The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

A year late and a dollar short, but I did it! I have finally tried all of the Haagen-Dazs Destination Series flavors just in time for them to be taken off the shelves. I honestly hope that's soon, because I want my grocery store to make room for the new Haagen-Dazs flavors. Like Espresso Chocolate Cookie Crumble? Get in my face.  This flavor, on the other hand, obviously takes us to Belgium and is described as Our Belgian chocolate combines, rich velvety chocolate ice cream with finely shaved Belgian chocolate for a uniquely textured experience.  With this flavor, HD took simplicity, and mastered it. The base was somehow more chocolatey than other chocolate ice creams. It was an incredibly dense/intense flavor. It wasn't dark at all, in fact, it was very milky, but still very rich. The texture was also very smooth. It was almost gelato-like. The shavings of Belgian chocolate took the whole experience up a notch. They were like little punches of darker Belgian...

I wasn't that impressed by Magnum's new Double Chocolate Hazelnut, so I was hoping I would have better luck with Double Cookies and Cream, cookies and cream ice cream dipped in a chocolatey coating, chocolate cookie sauce, and milk chocolate with cookie pieces. I think Magnum missed a huge opportunity here to do a white chocolate and cookies outer layer, but as it is the bar is still pretty good. The ice cream seemed more like plain vanilla than cookies and cream. The weren't cookie chunks; rather, there were very finely ground bits of chocolate cookie throughout. Also, the chocolate of the shell was so strong it drowned out any chocolate notes from the cookies of the cookies and cream. The chocolate cookie sauce was impeccable. I am so on board this chocolate cookie butter/cookie fudge trend. The cookie sauce was like a grainy fudge sauce made out of Oreos. The Belgian chocolate of the outer-most coating was an interesting counter-point to the cookie sauce. I ...

Dearest readers! Finally new-for-2017 Ben and Jerry's flavor that is actually good! It seems like B&J's was going for a more sophisticated flavor profile with their much-hyped new releases Oat of This Swirls and Urban Bourbon, but neither of these flavors really did it for me. Keep Caramel and Cookie On is a new Target exclusive, caramel malt ice cream with with shortbread cookies, fudge flakes, and caramel swirls. Most importantly, it is a new Ben and Jerry's release that I actually like! The caramel malt ice cream was superb. I like Ben and Jerry's normal caramel base, but it's so light in flavor that it's often drowned out by strongly-flavored mix-ins. The addition of malt gave the caramel base more punch, and made it the star of the flavor. I don't think I've ever had a caramel malt base before, and I definitely approve. It tasted like a slightly less sweet version of Honey Smacks cereal. The caramel swirl gave a nice pop of pure caramel sw...

"April is the cruellest month ..." Spring in Minneapolis is a weird time. We're coming out of, let's be real, 6-7 months of winter. Everyone is absolutely sick and tired of the snow, the cold, the dark, the wet and there's a collective yet suppressed giddiness in the air. We're ecstatic that it's warm, and we wear shorts and tank tops and sit outside in the grass when it gets above 50 degrees Fahrenheit. On the other hand, we know we're not really out of winter's woods until June, so we don't want to show our excitement in case of a May snowstorm; in which case we say, "Aw jeez, looks like snow again, good thing I didn't put away my boots and winter clothes." What does Haagen-Dazs Toasted Coconut Caramel Ice cream, described as sumptuous swirls of dulce de leche caramel and flaky hints of toasted coconut shine through each bite of this indulgent coconut ice cream, and Minnesota spring have to do with each other? Toasted Coc...

All hail the vegan ice cream goddesses who have brought beauty to this earth! So yes, I kind of spoiled the punch line of this blog post (aka this ice cream is good), but seriously, we are not worthy of this ice cream!! Madeline already reviewed the new non-dairy Coconut Seven Layer Bar and noted that it was much improved over the Ben & Jerry's non-dairy flavors from last year. This new flavor is described as Almond non dairy frozen dessert with salted caramel swirls & pieces of almond brittle . First, the texture of this ice cream was much improved over B&J's initial non-dairy releases. There was a teeny tiny hint of dryness in this base, but much improved over last year. It also melted down really well, and was very creamy and smooth. Now the flavor of the base was on point. If you don't like almonds and almond extract specifically, you will not  like this flavor. The bast had a very strong almond flavor. Almond milk plus more almond flavoring will...

Can I just say that it kind of bothers me that there are four flavors in the Trio line? Like three wouldn't actually be enough flavors, but then it would be all threes! After having a great experience with my first Trio flavor, Triple Chocolate, I was very excited to try another one. The coffee one sounded the next most appetizing after the Triple Chocolate, so I grabbed some last time I was at the store. This flavor is described as Layers of crispy Belgian chocolate, coffee & vanilla ice cream . Just like the first Trio flavor I tried, this one got a little bit icy on the top, but it was fine further down. So first impression, the Belgian chocolate in this flavor didn't seem as bitter as in the other flavor I had. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing on it's own, but there was overall, not enough bitterness in this flavor. The coffee ice cream was overall very mild. It was more like a medium or light roast flavor than a dark roast, and definitely had a...

When it comes to this year's new flavors in your grocery store dairy aisle, I've found that Haagen-Dazs is shining and other brands offerings are pretty lackluster. Talenti has a few new flavors, but they didn't really publicize their release, and I just now found a new flavor, Vanilla Blueberry Crumble, at my local Target. Vanilla Blueberry Crumble is Vanilla Bean gelato with real blueberry sauce and brown sugared oat crumbles. It's like eating a delicious, crispy baked dessert a la mode, all at once. I don't love Talenti's vanilla gelato.  It's overly sugary to begin with, necessitating an overwhelming vanilla flavor to balance out the sugar all combining into a nauseatingly sweet gelato.  To make vanilla stand out, I don't think you should add more vanilla, instead I think you should dial back the intensity of the base until a bit of vanilla flavor stands out. Because the base was so overwhelming, I couldn't taste the blueberry sauce...

2012 was a pretty tragic year for ice cream. That year we lost not only Oatmeal Cookie Chunk from Ben & Jerry's, but also Dublin Mudslide, and Crème Brûlée. As soon as Ben & Jerry's announced their new for 2017 flavor, Oat of this Swirled, mourners of Oatmeal Cookie Chunk got excited. This new flavor is described as Buttery Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Fudge Flakes & Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookie Swirls . Now does this flavor hold a candle to Oatmeal Cookie Chunk? Well first the base of this flavor was interesting. I didn't necessarily taste buttery brown sugar distinctly, but the base did have kind of a cookie aura. It was also clear that I wasn't eating a vanilla or sweet cream base. It was overall a warmer vibe, but the buttery brown sugarness could have been stronger. The best part of this pint was definitely the fudge flakes. They were HUGE and amazing. Fudge flakes are definitely one of B&J's best mix-ins. The dark chocolate definitely mell...

Now that I making my way through all of the new for 2017 flavors, I need to take a quick break and get the last of the destination series before they possibly go away! Yes, I know this flavor is so  2016, but I promise I'll be back to new stuff in the next review. This flavor takes us to New Orleans, featuring chicory coffee. It is described as Collaborating with the small batch artisans at CC Made, we swirl sweet cream and coffee ice cream with thick ribbons of chicory coffee caramel for an experience rich with New Orleans flavor.  Swirl magic! Okay wow, I enjoyed this. Coffee and caramel should always go together. The chicory adds a bit of nuttiness or woodiness or something to the coffee. The flavor of the coffee ice cream was rather light, and paired with the sweet cream served as a wonderful backdrop for the chicory coffee caramel. There was as much coffee ice cream as sweet cream. I liked that they did a sweet cream as opposed to vanilla or something, becau...

Out of all new flavors and products this year, I'm was most anticipating the Haagen-Dazs TRIOs. Concept-wise they seem like the perfect new product: different enough to stand out from other new products, unique to the market, but not too gimmicky and still recognizably ice cream. Haagen-Dazs Vanilla Blackberry Chocolate TRIO, crispy Belgian chocolate, vanilla and blackberry ice cream, is the only fruity flavor in the line up. Do you remember those Creme Savers candies? I don't think they ever had a blackberry flavor, but if they did, the combination of the vanilla and blackberry ice creams would taste EXACTLY like it. It's less tart, sweeter, and less berry-intensive than a fresh berries-and-cream flavor. The vanilla isn't necessarily a distinct flavor, but it definitely mellows the blackberry more than a straight sweet cream ice cream would. While the flavor was strong in the first bite, it unfortunately faded as I ate more of the ice cream. Full disclosure, I...

I am excited about this new Ben and Jerry's non-dairy flavor for two reasons. One is that Coconut Seven Layer Bar is one of my favorite Ben and Jerry's flavors ever, but it's a scoop shop exclusive so I don't have it very often. I'm excited to have a version available in stores. The other is that there was a lot of hype surrounding last year's release of Ben and Jerry's first ever non-dairy flavors, but I didn't think they were very good. I've only tried Coconut Seven Layer Bar, but if this year's other non-dairy flavors are as good, it's definitely an improvement over last year's line. Non-Dairy Coconut Seven Layer Bar is Coconut non-dairy frozen dessert with fudge chunks, walnuts, and swirls of graham cracker and caramel. Ben and Jerry's uses almond milk as their non-dairy base, so the coconut oil provides the coconut flavoring rather than coconut milk (what a missed opportunity!!).  The coconut becomes overwhelming at times...