The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

One of my life mottos is, when the going gets rough, buy more ice cream. Specifically, when you have a lot of work to do for graduate school, buy larger containers of ice cream. This way, you can still eat ice cream every night, but not worry about reviewing flavors as frequently. Also, a lot of Whitey's flavors are only sold in the big tubs at my HyVee. But mostly, graduate school is a lot of work. I also haven't reviewed any Whitey's since moving to Iowa. Whitey's is based in the Quad Cities and sold around Iowa and Illinois. I had some Whitey's while I was visiting University of Iowa, and I was pretty impressed with the flavor I bought, given the price.  While I was perusing the Whitey's ice cream flavors a while ago, this one, Graham Central Station caught my eye. Other than in a S'Mores flavor, I don't think you see graham crackers in ice cream often. And especially as the star of the show! Even outside of the ice cream world, I th...

It feels like AGES since I've reviewed a Talenti flavor.  I've kind of stopped looking at their selection at my local Cub because it is always the same, and I just assumed I'd tried everything and would have to look elsewhere for untried flavors.  Last week, a pint of Mediterranean Mint happened to catch my eye and I realized I hadn't ever tried it! Here's the blurb from Talenti's website: Mint is an after-dinner staple, but our Mediterranean Mint gelato is made with fresh mint and flecks of bittersweet chocolate is so delicious, is so delicious, it's now our mandatory digestif for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and all the meals in between. Ok, so there's some weird grammar going on here, but otherwise Talenti gets my life.  Why limit yourself to three meals a day!? This is the most authentically mint-flavored ice cream or gelato I've tried.  It tastes like a mint leaf!  Too often mint flavors clearly rely on mint extract, giving the dessert ...

Man, Lucky's Market in Iowa City is such a great ice cream resource! I've gotten Steve's ice cream there, Three Twins, and now Graeter's! Graeter's is a brand that is seriously underrepresented on Big Muddy. Thankfully, Lucky's will help me fix this atrocity. Of the Graeter's flavors Madeline and I have tried, the best are usually the fruit ice creams with chocolate chips, while their more desserty flavors, like Mocha Chip and Cookie Dough haven't been as spectacular. So where does Coconut Chocolate Chip fall on this spectrum? Definitely on the delicious side. The flavor of the base was a simple, sweet coconut flavor. It tasted exactly like eating sweetened shredded coconut. There were also lots of coconut flakes in the whole pint. These gave awesome texture to the whole pint. Simple, sweet, coconutty! And of course the chocolate chips were fabulous. If you weren't aware, Graeter's does have the best chocolate chips. They are ...

Confession time.  I eat so many Blizzards from Dairy Queen, but I don't always post about them.  The Metro stop near my school is a 2 minute walk from a Dairy Queen, so every time I'm getting off the train at school I stop for a Blizzard.  OBVIOUSLY.  Here is a review of a non-flavor-of-the-month Blizzard from a recent train ride. I had my eye on the Brownie Batter flavor, but when I got up to the counter to order I was struck with indecision.  I confidently said, "I'll have a...." and then trailed off and made a really weird sound of uncertainty.  The guy at the counter laughed.  Then I changed my mind and decided to get a Salted Caramel Truffle Blizzard instead.  This year is Dairy Queen's 75th anniversary, so they re-vamped their Blizzard menu and rolled out a whole line of 'Fanniversary' Blizzard flavors, including the Salted Caramel Truffle. I was expecting vanilla soft serve with salted caramel truffles and maybe caramel swirls, so it w...

If you have been following this blog for a while, you know about Mallard ice cream in Bellingham and their crazy flavors! Although other ice cream shops have gotten into the crazy flavors game, no other shop I've seen has quite the extensive, creative, and quality menu like Mallard has. Obviously the highlight of my trip was picking up some Mallard ice cream.  I was at the shop with my uncle, cousin, and his girl friend. Me, my cousin, and his girl friend each picked out a flavor for a hand packed pint to take home. When we walked in the store and I saw the grape flavor listed, I was incredibly intrigued. I hadn't ever seen or heard of a grape ice cream before. Of course this started me thinking. Why hadn't I ever seen a grape ice cream before? Why do some fruits get turned into ice cream, but not others? When I pointed out the flavor to the rest of the crew, they did not think the flavor sounded tasty. From the small sample I had in the store, I thought it was delici...

Oh boy this weekend was full of fun adventures and stressful adventures. Which means I am totally swamped with work for grad school. Which means I should spend my reviewing ice cream. Yep. Logic. I has it. This weekend I flew to Bellingham, Washington to visit the Ducks (my aunt, uncle, and cousin) and run a trail race. (Yes this also means a review of everybody's favorite, quirky, West Coast ice cream shop, Mallard is coming soon!) I flew United, which was probably mistake number one, and both legs of my flight got majorly delayed. Long story short, I spent a long time in the Denver airport. Most of my Denver airport time has been spent in the terminal with the Ben & Jerry's, which I was not in this time. This terminal had a TCBY, a USwirl (a froyo placed owned by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory, the Iowa City version of this shop is called Aspen Leaf), and Haagen-Dazs. I haven't had TCBY before, and the race I was running the next day was sponsored by TCBY so I...

Tim and Tom's Speedy Market recently started selling pints of Gelato Petrini, and after thoroughly enjoying their Cinnamon Espresso Chip , I was excited to try more flavors.  I recently picked up Cookies and Cream Cheesecake.  Here is the blurb from their website: For this recipe we have taken two of our all-time favorites and combined them into a single showstopper that is even better than the sum of its parts.  Cookie and cream meets NY Cheesecake in a flavor that is sure to please the whole family. Gelato Petrini gets it.   We are totally, 100% on the same dessert level.  How do you make cookies and cream better? Damn the consequences, throw it in some cheesecake! (Not that it  needs  to be better, you're delicious just the way you are, mmmkay cookies and cream.) I ate this in two servings.  The first was a small-ish bowl.  Then I devoured the rest for dinner the next night.  I eat ice cream for dinner way more t...

For how much I have loved everything I have tried from this ice cream company, I haven't reviewed many of their products. This is mostly because I have a hard time finding grocery stores selling Three Twins, or I don't shop at grocery stores that do. (Like Whole Paycheck...I mean, Whole Foods... Although, I recently found out there is a Whole Foods exclusive Three Twins flavor, so I'll be making my way over to the St. Louis Whole Foods next time I'm in town. There isn't a Whole Foods anywhere close to Iowa City.) When I was last at Lucky's Market, I picked up a pint Three Twins. This flavor is described as Quite possibly the perfect flavor pairing with chunks of wow. Organic chocolate ice cream with peanut butter cups . I'll start with the cups and move to the base, because I am a bit confused about the base. The cups were small, but frequent. It was possible, but difficult to get a bite of base with no cups. The cups were kind of clustered toget...

Okay, fine. I'll admit it. It is fall.  I was trying to avoid admitting it, but I can't any longer. But plz lets not talk about winter yet. Now, I know I sound a bit curmudgeony. However, I do not dislike fall. In fact, I think fall is great. Perfect running weather, sweaters, beautiful foliage, an excuse to use the word foliage. Fall is wonderful.   However , what I don't like is this new craze as of the last 5 years or so where people have become extra obsessed with fall. And I don't even mind all of the social media googoogaga-ness about fall. What bugs me is this: (1) Other seasons are fun, too and (2) where was all of this love for fall 10 years ago? Fall as been around for a while, and I feel bad it hasn't gotten this kind of love until recently. Like, do you only love fall because some white dude finally figured out pumpkin and spice taste great in many forms? Which by the way many other peoples have had figure out for a while now . (Sorry, not sorry my blog ...

When yogurt became a trendy food, frozen yogurt quickly followed. And again, when, more recently, Greek yogurt became a trendy food, Greek frozen yogurt has quickly followed. Both of these types of products are supposed to be healthier alternatives to ice cream. Which I think is inherently silly. When I am eating ice cream, I am trying  to eat as unhealthily as possible. But whatever. There are sort of two types of players in this Greek and regular frozen yogurt game. Ice cream companies turning their ice cream products into yogurt (or coming up with new flavors of yogurt) and yogurt companies moving into making a frozen dessert. However, I definitely believe frozen yogurt is closer to a frozen dessert than it is to yogurt, so I am inclined to think an ice cream company would make a better frozen yogurt than a yogurt company. However, I'm now realizing the only frozen yogurts I've reviewed are from frozen yogurt shops (which is something altogether completely different) a...

I feel like I haven't reviewed a good old Ben and Jerry's flavor in a long time, and I'm not sure if this counts.  I recently picked up a pint of their Banana Split flavor, and I don't think I've ever seen it before in my entire life.  Also, I think this was the only/last pint of the flavor on the shelf.  This flavor is Banana and strawberry ice cream with walnuts, fudge chunks and a fudge swirl. This ice cream was decent, but I don't think anything will ever be as good as an actual banana split.  There's just no comparison. I'm not a huge fan of banana ice cream.  It's a flavor that's really, really, really easy to do poorly, and when it's disgusting it's really disgusting.  Like a banana Runt.  Do people remember that candy? I don't think anyone liked the banana ones.  When it's good it's just ok.  I'm sure there's a stellar banana ice cream out there, I've just never experienced it.  Ben and Jerry'...

Another David's flavor to cross off the list! In not too long, I'll have tried every flavor. I will feel so much satisfaction. Nothing makes me happier than being able to check off every item on a list. This flavor is described as Dutch Chocolate was our favorite flavor . It is rich and smooth and creamy  and tastes like no other chocolate ice cream you've ever tried . This is a picture from when Madeline reviewed the flavor. My pint looked similar enough I felt I could include this picture. Before I start describing this flavor, I need to admit I made a huge mistake. A huge n00b mistake. I did not serve myself David's in a bowl. I ate it straight out of the container. I had no intentions of eating the entire pint in one sitting. I was talking to Brett on the phone, and trying to be a good girlfriend. I was thinking, "I am not going to ask him if I can hang up so I can take a picture of this ice cream. I'll only eat part of the pint and take a pic...