Cedar Crest Chocolate Malt Ice Cream

Note: Sometimes life is full of funny coincidences.  I wrote this blog post a few days before Lizzy posted her review of The Fountain on Locust, a Saint Louis restaurant that serves Cedar Crest Ice Cream!

Sometimes I feel like a broken record on this blog.  "This ice cream is really good.  This ice cream is really good.  This ice cream is really good."  I'll just chalk it up to ice cream being generally really good, and not to me being boring.

So, here I go again.  Cedar Crest Chocolate Malt ice cream is really good.  I picked this flavor up because I inherited a love of chocolate malted milkshakes from my father.  Anytime we go to the good ol' Malt Shop in Fenton, you can count on dad to get a chocolate malted milkshake, no matter what other offerings there are.  I won't get one every time, I mean sometimes a girl has to go for the cookie dough or Reese's Pieces, but I do appreciate a true, delicious classic from time to time.

When I saw this in the freezer section, I did a double take.  Chocolate malt is such a simple, timeless, and common flavor at ice cream shops, and yet I have never seen it as a pre-packaged ice cream flavor.  It was a plus that it was a new-to-me brand.

Cedar Crest is based in Wisconsin, just a state away (let me tell you, there are definitely some perks to living in dairy country!), and claim to be the inventors of 'track' ice cream.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much from this ice cream.  I don't think you can do chocolate malt badly, but I was thinking I would come out of this eating experience just saying 'eh.'  Instead, I'm saying ZOMG!  The chocolate malt flavor was good.  It tasted exactly like a chocolate malted milkshake.  Not revolutionary, but delicious.  What made this ice cream outstanding was the texture.

On their website, Cedar Crest claims that "... our processes are all centered on making small batches that give the ice cream more flavor and creaminess.  A flavor and creaminess that we think is unsurpassed in the ice cream business ..."  Oh baby, this texture was amazing.  It was light, and airy, and creamy.  The exact texture of a frothy chocolate mousse, but the temperature of ice cream.  When this melted, it didn't melt into a soupy mess, it melted into a frothy, chocolatey goodness that was the texture of whipped egg whites riiiiiiiiiiight before they're stiff enough to form peaks.

The chocolate malt flavor would make a slightly-different-than-usual base for ice cream sundaes, but honestly, the texture of this ice cream makes it delicious enough to enjoy on its own.