The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Okay, so when I was in the St. Louis airport eating Baskin Robbins, I was flying to Boston en-route to my next research location. When I arrived in Boston, my friend Brett immediately asked me if I wanted to get ice cream. I surprised him when I said no, because I'd eaten some in the airport. His response of, "WHO EVEN ARE YOU?" was of course, appropriate. When he continued on to tell me that FoMu, a Boston vegan ice cream company had a pop-up shop only a few blocks from his apartment, I changed my mind. Not that it was that difficult. I'd heard of FoMu before, but this was my first time trying their ice cream, because they are still only sold around Massachusetts and Rhode Island. FoMu makes their vegan ice creams with coconut milk and they also make vegan baked goods. The flavor offerings at the pop-up shop were a combination of totally desserty flavors and super unique creations. I decided to get one of each, Avocado and Peanut Butter Mud Pie. I don't...

Recently, Tim and Tom's Speedy Market has been stocking Steve's Ice Cream, which means I am buying lots of it.  I've heard rave reviews of Steve's dairy-free flavors so I decided to pick up a pint of Burnt Sugar Vanilla.  This is described as Vanilla that is slightly bittersweet. Caramelized burnt sugar folded into vanilla dairy-free organic coconut cream made with Madecasse Fair Trade vanilla imported from Madagascar.  A perfect frozen rendition of Creme Brulee. So basically this is Creme Brulee ice cream, which is a much fancier name than 'Burnt Sugar Vanilla,' and I'm pretty sure people know what Creme Brulee is, so I'm not sure about the logic behind the name choice, but whatever, this ice cream was awesome it doesn't even matter. Obviously, the first thing to talk about with a non-dairy ice cream is the base texture and the second is the base taste.  This was by far the least offensive non-dairy texture I've ever had.  Sometimes no...

BLOGGER FAIL! Wow Madeline and I have been ice cream blogging for over two years now and neither of us have reviewed ANY Baskin Robbins flavors. Granted, we all know that Baskin Robbins is a giant chain that's not really at the forefront of ice cream innovations, but they are such a big player, they do deserve to be reviewed. Granted, I don't know if there is a Baskin Robbins around where I live now. However, this past Sunday I was in the Southwest Terminal of the St. Louis airport and just craving a treat. I decided to peek at the Baskin Robbins menu, just for shits and giggles. When I saw the Flavor of the Month was Oreo Birthday Cake, I thought that was pretty exciting and just had to get some! However, I can find nothing on the Baskin Robbins website about this flavor, so I make no promises that you will be able to find it at your BR location! There was also no description of this flavor, but to me it seemed like a chocolate base with Oreo cookie pieces, sprinkles, ...

Last week, I was hanging in St. Louis, but I was pretty lazy on the ice cream front. Instead of going to any scoop shops, I just checked out my local Dierberg's to see what flavors they had. Luckily, Dierberg's has a lot of exciting brands and flavors, so you do get one exciting review. I went over there with my mom and she really wanted me to get Oberweis ice cream since they are a brand only sold in certain areas of the midwest, including Missouri and Illinois. I am not sure if you can get Oberweis in Iowa, but I don't think I have ever seen the brand around. However, I don't usually think of Oberweis as having any unique flavors, so I wasn't too keen on picking up a pint when Dierberg's also has Steve's and McConnell's and such. That is until my mom pointed out the Blueberry Pie flavor and the fact that Oberweis was on sale for 2 pints for $8 or one for $4. You can see a couple of pie crust pieces peeking out! And boy oh boy, I am glad I...

Jack Nicklaus Ice Cream is a relatively new brand obviously with input from golf legend Jack Nicklaus.   Strawberry Lemonade  was the first flavor I tried from this brand and I didn't really like it, however, one of our fellow ice cream instagrammers recommended I try a few other flavors from the brand including Coffee and Donuts. As it happens, Sam's Choice recently discontinued their spectacular Coffee and Donuts ice cream and I've been looking for a replacement and I thought I would test this one out! Jack Nicklaus Coffee and Donuts is The perfect flavor for our coffee shop lovers! Our Coffee and Donuts Ice Cream will awaken your tastes buds any time of the day or night, with a perfect mix of premium coffee-flavored ice cream, cinnamon, sugar and moist chunks of donut. The base was a solid but not great coffee ice cream.  It was a very sweet and creamy coffee flavor.  I prefer a stronger and less sweet base ice cream, but I know there are some non-coff...

It has been a hot minute since the last time I went to Izzy's! All the new ice creams at the beginning of the year have kept me glued to the grocery store ice cream aisles, but with the official start of summer hopefully I'll be visiting more ice cream shops. Last Saturday I decided to go to the Stone Arch Bridge Festival after dance on Saturday afternoon.  Izzy's is about halfway between my dance studio and the Stone Arch Bridge so obviously I stopped in. Looking at the list of available flavors, I saw Fig Tart and immediately knew I needed to have it.  The only decision left was what to get as my Izzy scoop.  I had it narrowed down to Vanilla, Lemon Buttermilk, and Salted Caramel.  I ultimately chose Salted Caramel, though the decision was a tough one. Fig Tart is described as Fig ice cream with organic Black Mission Figs, orange zest and graham cracker crunch. So I've never had a real fig.  The closest I've come is a Fig Newton.  This ice...

You know at Big Muddy, we always try to give the people what they want. And it seems like you all want more reviews of Sam's Choice ice cream. Almost all of our reviews of Sam's Choice ice cream get about twice the number of views as our other reviews. So when I was coming home and my mom asked what I needed from the grocery store, I obviously asked her to pick up some Sam's Choice! When I first saw this flavor in the freezer I thought it looked totally weird. I always thought that Moose Tracks referred to the little peanut butter cups in those flavors. So mint and peanut butter? Well, Moose Tracks is actually the fudge, which made me way more excited about this flavor. Because, as you might now, the fudge in those Moose Tracks flavors are the bomb! Also exciting news that Moose Tracks is partnering with Sam's Choice to make some stellar, but affordable ice cream! The other Sam's Choice flavor with Moose Tracks is just a traditional Moose Tracks flavor. ...

For the second day of my LA adventure I was hanging out with my friend Katy in Little Tokyo where her boyfriend, Tom, lives. Our plan was to go to a nearby branch of the LA modern art museum and then get ice cream somewhere. As we went out for our morning run, we walked around the other side of Tom's apartment building and discovered that he lived above an LA Ice Cream Lab spot!! It can't get more convenient than that! LA Ice Cream Lab is a liquid nitrogen ice cream place, kind of like Ices Plain & Fancy in St. Louis. At these places, they make, aka freeze with liquid nitrogen, your ice cream right in front of you in individual servings. She's making my ice cream! The menu at LA Ice Cream Lab was short. They had vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, and cookies and cream which I think you can get year round. They also had three fancier flavors (which I think rotate) which were Blue Velvet, Salt Lick Crunch, and Banilla (banana and vanilla wafers). Then they had ...

Yes, Dearest Readers, you read that correctly. I got the opportunity to go to SALT AND STRAW. After my California fieldwork I hung out in LA for a couple of days with my friends Katy and Kylie. Our plan for day 1 was to wander around Venice Beach and then get ice cream. My friend Kylie has a whole LA bucket list, but didn't have Salt and Straw on it. After checking the Venice Beach ice cream offerings and seeing that Salt and Straw was in the area, we put it on her list and immediately got to check it off. Salt and Straw (for all you ice cream n00bs) is THE original hipster ice cream spot, doing wacky flavors way before it was cool. No surprise, Salt and Straw started in Portland, OR and now has a handful of locations in Portland and LA. Lots of ice cream bloggers have gotten on the Salt and Straw train and ordered their pints, but I'm still a broke graduate student and don't always have $65 + shipping to drop on 5 pints. So I was super excited for this opportunity to...

I've officially tried all of the Haagen-Dazs Destination Series flavors!! Hooray! I love completing lists, it's just so satisfying.  My last (but not least!) flavor in this line is Mango, described as Our ode to the tropical flavors of South America combines sweet mango ice cream and slices of juicy mango for a simply perfect treat. Mangos are very sweet, often to the point that I think they are too sweet.  They also have a bit of a sharpness or acidity that really amplifies the sweetness.  I was expecting to be able to eat only a small amount of this ice cream before it got too sweet, but I was pleasantly surprised.  The base of this ice cream was to mangos what orange dreamsicles are to oranges.  It was light and sweet, but the sweetness wasn't overwhelming because the dairy element balanced it out.  Also, the mango flavor was prevalent but not in-your-face. The mango pieces were a bit smaller than a dime and I got one every other bite or so...

So while I was conducting research in California I ate a lot of delicious local ice cream and had a blast. However, when I'm potentially publishing my research I'm probably not disclosing my research site. So, I decided, to protect the people I worked with, not to write reviews of those ice cream shops in case some random creeper decided to hard core stalk me to try to figure out where I did research. And while it was very disappointing to eat all that delicious ice cream and not be able to review it, I did get so froyo at a California-wide chain, Yogurtland, so I can totally tell all of you all about it! I'm sure many of you may think my 8-step froyo shop review process is a bit excessive, but I'm just trying to keep you, Dearest Readers, as informed about frozen dessert issues as possible! Here are my 8 steps I go through when reviewing a froyo shop! 1) The variety of flavors: is there a good selection? 2) The flavor of my choices. 3) The quality of the com...

Sorry, Dearest Readers, but every once in a while I have a life outside of being an ice cream blogger. It's really unfortunate. When I have to do a lot of these other things, you know, like working or seeing my friends, sometimes I get a bit behind on reviews. After being on a research trip, visiting friends in LA, and going to a wedding in STL, I've gotten a bit behind on reviews! So be prepared for an onslaught the next couple of days. First up in this review backlog is a review of McConnell's Mint Chip. Madeline and I only tried McConnell's for the first time this past winter break after finding some at a fancy shmancy grocery store in STL. They are a California brand that I haven't been able to find any of in Iowa. So while I was in California, I knew I had to pick some up and give another flavor a try. The grocery store near where I was staying only had a couple of flavors and the most exciting one was Mint Chip. The description of this flavor is A ...