The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

I finally have a review of Chillin' the Roast, the last of the three new Truffles flavors from Ben and Jerry's. Chillin' the Roast is cold brew coffee ice cream with chocolate cookie-covered coffee liqueur truffles and fudge swirls. Before I get to the review I just have to ask WHAT is up with the name of this flavor? Is it supposed to be a pun on something? A pun on what? Ruling the roost? Chillin' for cold brew? I don't get it. Chillin' the Roast suffers from the same shortcomings as Chocolate Shake It and Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake. In all three flavors the base is great, the mix-ins are great, and the truffles are just weird. The cheesecake base of Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake is far beyond the base in Ben and Jerry's other cheesecake flavors. The chocolate malt base of Chocolate Shake It could have a stronger malt flavor, but is still tasty and unique within Ben and Jerry's line up. The cold brew coffee base of Chillin' the Roast is F...

Banana Peanut Butter Chip is the second flavor out of three I've tried from Haagen-Dazs' new Decadent Collection. I enjoy a good banana ice cream, but despise a bad banana ice cream. I loved  Honey Salted Caramel Almond  from the Decadent Collection, so I had high hopes that Haagen-Dazs would execute banana ice cream well. This flavor is a banana ice cream base with peanut butter swirls and dark chocolate chips. Somewhat surprisingly, the best banana ice cream base I've ever tried was in Great Value's (Wal-Mart Brand) Banana Puddin'. Haagen-Dazs nearly lived up to this base. Like Great Value, they use banana puree rather than artificial banana flavoring which avoids the sickly-sweet fake banana taste. I could have done with a slightly less sweet and slightly stronger banana flavor here, but the base was generally enjoyable. I was first introduced to Haagen-Dazs' peanut butter swirl in their Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor which I think is one of the be...

Out of the three new dairy TRIO flavors (yes, there are non-dairy TRIOS this year!) I was most excited about the Lemon Raspberry White Chocolate flavor. The other flavors sound good, but less adventurous. Lemon Raspberry White Chocolate is white chocolate and raspberry sauce, lemon and raspberry ice cream.  Grammatically, the description makes it sounds like this flavor has white chocolate sauce, but in reality it has crunchy white chocolate layers. Tsk tsk. This reminded me so much of a lemon layer cake with raspberry filling. The lemon ice cream had a very light and sweet flavor like ... well ... lemon cake, and the white chocolate gave a touch of richness reminiscent of a buttercream frosting. I was initially disappointed with this flavor because I was hoping for much bolder flavors, but it's growing on me as more time passes. Like a lemon layer cake with raspberry filling, this wouldn't be a dessert I'd purchase or try to make from scratch, but I'd definitely...

Chocolate Shake It is the second flavor I've tried from their new line of truffle ice creams. You can read about Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake  here . Chocolate Shake It is chocolate malt milkshake ice cream with chocolate cookie-covered fudge truffles and marshmallow swirls. My father instilled in me a deep love of a good chocolate malt at a young age, so I was pretty stoked to try Chocolate Shake It. The chocolate malt base was actually pretty decent. Ben and Jerry's typically uses a milky chocolate base which sometimes falls flat but which worked here since they were going for a chocolate milkshake flavor. The malt flavor wasn't in-your-face, but it made itself known. There are probably better chocolate malt ice creams out there in scoop shops, but there are not too many available at the average grocery store, and Ben and Jerry's version is good enough to scratch your chocolate malt itch. After the base things went a bit downhill. I realize this is part ...

So far I've tried three out of seven of Sweet Me's new-for-2018 flavors, Red Velvet, Lemon Bar, and Apple Pie. I have to say I think this is overall my favorite new collection of 2018. Haagen-Dazs has some individually great flavors like Honey Salted Caramel Almond, but the quality across their new releases just isn't there. One of my friends told me he was disappointed with Sweet Me's new Sea Salt Chocolate, so we'll see if my opinion changes as I eat my way through the rest of this year's new releases. Sweet Me Creamery Apple Pie is Cinnamon ice cream swirled with spiced apples, a cinnamon graham cracker swirl and pie crust pieces. As with Lemon Bar, the base was phenomenal. Although just a premium ice cream, it feels like a super premium ice cream. (Super premium ice creams have a lower overrun, and therefore a denser and creamier texture, as well as a higher butterfat percentage.) The base is heavy, creamy, and thick, and the natural dairy flavors a...

With the introduction of Ben and Jerry's Pint Slices and Blue Bunny's Bunny Snacks in the past few years, I'm not surprised that Haagen-Dazs decided to jump on the flat-ice-cream-snacks-that-aren't-bars trend. (Side note, I have no idea what to call this class of treat, maybe ice cream flats?)  Haagen-Dazs bars are consistently great, so I was hoping they would continue their tradition of superb treats. The Dulce de Leche Cookie Squares are a rich dark chocolate cookie topped with dulce de leche ice cream and swirls of luscious caramel coated in a milk chocolate shell with a drizzle of dark chocolate. My first thought upon opening the cookie squares was these these are gorgeous ! The chocolate shell is smooth and velvety with appealing swirl of dark chocolate set against the background of lighter chocolate. The taste and texture of the shell were also on pointe. It had a creamy milk-chocolate taste with a satisfying crackle and crunch without splintering and ma...

So hear me out for a metaphor that is relevant to very few people. Talenti is like a PhD program. A math PhD program perhaps. You find something that you think is going to be absolutely amazing. You try some stuff out and it's pretty good. Some parts are great and some parts are less than stellar. As the years go by, you suddenly realize that things haven't been good for a long, long time. The world is a dystopian hell-scape and literally nothing matters. Am I bitter that I've been in grad for five years? Not at all! But seriously, there are some great Talenti flavors in the core line, but I feel like none of the new flavors for the past at least three years have been any good. Since Chocolate Caramel Blondie relies on mix-ins, and we all know that Talenti sucks at mix-ins, I was did not have high hopes for this flavor. Chocolate Caramel Blondie is chocolate+dulce de leche gelato with blondie pieces and a salted caramel swirl. Interestingly, the base was very, very ...

Glampfire Trail Mix, chocolate ice cream with crunchy pretzel swirls, marshmallow swirls, and fudge-covered almonds , is Ben and Jerry's ode to glamping. What is glamping? Let the delightful Tom Haverford explain it to you: Glamping is basically camping with enough amenities that you're not ~inconvenienced~ by the great outdoors. Ben and Jerry's Glampfire Trail Mix is very aptly named. Trail mix is a great, calorie-dense snack for when you're out hiking all day. Glampfire Trail Mix is a great, calorie-dense snack for when you're in your Skymall-outfitted tent that is furnished with a freezer! I'm not typically a fan of Ben and Jerry's chocolate base, but I liked it here. I'm not sure if they've tweaked the recipe or if the mix-ins in Glampfire Trail Mix just complement the base very well. Whatever the cause, the chocolate base seems richer, darker, and creamier than I remember. The marshmallow swirl is fantastic, but is unfortunately ov...

I'm frequently angry at lemon bars because they look like gooey butter cake, and I feel betrayed when they are not, in fact, gooey butter cake. I feel like this gives me an unnecessary prejudice against them because they're actually quite tasty. Sweet Me captured them very well in their Lemon Bar flavor, lemon ice cream with lemon bar pieces and a graham cracker swirl. The mix-ins are good, but this flavor really stands on its base. There aren't too many lemon ice creams on the market, and Sweet Me proves why there should be more. Sweet Me is premium ice cream, but this felt more like a super premium base to me. It was incredibly rich, dense, thick, and creamy, and the natural sweetness of the dairy beamed through the lemon. This is not to say that the lemon flavor was weak. The lemon flavor was bright, strong, and sweet. I ate most of this pint without reading the description, and I kept noticing what I thought were patches of the ice cream with gooey texture....