The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

I bought this ice cream the same day that I bought the Klondike Bars. That day I didn't really have a plan as to what ice cream I wanted to buy at the grocery store; I wanted something to jump out and inspire me. The last Kroger frozen dairy product I had, I wasn't that impressed with. But when I saw the flavor, Fried Ice Cream, I was immediately intrigued. Anyone who has gotten fried ice cream at a Mexican or Asian restaurant knows that eating fried ice cream is an experience . It is always a little different at each restaurant, a different coating, different flavor, etc. I don't necessarily associate fried ice cream with with one particular thing, and I was excited to see how Kroger interpreted this ice cream experience into a flavor. There was no description on the box, but from the ingredients I could tell the base of the ice cream was cinnamon, there were cinnamon shortbread pieces and a honey caramel swirl. I was really hoping for some Special K/cornflake chunks

I just cannot resist buying ice cream when I go to Target; it consistently way cheaper than at the grocery store.  During my most recent trip to Target, one of the ice creams I picked up was Market Pantry Strawberry Cheesecake.  I have tried one other Market Pantry (a Target brand) ice cream, Cinema Snack, and was impressed that they attempted a popcorn flavored base, but less than thrilled with the execution.  I decided to give the brand another try to see how they did with a more traditional flavor.  The Strawberry Cheesecake is described as: Cheesecake ice cream with strawberries, Graham crunch, and a strawberry swirl. The first thing that struck me when I opened the container was how white the ice cream was.  I've never thought about this before, but ice cream is very rarely stark, bright white.  Since it has cream it in it, it is more often cream colored (like, duh).  This made me very wary, as the brightness felt a bit artificial. The first bite of ice cream I had

Normally when I go to the grocery store, I have a plan for what ice cream I want to buy. However, when I went to Gerbe's this past Monday night, I did not. All I knew was I wanted to get something unlike anything I had reviewed before. I didn't think there would be too many things that fit into that category. I am constantly surprised by the American food system. Even at a pretty small grocery store like Gerbe's I was dumb struck by the number of ice cream options that I hadn't tried. How would I ever decide? Well I wandered up and down the ice cream isle for a bit looking like an idiot before I decided. I swear I looked at the Klondike Bars a few times before I even noticed them and decided to buy them. I don't think I have had a Klondike Bar in years. Despite their really aggressive marketing campaigns (can you even say "What would you do for a Klondike Bar?" without singing it??), Klondike Bars aren't really that special.  Just plain old vanilla i

Kyle and I just moved in to a new apartment and don't have internet yet, so I've had this post written for a while but am just now able to upload pictures to go along with it. As I mentioned in my last post, last time I want to Target pints of Haagen-Dazs were on sale for $3 each.  I used the opportunity to pick up some flavors I wasn't sure I would like, that way I wouldn't feel like I had wasted money on them.  In addition to the salted caramel gelato, I picked up a pint of Raspberry sorbet. It is hard to go wrong with sorbet, but I did not like Mango, the last Haagen-Dazs sorbet flavor I tried.  I felt it was cloyingly sweet, past the point of enjoyable and reaching the point of stomach-turning.  This may be because it was mango flavored.  While I like mangos, I do think they border on being too sweet, and if they are slightly overripe they are too sweet. The Raspberry Sorbet had no such issues.  It was definitely sweet, but the tartness inherent to raspberrie

My friend Molly asked me to review Yo My Goodness. Yo My Goodness is a fro-yo chain that just opened up a location on Wydown, not far from Wash U, this past spring, when Chill closed. I reviewed the Yo My Goodness Yummy Yellow Cake Batter Flavor  here . However, this was a review of just one flavor, not really the whole experience. As any avid fro-yoer (is some one who yo-yos at a fro-yo place a fro-yo-yoer??) will tell you, fro-yo is not just about the flavors, or just the textures, or just the toppings, but the whole experience. So how do I go about reviewing a froyo place for it's entire experience? I've decided there are a few categories with which I can evaluate the fro-yo experience: 1) The variety of flavors: Is there a good selection? 2) The flavor of my choices. 3) The quality of the combination of my choices. 4) The texture of the fro-yo (or sorbet, etc.) 5) The variety of toppings. 6) Quality of toppings 7) How well my toppings coordinate with my fro-yo flavor

I have been living in Eldon for 3 weeks now, and I'm sure you have all been anxiously awaiting my first review of an ice cream shop in Eldon. There are two places to get your cold, sweet tooth fix. The Eldon Drive In and Cree Mee Drive In. Throughout this year I will attempt to decide, although I doubt it will be possible, which drive in is better, especially in the ice cream department. This past Friday, as I drove home to St. Louis for the first time since moving here, I stopped at Cree Mee on my way out of town for a pre-road trip pick-me-up. Before I even went there, Cree Mee, in my opinion, had two points over Eldon Drive In in the epic drive-in battle; the appearance and the name. Cree Mee is essentially a big red barn. It is so adorable. Eldon Drive In is just an orange building, not nearly as cute. Also I just cannot get over the spelling of Cree Mee; I seriously love it. And how boring is Eldon Drive In? That would be like naming your off-spring "Child". You didn

I have had mixed experiences with Haagen-Dazs gelato.  The Stracciatella frankly sucked, but the newer Pomegranate Swirl flavor was delightful.  When I saw that Target had pints of Haagen-Dazs on sale for $3 a pop, I decided to pick up some gelato and sorbet.  That way, if they sucked, I didn't pay very much money for them. The gelato I decided on was Sea Salt Caramel.  I've been interested to try this to compare it to Talenti's Sea Salt Caramel flavor which is heaven on earth.  Also, it's pretty hard to really screw up a salted caramel flavor. I feel that salted caramel has really come into vogue in the last few years.  In high school and undergrad I think I can safely say that I had never had anything claiming to be salted caramel flavored.  Not a cookie, not a latte, and certainly not ice cream.  Maybe I was not as flavor-aware then as I am now, but I really think it is because salted caramel flavor was not very common until recently.  In my opinion, the pre

This.  This is Ben and Jerry's at their absolute finest.  You have heard Lizzy and me talk about the signature Ben and Jerry's chunk in the past, and if you want a quintessential, chunk-tastic Ben and Jerry's experience, look no further than Everything But the ...  I mean, just look at the picture below. This ice cream is described as A collision of chocolate & vanilla ice cream mixed with peanut butter cups, fudge-covered toffee pieces, white chocolatey chunks and fudge-covered almonds. The chocolate/vanilla combo is great (gotta love the swirl).  I think a totally chocolate base would make this ice cream too overwhelming, but a totally vanilla base would be overwhelmed by all the mix-ins.  The swirl gives the mix-ins a stage upon which they shine. This ice cream's theme song is a slightly modified version of Elvis Presley's 'Burning Love.'  "I'm just a chunk, a chunk of burning love."  Shown above: a peanut butter cup and a wh

This past weekend I went to the Missouri State Fair for the first time EVER! The fair is every year in Sedalia, Missouri, which is about an hour northwest of Eldon. The drive was all on rural highways by cute little towns and beautiful farms. The first places we saw were a handful of ice cream options at the state fair. There were some just soft serve places and one spot that said "homemade ice cream" in the general food section. But those spots looked like all the rest of the food booths offering turkey legs and funnel cakes and other standard fair food, that really isn't unique or exciting. So those spots were not the place for me. As we wandered around the fair some more we saw two spots that looked like good options. One was ice cream made by the Missouri Dairy Association and the other was ice cream made by Mizzou Agriculture Students. From another AmeriCorps member I had heard about Tiger Stripe ice cream made by Mizzou Agriculture Students, so I decided this was th

Dearest reader. I have come to a sad realization. I have not reviewed a single Haagen Dazs flavor throughout the entire course of this blog. I apologize. Good old HD is one of the biggest players in the business. A review of them from me is long overdue. The flavor I picked is the classic Chocolate Peanut Butter. I would say this flavor is my second or third favorite flavor produced by Haagen Dazs, White Chocolate Raspberry Truffle being number 1 and Caramel Cone being up there in the mix. I opened this pint around midnight last night, only the most appropriate time to eat Haagen Dazs. I had just watched World War Z (actually a pretty good movie) with some friends and came to the realization, as I frequently do, that no I really actually don't like scary movies. Thus sitting on my bed with the lights on eating a decadent ice cream while telling myself "That's just screeching tires, not the screeching of zombies" was obviously the only way I could end my night.

For a long time I have been intrigued, but slightly off-put by Haagen-Dazs Pineapple Coconut Ice Cream.  Many times I have seen this in the freezer, come close to buying it and then backing out at the last minute.  I don't really know why I have been so apprehensive to try this flavor.  I have had other coconut ice cream before and absolutely loved it.  I'm also in to adventurous ice cream flavors and pineapple coconut is not actually that adventurous.  I think my aversion may have stemmed from how weird pineapple and coconut look with the red/yellow color scheme of the Haagen-Dazs cartons. The yellow of the pineapple looks SO GROSS with the background yellow! Whatever the reason I had been avoiding this flavor, I'm so so so glad I finally picked it up.  This is much creamier than the typical Haagen-Dazs flavor.  It was light and fluffy perfection.  Haagen-Dazs describes this as Pure, sweetened cream, tropical pineapple and the distinctive flavor of delectable coc

This is my first post about a frozen dessert that is made to be healthier than your standard ice cream. I love my full fat, full calorie ice creams, but I know not every does, at least all of the time! I think ice cream should be for everybody, so I really like the idea of frozen yogurt. I also like frozen yogurt better than just low fat ice cream, that may just have more sugar or something to make up the taste. However, I haven't reviewed such an ice cream on the blog. I went to the store, Gerbe's, today to restock my freezer. I went with the intention to either buy a sorbet or some form of frozen yogurt dessert. There was not sorbet at Gerbe's that I saw and Kroger was the only brand of frozen yogurt they had. So there we go. Honestly my expectations aren't high for this product. However, with my Gerbe's card it only cost $1!!!! ONE DOLLAR! And even if you didn't have a Gerbe's card it would only have been $2.29. For a whole pint. So honestly it could be

As I mentioned, Kyle and I picked up two containers of Dean's ice cream for the price of one and each picked a flavor.  German Chocolate Cake was my pick. I absolutely love German chocolate cake.  It is chocolate cake with a gooey coconut pecan icing, and the icing is what really makes (takes?) the cake.  Fun fact, German Chocolate Cake is not actually German, as I thought, but named after an American,  Sam German , who developed a type of baker's chocolate.  The more you know. This flavor was described as: Chocolate cake flavored ice cream with caramel coconut ribbon and chocolate flavored flakes. The first thing I don't understand about this description is why "chocolate flavored flakes" and not just "chocolate flakes?"  Eh, whatever.  If this ice cream was supposed to be Dean's Chocolate Cake Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips, Dean's would have knocked it out of the park.  The chocolate cake ice cream base tasted like chocolate cake and

As a very excited new Central Missouri resident, I am obligated to attempt to overload myself on Central Dairy ice cream. Luckily my AmeriCorps job has helped me out. We went to Jefferson City yesterday as part of our orientation and got to stop by Central Dairy before we went home. YAYAYAY! Interesting fact, Central Dairy is owned by Prairie Farms, but according to reviews online, when they bought it out they didn't change the ice cream! Also their slogan is "Fresh as a Missouri Morning." Which I think is adorable. Especially when cows say it: http://www.centraldairy.biz/images/Morning%20TV.wmv As I attempted to peruse the flavors available in the ever crowded Central Dairy I spotted the flavor entitled Muddy River. I was all like er mah gerd I gotta have this! I even convinced one of my to get it to. Of course, I know that the muddy river they are probably referencing is the Missouri River, not the Mississippi a name is a name and the name of this ice cream made i

Wowowow. Madeline has been BUSY with her ice cream eating. I have been slacking, I know, I know. But I DO have an explanation. Just over a week ago I moved to Eldon, Missouri, where I will be serving in AmeriCorps for the year. Eldon is not too far south of Jefferson City. For those of you that know your Missouri ice cream, you know that Jefferson City is home to the legendary of Central Dairy. Missouri State Track and Cross Country meets are also located in Jeff City, and every time I attend one (though I managed to attend several, but never race in a meet #datalternatelyfe) we got a trip to Central Dairy before driving home to Fenton. I have many a fond memory of Central Dairy, but I honestly don't think I have been since high school, which is frighteningly long ago. One of the things I was most excited about in moving to Eldon was being close to Central Dairy. I was even guessing I would be able to buy it at my local grocery store. And I was! On my first trip to Gerbe's, j

There's a shop on the Delmar Loop called St. Louis Bubble Tea that serves Bubble tea (obviously) and various Chinese dishes.  One of my favorite things to get there was a sweet bun filled with red bean paste.  They always had buns with various different fillings, and the red bean buns made an appearance only rarely, so it was really a treat when the stars aligned to deliver a delicious red bean bun into my hands. Red bean paste is made from boiling and mashing Azuki beans and then sweeting the results.  Yum! I had a dance performance this weekend and my wonderful parents drove the nine hours from St. Louis to see me!  The theater was a 10 minute walk from Izzy's so obviously we had to go get ice cream after the show.  I'm about to out my mom (sorry mom!), but she said this was the first time she'd had ice cream in years!  Years! Izzy's Red Bean ice cream is, unfortunately not a regular flavor.  There was nothing on the sign indicating this was a test or spec

Recently I posted on Facebook that the only rule for a happy life was to do whatever it takes to get free ice cream, and buy one get one free ice cream is almost as good.  My local grocery store had a buy one get one free on Dean's ice cream, a new to me brand, which is how a 1.5 Qt container of Dean's Chocolate Moose Tracks ended up at home with me. Kyle and I each picked one flavor, and this one was Kyle's choice. To me, Moose Tracks is a real workhorse ice cream flavor.  Every brand that sells ice cream in square paper containers relies on Moose Tracks to be a decadent, chocolatey flavor.  Typically, Moose Tracks ice cream has a vanilla base with small peanut butter cups and Moose Tracks fudge.  Dean's Chocolate Moose Tracks is basically the same except with a chocolate base: Chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups swirled with Moose Tracks fudge. So how did the chocolate base change this tried-and-true flavor?  It only made it better.  I

Last week, Kyle and I went to Target to pick up a few things.  As we were heading toward the cash registers the conversation went something like this: Kyle: Do you want to swing by the freezers and check out the ice cream. Me: No it's ok, we already have some in the freezer at home, and I'll just wait to buy more.  Well, maybe, I am mean Target does have Ben and Jerry's for, like, way cheap.  Well, no it's ok, let's just go check out.  Ooh, but that Target gelato I picked up that one time had a really unique flavor, maybe I'll pick up another flavor ... Kyle: Oh my god, shut up, we're going to look at the ice cream. That exchange resulted in me going home with a 1.5 Qt container of Market Pantry Cinema Snack.  Market Pantry is a Target brand, but they do some pretty interesting and unique flavors in other areas (trail mix, salsa, etc...).  I saw this ice cream and am pretty certain that it's trying to be  Ben and Jerry's Late Night Snack .