.  Also, today flavor adds a fudge swirl and chocolaty truffle pieces to the spiced chocolate base whereas the Steve's flavor was just the spicy chocolate base.  That is a welcome bonus as I like mix-ins.

Removing the lid and the extra plastic seal shows quite a bit of the fudge swirl is visible right away.  I also lick the plastic seal before digging in and right away I can taste the cinnamon flavoring in the chocolate.  Digging in, the chocolate base is very tasty.   Other brands sometimes focus on the mix-ins to provide the flavoring, but Häagen-Dazs does a straight chocolate ice cream very well.  The fudge swirls provide an extra chocolate kick.  The truffle pieces were fairly numerous and were comprised of all chocolate (no caramel or nut inside).  The pieces were crumbly in texture and chewed easily -- they were not simply fudge chunks.  To my surprise, the cinnamon flavor faded as I ate deeper into the pint.  This could be my own palate.  I tend to prefer higher spice levels and I always heap the cinnamon when I cook with it.  Whereas the Steve's pint above left a lingering spicy taste on my teeth afterwards, Häagen-Dazs went with a milder mix -- perhaps to appeal to a broader audience.

I still enjoyed the pint despite it not being quite as spicy as I would have liked.  Chocolate lovers will like the excellent chocolate in the base, in the swirl and in the mix-in.  If you're more sensitive to spices then you'll notice the kick of cinnamon more than me. 

McConnell's - Mexican Chocolate Sorbet

Mexican Chocolate Sorbet - Chocolate Sorbet with Hints of Vanilla, Espresso and Cinnamon

Today is pint three of the McConnell's Melting Pot Collection.  The flavor is Mexican Chocolate Sorbet.  From previous reviews, we know that a sorbet is dairy free -- it is basically flavoring, sugar and ice.  The flavor of sorbet is usually a fruit juice which makes it a lot like a frozen slushie.  It is not uncommon, though, to have a Chocolate Sorbet.  Chocolate contains cocoa butter (which not dairy) so it can provide a bit of its own creaminess.  Indeed, I have reviewed a pint of chocolate sorbet before.  The 'mexican' qualifier on the chocolate means that it has a bit of spice added.  I have reviewed a pint of mexican chocolate before as well.  I am looking forward to trying this out.

Removing the lid shows that the chocolate sorbet is extremely dark -- almost black!  There is no milk or cream to lighten up the color.  Digging in, the sorbet is very dense and quite tough.  Some that I think is due to the dry-ice treatment before and during shipping.  I left the pint out for several minutes first, but it was still hard to get the spoon through.  The sorbet is very chocolatey with a noticeable hint of cinnamon but it was not too strong.  It was flavorful.  As I ate my way further down into the pint, I did notice the espresso every once in a while, otherwise it was chocolate with a mild cinnamon accent.  As it softened up, it got a little slushy and at the bottom of the pint, I was quite full.  A flavor like this is probably better a scoop at a time.

I think this is a well-done pint of chocolate sorbet.  Lots of chocolate and very dense.  I would have preferred the cinnamon to be a little stronger.  I was a bit surprised that it was not spicier after the super-flavorful Masala Chai flavor from last time.  Also, I think I'm not really a chocolate sorbet type of guy.  I like a chocolate dairy mix.  For that reason and for having more spice, I prefer Steve's Mexican Chili Chocolate to this flavor.  Still, if you are more of a chocolate sorbet person than me and find yourself a McConnell's scoop shop then give this flavor a sample.  It is quite chocolatey.

  

Steve's - Mexican Chili Chocolate

Mexican Chili Chocolate - Chocolate Ice Cream laced with Cinnamon and Cayenne with Guajillo Chocolate Pieces

We're back to the Steve's brand with their Mexican Chili Chocolate flavor.  I must admit that I'm both intrigued and intimidated by this flavor.  I love Mexican food -- especially spicy Mexican food -- and I like chocolate, but I'm not sure if I' don't often think of the two of them going together.  I do like the idea of trying new flavors though and this is combination I've encountered in any of the previous reviews.

Opening the pint, I see the chocolate base with a slightly ligher brown color than expected.  Digging in, the cinnamon accent to the chocolate hit me right away but otherwise it was just really good chocolate.  Some of the other brands don't worry about the chocolate quality in their chocolate base and when they want extra chocolate flavor they add chocolate mix-ins.  Not here, though, as this is a very good chocolate base.   The chocolate pieces were pea-sized and occasionally dispersed through the pint adding extra dense chocolate flavor.  The cayenne and guajillo chili flavoring was not as potent as I expected.  In each spoonful, it did not distract from the excellent chocolate flavor that I described above but it was something that built up slowly as I was eating the pint.  It was a flavor that near the end of the pint stayed lingering on my teeth in between spoonfuls -- not a complaint, I rather enjoyed that sensation.  I have a couple of theories as to why it wasn't as spicy as I expected.  First, I tend to like my spicy food mucho caliente and perhaps a name brand chose not to be so bold in a pre-packaged pint.  Second, if you want to relieve your mouth of spice, you would have something cold and milky, so the ice cream base does act as a natural buffer for added spicy ingredients.

I did enjoy this pint, though.  It's a very tasty chocolate!  I've had a lot of different chocolate ice creams in the past year, so that's saying something.   I would recommend this flavor if you like chocolate but are interested in a slightly spicy twist on your usual favorite.

Jeni's - Mexican Hot Chocolate

Mexican Hot Chocolate - Chocolate Ice Cream with Vietnamese Cinnamon and Cayenne Pepper 

 

I made a holiday order from Jeni's Ice Cream of Columbus, Ohio!  Rather than wait for the Black Friday sale, I pulled the trigger early this year as I am worried about shipping delays this year.  A reminder to local readers that although Whole Foods, Kowalski's and a few other places, I have never seen the holiday flavors in stock at local grocery stores.  Ok, I have had a few of the holiday flavors before (Sugar Plum, White Chocolate Peppermint and Cognac with Gingerbread), so I will refer you to those reviews.  The first new flavor from the shipment is called Mexican Hot Chocolate (instagram link here).  This flavor used to be called "Queen City Cayenne" and is one of Jeni's earliest and most favorite flavors.  It is a chocolate ice cream seasoned with Vietnamese cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  This mexican or spiced chocolate flavor is not uncommon.  I have had implementations from Häagen-Dazs, Steve's, McConnell's, and Sebastian Joe's.  Jeni's themselves even had a similar flavor called Xocorosa which had slightly different spices and was spiked with rosé.  Let's dig in!

Removing the lid, the chocolate base has a medium brown color -- about normal and not "dark".  Digging in, I taste the spices in the chocolate right away.  Mainly I taste the the cinnamon.  I taste a little bit of the cayenne pepper as well.  I have a high spice tolerance, so for me it just raises the level of the cinnamon to that of  Big Red gum.  But here in the Midwest, people have lower spice tolerances, so they may feel more of a kick.  I do not mean to belabor these spice-level observations -- this is delicious!  This is a homogeneous flavor with no mix-ins.

This is a solid implementation of a spicy chocolate from Jeni's.  It is simple and flavorful.  Part of me wishes it was a bit hotter, but that could be my high spice tolerance talking.  This is spicy enough for most.  Enjoy.

Sweet Science - Snicker Doodle

Snicker Doodle - Brown-Sugar Cinnamon Ice Cream with Swirls of Caramel, Crunchy Peanuts and Crispy Chocolate Shards

Sweet Science at Keg & Case in Saint Paul is back again with new flavors!  My last review of theirs, Vanilla Bean, was last pint from their regular menu that had not reviewed and since they are doing curbside pickup of four-packs during the current pandemic-related shutdown, I was a bit worried about padding future purchases with flavors that I've already had.  But they had four new flavors for me to try!  That's great!  So, now my freezer is stocked with ice cream for a while.  This first flavor is called Snicker Doodle.  The space in the name means that this flavor is part snickerdoodle (with the cinnamon) and part Snickers bar (chocolate, caramel and peanuts).  There is also brown sugar in the mix.  My recipe for snickerdoodles does not call for brown sugar, but it sounds like a good addition to this ice cream anyways.  I am guessing it will complement the cinnamon well.

Let's dig in!  Opening the pint, I see a couple of the shards of chocolate right away and hints of the caramel swirl that I have enjoyed in several other Sweet Science flavors.  Digging in, the I can taste the brown sugar and cinnamon right away in the base.  It is pretty tasty.  Here, the base is just a vehicle for the mix-ins though.  The caramel swirl is indeed as tasty as it is in other Sweet Science flavors such as Salted Caramel Swirl and Coffee Caramel Cookie.  The shards of chocolate are thin and crumbly.  They do resemble the outside covering of a snickers bar, but this is a premium version of that -- it is a darker and more potent chocolate.  There are quite a few peanuts in the mix which add crunch.

I enjoyed this flavor from Sweet Science very much.  It is mostly a snickers bar implementation with the twist of using a brown sugar and cinnamon base instead of a nougat flavoring or a more neutral flavoring like sweet cream or vanilla.  Searching my reviews, I was surprised to see that I have not had that many flavors like this one before.  The closest I could find was an old retired 7-11-exclusive flavor from Ben & Jerry called Nutty Caramel Swirl.  This pint was better than that -- higher quality caramel and the brown sugar and cinnamon is a very welcome addition.  This is a very easy flavor to recommend as these are all very pleasing ingredients -- chocolate, caramel, nuts, cinnamon.  Enjoy.

Coolhaus - Street Cart Churro Dough

Street Cart Churro Dough - Brown Butter Ice Cream with Cinnamon Sugar Churro Dough and a Chocolate Chip Swirl

Today is another of the new Coolhaus flavors for 2018.  This one is called Street Cart Churro Dough.  As mentioned in previous reviews, churros are a fried-dough pastry common in Spain, Portugal and Latin America.  It makes for a good ice cream flavor because it has cinnamon and chewy mix-ins.  This pint looks a bit different though because it has a chocolate swirl.  We'll see.


  
When I took off the lid, I got a nice surprise:

 

Aww... just like the last Coolhaus pint, I got an uplifting mesage!   That's nice.  I just stared at it for a while, but then I figured I should peel off the foil and eat the ice cream.  The ice cream inside is quite interesting.  There is a lot of chocolate!  Digging in, the chocolate swirl dominates the pint, I almost can't taste the brown butter base at all.  There is just enough base to suspend the chocolate and make it cold and scoopable, but not much more.  Inside this suspension are the churro dough pieces which I encountered from time to time.  They are soft, and have a sweet cinnamon-and-sugar flavor.  I like it.

This is a unique, eclectic and successful pint from Coolhaus.  It almost defies comparison.  I was excited to compare it to the Jeni's and McConnell's pints in the links above but all the chocolate effectively make this a completely different flavor.  And I can't compare it to spiced Mexican Chocolate flavors (here and here) either, because this is a sweet cinnamon and not a hot cinnamon.  This flavor is it's own thing.  I liked it, though.  If churros and chocolate sounds yummy, give this one a shot.

New Orleans - White Chocolate Bread Pudding

White Chocolate Bread Pudding - Sweet Cream with Cinnamon Bread Pudding Pieces and White Chocolate Chips

Today we review a new brand!  New for me, at least.  The New Orleans Ice Cream company founded in 2006 by Adrian Simpson, an English-born resident of New Orleans.  Simpson liked New Orleans' rather unique and distinctive menu of desserts and came up with the idea of using each dessert as a basis for an ice cream flavor.  Browsing the list of flavors at their website, it looks like they do indeed have a lot of flavors that are not implemented by other brands.  Today's flavor is White Chocolate Bread Pudding.  This is the first time I have seen bread pudding as a mix-in.  I can't wait to dig in.

Opening the pint shows the white color of the base ice cream.  The label does not call it sweet cream, but I assume that is what it is because I do not see vanilla listed as an ingredient.  A couple of bread pudding pieces are visible from the get-go.  Digging in, the base ice cream is quite thick.  I encountered the bread pudding mix-ins right away.  They are quite doughy with more than a hint of cinnamon evident.  Enough cinnamon was included that I adjusted the flavor description above to include it.  I like cinnamon, so this was good.  Mixed in amongst the numerous bread pieces were the white chocolate chip.  There were not as many chips as bread chunks but they were not scarce.  The chips were OK, though as mentioned in previous reviews I do not get much out of white chocolate.  It is not bad, but it doesn't have a strong flavor for me.  They did provide the occasionally crunchy texture.  White chocolate in bread pudding is a popular New Orleans recipe, I wonder what it is like in non-ice cream dessert form.

This was an interesting flavor.  If I had to go with a flavor with a spiced doughy mix-in, I might stick with Cinnamon Buns but this was still good.  If you want a variation on that or if you appreciate white chocolate more than me, you could check this out.  This new brand does sound like a lot of fun, though.  I am looking forward to trying out some of the other flavors.

  

Milkjam Creamery - Mexican Hot Chocolate

Mexican Hot Chocolate - Spiced Chocolate with Hints of Cinnamon, Chili, Nutmeg, and Candied Cocoa Nibs

The next December flavor (instagram link here) from the Minneapolis-based Milkjam Creamery is called Mexican Hot Chocolate (instagram link here).  I've recently reviewed a Mexican Chocolate flavor from Jeni's.  Spiced chocolate appears to be in this year.  Here Milkjam uses the usual cinnamon and chili pepper as spices but they also add some nutmeg into the mix.  Interestingly, they also add cocoa nibs.  Checking my archives, both Häagen-Dazs and Steve's had chocolate mix-ins in their spiced chocolate flavors, so that's been done before.  Let's see how Milkjam compares.

Removing the lid, the chocolate base has the normal brown color.  It is always interesting when Milkjam does a standard chocolate dairy base because their signature chocolate flavor is non-dairy and and extremely Black in color.  I can see some of the cocoa nib mix-ins on top of the pint as well.  Digging in, the chocolate flavor is rich, smooth, creamy and delicious.  The spices provide a noticeable kick but are not overpowering.  The cocoa nibs are dispersed throughout the pint and provide quite a bit of crunch-iness.

This is a solid Mexican chocolate implementation from Milkjam Creamery.  It's rich, chocolatey, spicy and the crunchy cocoa nibs are a nice touch.  It's also good to see them show that they can do a quality dairy chocolate from time to time as well.