Heyn's Ice Cream
Okay folks, the moment you have all been waiting for: Iowa City ice cream. One part about moving to Iowa City which is kind of a bummer is I'm no longer along the Big Muddy Mississippi River. The name of our blog is now slightly less relevant. When I pointed this out to my dad he responded, "But you're near the Iowa River which connects to the Mississippi!" But with that logic you could basically move anywhere in the United States and that's not what we were going for when we named this blog. Oh well.
Back to ice cream. There is one ice cream shop in Iowa City that isn't a chain or froyo or something, and it is Heyn's. My roommate and two of her friends were going a couple of days ago. Luckily, she's already got my number and asked if I wanted to join. If you remember, I tried to go to Heyn's when I visited the campus back in March, but they were closed because of a strange incident in which someone called the store and threatened the employees or something. So I've been pretty excited to make my way here.
There were a bunch of flavors being offered, and it appears they have even more and they rotate through flavors. In fact, I saw in an advertisement they have over 40 flavors. Should trying all 40+ be a goal for while I'm getting my PhD? We'll see. If I get 2 flavors every time I go, I would have to go a little more than 20 times. If it takes me 6 years to get my PhD, I would only have to go about 4 times per year? Challenge accepted.
A couple flavors stood out to me this first visit. One was, I think called Oatmeal Sandwich Cookie or something along those lines. I'm being a bad blogger since I forgot the name. However, based on the adorable hand drawn label for the flavor, this ice cream was inspired by those Little Debbie snack cookie sandwiches. Yum! The other flavor that stood out was Monster Mash, because it looked tasty and when I was about 10 I may or may not have had an obsession with that song. Monster Mash is described as Vanilla ice cream, cookie dough, peanut butter, and M&M's. I sampled the Monster Mash and it was delicious and one of my roommate's friends sampled the Oatmeal Cookie and also said it was good. I trusted his opinion and got a kiddie scoop of both flavors. Also, let me tell you, they are generous with their samples here. At other places they hardly give you enough in the sample for you to tell if you like the ice cream.
I got the oatmeal cookie flavor on top so I will start there. This ice cream tasted exactly like those little sandwiches but better. The flavor of the cinnamon and the spices was stronger in this ice cream than in those cookies. There were also huge chunks of super soft and chewy cookies. There wasn't any frosting in this ice cream, but there didn't need to be. This ice cream was like a resurrection of Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk (minus the fudge chunks) but better. Mmmmm.
Now for the Monster Mash. The vanilla base didn't have a particularly strong vanilla flavor, and it didn't need one since there was so much going on in this flavor. The base was, however, quite sweet. In my opinion the cookie dough was almost crunchy enough to be considered cookie pieces. Some were as crunch as standard Chips Ahoy cookies, and others were softer like cookie dough. Either way they were delicious. The peanut butter swirl was sweet, softer and smooth, but not liquidy. The M&Ms also seemed bigger to me than standard M&Ms. They could have been those newish Mega M&MS. The best part about this ice cream was despite the fact there was a lot going on, no element dominated any of the others. They were all balanced and there was A LOT of each one. If I had not only now declared an attempt to try all of the Heyn's flavors, this one would be a go to for me.
Last, a note about texture. This ice cream had a lot of air which gave it a nice pull. It was soft, but Heyn's is not skimping on cream; it was still heavy and dense. I'm a little bummed there are more places in Iowa City to get ice cream, but Heyn's is good enough that I will be just fine.
Back to ice cream. There is one ice cream shop in Iowa City that isn't a chain or froyo or something, and it is Heyn's. My roommate and two of her friends were going a couple of days ago. Luckily, she's already got my number and asked if I wanted to join. If you remember, I tried to go to Heyn's when I visited the campus back in March, but they were closed because of a strange incident in which someone called the store and threatened the employees or something. So I've been pretty excited to make my way here.
There were a bunch of flavors being offered, and it appears they have even more and they rotate through flavors. In fact, I saw in an advertisement they have over 40 flavors. Should trying all 40+ be a goal for while I'm getting my PhD? We'll see. If I get 2 flavors every time I go, I would have to go a little more than 20 times. If it takes me 6 years to get my PhD, I would only have to go about 4 times per year? Challenge accepted.
A couple flavors stood out to me this first visit. One was, I think called Oatmeal Sandwich Cookie or something along those lines. I'm being a bad blogger since I forgot the name. However, based on the adorable hand drawn label for the flavor, this ice cream was inspired by those Little Debbie snack cookie sandwiches. Yum! The other flavor that stood out was Monster Mash, because it looked tasty and when I was about 10 I may or may not have had an obsession with that song. Monster Mash is described as Vanilla ice cream, cookie dough, peanut butter, and M&M's. I sampled the Monster Mash and it was delicious and one of my roommate's friends sampled the Oatmeal Cookie and also said it was good. I trusted his opinion and got a kiddie scoop of both flavors. Also, let me tell you, they are generous with their samples here. At other places they hardly give you enough in the sample for you to tell if you like the ice cream.
In my opinion, this was pretty massive for two kiddie scoops. However, my roommate's friend got the same size and had much less ice cream. Also, don't worry, I finished this no prob.
I got the oatmeal cookie flavor on top so I will start there. This ice cream tasted exactly like those little sandwiches but better. The flavor of the cinnamon and the spices was stronger in this ice cream than in those cookies. There were also huge chunks of super soft and chewy cookies. There wasn't any frosting in this ice cream, but there didn't need to be. This ice cream was like a resurrection of Ben & Jerry's Oatmeal Cookie Chunk (minus the fudge chunks) but better. Mmmmm.
Now for the Monster Mash. The vanilla base didn't have a particularly strong vanilla flavor, and it didn't need one since there was so much going on in this flavor. The base was, however, quite sweet. In my opinion the cookie dough was almost crunchy enough to be considered cookie pieces. Some were as crunch as standard Chips Ahoy cookies, and others were softer like cookie dough. Either way they were delicious. The peanut butter swirl was sweet, softer and smooth, but not liquidy. The M&Ms also seemed bigger to me than standard M&Ms. They could have been those newish Mega M&MS. The best part about this ice cream was despite the fact there was a lot going on, no element dominated any of the others. They were all balanced and there was A LOT of each one. If I had not only now declared an attempt to try all of the Heyn's flavors, this one would be a go to for me.
Last, a note about texture. This ice cream had a lot of air which gave it a nice pull. It was soft, but Heyn's is not skimping on cream; it was still heavy and dense. I'm a little bummed there are more places in Iowa City to get ice cream, but Heyn's is good enough that I will be just fine.
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