The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

People of the Internet!! I have done it! I have officially eaten and reviewed all of the flavors in the standard New Orleans Ice Cream Co. line up. I'm very excited and not entirely sure what to do with myself. I'm definitely taking suggestions as to a new ice cream quest I should complete. Try every flavor from another brand? Do a bunch of epic comparison posts, like trying every single different vanilla or chocolate flavor I can get my hands on? What do you all think? But before I get too ahead of myself planning the next adventure, let me tell you about this flavor. It is described as This Classic New Orleans' Dessert Has Brandy Soaked Cherries In A Creamy Cherry Ice Cream. A Dash Of Orange Liqueur Is Lagniappe . Prepare yourselves, you are about to learn a lot in this post. First cherries jubilee is a dessert I'd never heard of before. It is essentially flambéed cherries and liqueur. Granted, I think dessert originated in England, but whatever New Orleans ca...

I've had my eye on local brand  JonnyPops  (All-natural frozen smoothies on a stick) for a long time, but never got around to picking up a box for several reasons. I don't eat a ton of ice cream treats (which I realize is something I really need to remedy), and the normal price of JonnyPops seemed a bit steep for only three popsicles. On a recent trip to the grocery store these were FINALLY on sale for ~$3.50 for a box of 3 bars, so I snagged a box of Coffee Chocolate & Cream pops.  All of their other flavors are fruit flavors.  There's not a product description, so to speak, but I'll go ahead and give you the ingredient list: Cold pressed coffee, heavy cream, cane sugar, dark chocolate, guar gum, salt. Not much going on there, but in a good way. Mmmmmmmm, creeeeeeaaaaaammmmm. These popsicles were really good. Like really good.  Good enough that I'm now convinced to try their other, fruity flavors. Cold brewing coffee (rather than traditional ...

There's nothing better than a day spent in the mountains, finished off with some ice cream in a little mountain town. During our stay in Colorado, the whole fam had a picnic in the mountains and stopped at a little scoop shop in Morrison, CO as we headed home. This little scoop shop, Ozzi's, served Magill's ice cream. Magill's is made in Lakewood, Colorado. Apparently the Magill's scoop shop in Lakewood serves 32 different flavors everyday and they sell a total of over 80 flavors! While there were only a few flavors available at Ozzi's, there were some pretty interesting looking ones. I chose to get a scoop of Irish Cream. This flavor is described as Irish Cream Ice Cream, layered with Caramel & Chocolate Chips and is made with Bailey's. At first bite, this ice cream had a wonderful and strong Bailey's flavor. It was cream and didn't really have any alcohol burn. However, as you kept eating, the intensity of the Irish Cream flavor fad...

I love shoppes. After 24 years of life, I'm still not entirely sure what the difference is between a shop and shoppe, but I do know that pronouncing the extra "p" and "e" makes you way more annoying. Which is always my goal. Anyway, Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream is a rather popular ice cream brand out of Madison, Wisconsin. There are Chocolate Shoppes in Madison and other scoop shops around the Midwest sell the brand. My new roommate just moved to Iowa City from Madison, and knowing I wrote and ice cream blog, brought me some Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream all the way from Madison! (Best roommate ever or best roommate ever?) The flavor he brought is called Exhausted Parent and is described as Bourbon-spiked espresso ice cream swirled with bittersweet chocolate chunks . While this ice cream sounds delicious, if having children induces one to drink bourbon with a shot of espresso out of necessity not enjoyment, then I'll pass. Also, would that even ...

After spending a couple of days in Omaha, Madeline and I and the rest of the Handschy gang loaded up and drove to Arvada, CO to spend a few days with our grandparents. Arvada is a suburb of Denver, and one of the best of ice cream shops in the Denver area, Scrumptious, has a location in Arvada. Madeline and I have both been there before and have had nothing but amazing ice cream, so we were excited for the opportunity to stop by again. So the MO on Scrumptious is they do simple flavors, some unique, some more traditional, with a high quality base. Yeah, they don't do a ton of crazy mix-ins, but they make damn good ice cream. Like 10% overrun good. And clearly a high butter fat percentage. Also they give you HUGE portions for the price. The day Madeline and I went there were mostly traditional flavors, or a couple I'd already tried. However, as you probably know, I'm a sucker for Amaretto, and that was one of the flavors they had, so my choice wasn't too difficult t...

It is hard to believe that I am so close to trying every single flavor in the New Orleans line up (minus their season flavors, which by the way I REALLY want to try, especially Nectar Soda). The only other brand I've ever been able to say this about is Ben & Jerry's, but that quest started well before I became an ice cream blogger. Every time you try every flavor in a brand's line up do you level up as an ice cream eater? Anyway, I have this review and then one more NOLA flavor, and that will be all of them! I really enjoyed trying all of these flavors and I am super thankful to New Orleans Ice Cream Co for sending me all of their flavors! The description of this flavor isn't exactly a description of the flavor of the ice cream so much, but what more do you really need to say about Vanilla Bean other than "vanilla bean"? The description reads, A Classic Ice Cream Flavor Crafted With The Finest & Freshest Natural Ingredients. It's Simply Del...

One thing that I think Big Muddy's does better than other ice cream bloggers is bring you info about scoop shops in interesting corner's of the country. We love hidden gems. Yeah, yeah other ice cream bloggers can go on for days about the myriad of scoop shops in NYC and LA, but who knew Utah had such a hip ice cream scene until Madeline visited? Probably no one outside of Utah, that's who. And who knew that some of the most innovative ice cream flavors are being thought up in Omaha, NE? Probably no one outside of Omaha. When Madeline and I recently visited Omaha to watch our cousin compete in the US Triathlon Age Group Championships we stopped by Ted and Wally's to grab some tasty frozen treats. The line was out the door and around the corner, so we were hopeful that we were about to have some tasty ice cream. When we saw the flavor list, it wasn't the longest we'd ever seen, but I would go so far as to say it was THE most unique flavor list I've ev...

Mocha Me Happy is the third and final in my series of Blue Bunny reviews. (But it's not the last Blue Bunny flavor I'll ever review!) I'll be honest, when I first spied this flavor I wasn't too excited about it, but I picked it up because I knew my boyfriend Kyle would like the flavor.  He's a fan of chocolate, chocolate peanut butter, coffee, and other ice creams of that ilk, and sometimes he gets a bit grumbly that I often buy ice cream that he doesn't like.  Every once in a while I make sure to pick up something I know he will eat.  It wasn't until I had some of the ice cream and went back to read the description that I got really excited about this flavor.  Mocha Me Hoppy is Coffee ice cream with hazelnut flavored mocha coffee swirl and cake pieces. The coffee base was very creamy and sweet, but this was appropriate as Blue Bunny is going for a mocha flavor rather than a coffee flavor here.  As with other Blue Bunny flavors, the base ice cr...

I must have been in a party mood at the grocery store because I picked up both Blue Bunny Peanut Butter Party (review  here ) and Blue Bunny Blu's Birthday Party. PARTY TIME! Blu's Birthday Party is Cake and frosting flavored ice cream with cake pieces and confetti shaped candies. My first impression of this ice cream is BLUE! The base is a really, really crazy bright blue. The batter flavor of the base was very good with maybe a hint of artificial sweetness, but the addition of frosting ice cream made the base way too sweet.  I think this flavor would have been way better with just a cake base.  As with peanut butter party, the base could have been denser, but was pretty on par with other Premium ice creams. The cake pieces were quite large, approximately one cubic inch (god, I'm such a nerd). I got one approximately every three bites, which was definitely enough due to their size.  So, I'm a five year old at heart and therefore anything with rainbow...

In my last post I mentioned the weird place I'm in with ice cream right now.  It's hard to buy ice cream at the grocery store because I've tried all of 2016's new flavors, as well as most Ben and Jerry's, Haagen-Dazs, and Talenti flavors. This led me to pick up a couple of Blue Bunny flavors.  The first I tried was Peanut Butter Party, described as Peanut butter ice cream, fudge and peanut butter swirls, and peanut butter cups. Lately I've been bothered by a few ice cream flavors that had a lot of elements but didn't really have a cohesive theme.  Peanut Butter Party was very busy but had cohesion. The peanut butter base was one of the best I've ever had. It reminded me of a peanut butter pie - peanut butter-y, but with an extra hint of cream cheese richness.  It could have used a touch of salt, but the peanut butter swirl provided some of this, so the omission didn't bother me too much. The fudge sauce tasted like plain old Hershey...

Man, what a crazy week this has been. I've done a lot of going out with friends, because that's the life of a graduate student in the summer! Take advantage of the free time while you've got it. And by free time I simply mean a schedule even more flexible than normal, but just let me pretend that the Netflixing and going out I've been doing is warranted. However, not a lot of my going out has involved ice cream eating, so I feel like my reviews have been coming a little slowly as of late. Luckily, one night this past week included going to Yotopia after getting dinner with some friends! The main purpose of this trip was to convince one of my friends that Yotopia is way better than Aspen Leaf. I got quite a few eye rolls as I expounded upon the wonders of the local dairy and no powdered mixes used to make Yotopia's froyo, but then again, the taste of Yotopia's froyo speaks quite nicely for itself. It's a little heart breaking that they misspelled "l...

So you may remember that a looong time ago I received two coupons for free Coconut Bliss products. I used one of them to buy a pint of the cappuccino ice cream and used the other to buy these bars. They've been sitting in my freezer quite along time, but I'm slowly and surely making my way through my ice cream stock and got to these guys this past week. I definitely don't eat as many ice cream bars and other treats as I should, but I feel like summer is the perfect time for the. So I was excited to try this vegan version of a classic summer treat. Now I just need to go play in a sprinkler and I'll be set. The description of these bars is Creamy coconut with an almond crunch, dipped in organic fair trade chocolate . Man, this is what coconut milk ice cream was made for. This is basically like an almond joy in vegan ice cream form. The chocolate was amazing, it was dark, but still smooth. However, it could have been a little thicker. There was a touch of vanil...

I'm at kind of a weird stage in my ice cream life.  I've tried most of the new 2016 flavors available in my area, and have tried enough of the flavors from big brands that I have a hard time figuring out what to buy at the grocery store.  I'll probably need to make more of an effort to go to co-ops and different grocery stores or even order ice cream, but in the meantime I've been dipping into brands only offered in larger containers such as Edy's and Blue Bunny.  (I usually avoid anything larger than a pint because I'm a variety whore and like to try as many types of ice cream as possible rather than committing to a large quantity of a single flavor.) I recently picked up Edy's Slow Churned Maine Blueberries and Cream described as Vanilla light ice cream with wild 100% Maine blueberries. LIGHT ICE CREAM?! *gasp* For light ice cream, this actually had a pretty decent texture. I could definitely tell that the fat content wasn't as high as a pre...

Alright, folks, you've got a short and sweet review coming your way. I went to Yotopia with a friend this past Friday evening, and not surprisingly, it was very crowded. Right after we walked in, like three very large groups walked just after us. Normally I take my sweeeet time deciding on what froyo flavors and toppings I want, but when feeling pressured by other impatient customers, I get panicked. I definitely felt my friend and I were being glared at so I rushed through my process and totally forgot what Yotopia flavors I'd already tried. I ended up getting two flavors I've already reviewed, Chocolate and Strawberries and Cream. But there was a seasonal flavor, Georgia Peach, that caught my eye and I ended up getting some, which was a fabulous decision. The peach is down at the bottom of this picture. I very much enjoyed this flavor. I was surprised by how strong the flavor was. But I really shouldn't have been because Yotopia knows what they are doing. It w...

The worst part about going away for the summer is leaving behind all the ice cream you didn't get around to before you left. Or at least that's the worst part for me! Luckily, the best part is coming back to all that ice cream. So much anticipation! And now that I'm back, I'm getting to finish off all of the ice cream tasks I started before I left, like trying all of the Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy flavors! The last flavor I needed to try was Chunky Monkey, and now I've done it. Gotta love finishing lists! This flavor is described as Banana non-dairy frozen dessert with fudge chunks & walnuts . Now it has been aaaaages since I've had the normal version of this flavor. I'm sure I tried it back in college when my roommates and I tried every Ben & Jerry's flavor being sold at the time. Not being the biggest fan of banana flavors, I think I only had a couple of bites and then let everybody else work on the rest of the pint. But I kept...