The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Alright, Iowa, if you haven't made it over to Capanna Coffee and Gelato over in Coralville and North Liberty yet, you need to fix that ASAP. Colin and I went there a couple of days ago, since he lives over in Coralville not far from Capanna. I really don't go there enough since it is way over heck on the other side of town from me. When we got there the fruity flavors looked very appetizing, so I picked up mango. The other flavor I got was "Scotcheroo" because like what the heck is that? Apparently scotcheroos are kind of like rice krispies with peanut butter and butter scotch topped with chocolate. Cool. I feel like I've probably had one before, but I didn't know they were named scotcheroos. What a goofy name. I feel ridiculous typing that word. I'll start with the mango. Ermagersh. This was some tasty gelato. The mango flavor was very strong. It tasted like perfectly ripe mangos. Interesting, there wasn't too much dairy flavor, like it almost...

Damn Kemps, back at it again with the dope frozen yogurt! (Sorry, I can't help memin'!)  After being completely blown away by Cold Brewed Coffee and almost completely blown away by Mudslide, I wanted to get my hands on a non-chocolate pint from the line, so I picked up Kemps Yo2 Raspberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt, described as Cheesecake frozen yogurt with graham crunch and raspberry swirl. What a generic description. The Talenti flavor description writer(s) would come up with something way  more interesting.  BUT! It's what's inside that counts or don't judge a book by it's cover or something.  I was wowed by Raspberry Cheesecake. Good cheesecake ice creams are hard to come by. I think too many companies rely on cheesecake mix-ins instead of going for a cheesecake base, but a cheesecake mix-in isn't really enough to carry an entire cheesecake flavor. Not only did Kemps make the right choice to go with a cheesecake base, but they managed to exec...

I'm a coffee addict.  I don't have more than two or three cups each day, but god help you if you try to talk to me about anything serious before I have my first cup in the morning. It's not that I don't care what you're saying, it's just that I don't have the capacity  to care before coffee. Haagen-Dazs says about their coffee ice cream: We roast the finest Brazilian coffee beans to perfection to bring out their rich flavor. The combination of the brew with creamy ice cream awakens the senses. Yes, I bought this because of the new packaging  If you are a die hard dark roast fan and, like Special Agent Dale Cooper, like your coffee as dark as midnight on a moonless night, this is not the coffee ice cream for you. This is a lighter roast coffee, but still with a rich flavor and no bitterness. The flavorful and smooth coffee goes well with the heavy cream and sugar of ice cream.  This really does taste like a bit of light-roast coffee poured ove...

How many Styx/ice cream lovers are there who have been waiting for decades for this ice cream?? Well, if you are one of them, HyVee has finally delivered. I almost couldn't bring myself to buy this ice cream because the pun is SO BAD. And not bad in a good way, just bad bad. Ugh. But I love cookie dough so I got over myself and bought it. This flavor is described as Cookie dough ice cream with cookie dough pieces, chocolate flavored chips, and cookie dough revel.  So this flavor is very similar to the Blue Bunny flavor that came out recently. Like basically the same elements. However, I think I enjoyed the Blue Bunny a bit more. All in all this flavor was just too much. Too sweet, too rich, too artificial tasting, just wow. I could only get through a third of a pint in one sitting before getting overwhelmed. The base was quite strong and the cookie dough revel was very thick with an even stronger cookie dough flavor. Similar to Blue Bunny, the swirl was quite goopy and ...

Twinkies and Cupcakes and Sno Balls oh my!  I've delved further and further into the world of ice cream, and, for better or for worse, this means I don't eat as many other desserts. I don't think I've had a hostess dessert in years. I loved them as a kid because we didn't often have them in the house. Don't worry, we weren't deprived, we were just more of a Little Debbie Zebra Cakes and Cosmic Brownies family.  Now that Edy's has partnered with Hostess to make Sno Balls, Twinkie, and CupCakes ice cream. Sno Balls is Marshmallow ice cream with chocolate cake pieces and a whipped coconut swirl. If you read my last Edy's review , Peanut Butter Cookie Dough, which I gave essentially 0/4 cones, you'll understand why I was wary of trying another Edy's flavor so quickly, but I was pleasantly surprised. The marshmallow base has a sweeter and more concentrated marshmallow flavor than marshmallow candies, but it tasted very similar to the m...

Dearest Readers, I apologize. I have gotten mega behind on reviews the last few weeks, so be prepared for a review dump the next couple of days. I usually try not to get behind, but it has been SO WARM here in Iowa that I've been spending lots of time outside and lots of time eating ice cream, but not very much time reviewing ice cream. Tonight I have for you another from the Thelma's line up, so those of you who aren't in Iowa can be jealous of our weather (over 60 degrees the last few days) and our ice cream. This treat has chocolate ice cream sandwiched between peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I'll start with the ice cream. The chocolate was quite sweet and milky, nothing too impressive. Of course, with Thelma's the ice cream is not the main attraction, but usually the ice cream is pretty solid. This ice cream was still solid, but not the best of the Thelma's line up. However, the cookies were as delicious as always. My favorite part about th...

I'm absolutely desperate for new 2017 flavors at this point, so desperate that I picked up a container of Edy's Limited Edition Slow Churned Peanut Butter Cookie Dough.  This flavor is an enigma.  It's not listed on the Edy's website, I found a grand total of two images on Google image search, and could find zero reviews.  This is made with Nestle Toll House cookie dough, and it seems like there are at least two other flavors in this limited edition line floating around out there, but I've yet to hear of them or find them. Peanut Butter Cookie Dough is Sweet cream light ice cream with peanut butter cookie dough pieces and peanut butter swirl. I generally stay away from Edy's.  Their products range from terrible to pretty decent, with a just enough products near the 'terrible' end of the spectrum to make me wary of spending money on bad ice cream and then being stuck eating 1.5 quarts of bad ice cream. Unfortunately, Peanut Butter Cookie Dough...

While Madeline is over there in MN getting all the new for 2017 stuff, I'm over here kind of underwhelmed, to be honest, with the concept of Ben & Jerry's pint slices. I'll try them when they hit my grocery store, but I'm hoping they up the ante for whatever else they release in 2017. So in the meantime, I'm working my way through So Delicious's Cashew Milk line and continuing to play my tune that cashew milk is the superior milk for non-dairy ice cream. This flavor, Dark Chocolate Truffle, is described as A fair trade cocoa decadence folded with fudge and premium shaved chocolate. "Decadence"   and "folded" are both really good food words. However, I didn't think this flavor lived up to its luscious description. The base was good. This was the first time I'd had a chocolate based cashew milk ice cream. If you don't like being able to taste the cashew normally, I recommend the chocolate base. The strong cocoa flav...

New for 2017! New for 2017! New for 2017! Can you tell I'm excited that new 2017 flavors are finally starting to hit the shelves?  Ben and Jerry's Pint Slices are the first new product I've found.  I picked up a package of Americone Dream Pint Slices and a package of Chocolate Fudge Brownie Pint Slices.  They also released Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Vanilla Peanut Butter Cup pint slices. I am absolutely in love with the pint slice packaging.  There are three individually wrapped pint slices per box, and the boxes are CUBES! I LOVE CUBES! In my opinion, cubes are the second best 3D shape, second only to spheres, but spheres are not exactly ideal for pint slice packaging.  CUBES! The bars in general: These are about 3/4'' thick, and a little smaller in diameter than the bottom of a pint. So, not quite a pint slice.  The chocolate coating is a nice, dark chocolate, but are a bit too crunchy leading to potential messes as pieces of the coating b...

While waiting (not so) patiently for new flavor releases, I decided to keep the Kemps frozen yogurt streak alive and bought Kemps Frozen Yogurt Shop Chocolate Hazelnut thinking it would be a delicious, Nutell-y delight.  Chocolate Hazelnut is Vanilla hazelnut frozen yogurt with chocolatey hazelnut swirl topped with chocolatey chunks and truffles. I love Nutella second only to peanut butter.  I survived an entire summer in Morocco on peanut butter and Nutella sandwiches on Moroccan bread for at least every other dinner.  Did you know that in Morocco (and probably other countries) there are Nutella variations? I  think  the brand I bought is called Penotti. There's a hazelnut Penotti swirled with strawberry, a hazelnut Penotti swirled with vanilla, the list goes on. Somehow, Kemps figured out a way to fuck up chocolate and hazelnut and they fucked it up in a big way.  WHY, KEMPS WHY? First, the base. Why, oh why would you make a vanilla ha...

Oh Americans. We come up with a "destination series" ice cream and Chicago gets put in the same category as South America? One is a city, the other is a continent. Oh well, mangos are tasty, so I'll set aside the anthropology less and just stick to what I do best, reviewing ice cream. This flavor is 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.  Okay, I flipping love mangos. If it were nutritionally sound, I would probably live on mangos and ice cream. But it's not so occasionally I eat a vegetable. And while I love mangos, I honestly was a little skeptical of this ice cream. I just wasn't sure mangos and cream would be a good mix. Oh boy was I wrong. The base of this flavor was honestly a bit mild when it comes to mangos. Mangos have an inherently strong flavor; super sweet and some good tangyness. I think what made the mango plus cream work  as well a...