The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

I was surprised when I saw a new Magnum flavor, Double Cherry Truffle, on freezer shelves as I didn't hear about it at all on social media, and their Double Hazelnut and Double Cookies & Cream were a lot more hyped last year. Double Cherry Truffle is Cherry ice cream with a dark chocolate ganache swirl dipped in a chocolatey coating, luscious cherry sauce, and milk chocolate. The first few bites of the Double Cherry Truffle were absolutely divine. A strong, tart and sweet cherry sauce offsets a warm, rich dark chocolate shell. Unfortunately, about half way through the bar, I ran into the typical problem I have with Magnum bars: the chocolate flavor inevitably overwhelms the ice cream and sauce. Magnum's whole schtick is that they use Belgian chocolate for a superior chocolate shell, and I agree. The shell is superior. I really like Magnum's shells, especially for what is essentially a mass-market brand. The remaining elements of the Magnum bars need to come...

The new Magnum pints are so far the only new-for-2018 to reach me so far in the frozen north. Lizzy reviewed  Milk Chocolate Hazelnut  so I picked up two different flavors: White Chocolate Vanilla and Dark Chocolate Raspberry. Before I review the ice creams, I have to get something off my chest. Magnum tries SO hard to be this 'swanky' and 'sexy' and 'classy' ice cream brand and then they call their new pints TUBS! Yes, tubs! Possibly the least swanky, sexy, classy word in existence. What were they thinking?! "Let me just sit down with my TUB of Magnum." White Chocolate Vanilla is  Velvety vanilla ice cream and thick white chocolate shards encased in a crackling white chocolate shell.  Dark Chocolate Raspberry is  Raspberry ice cream with thick dark chocolate shards, all surrounded by a cracking layer of dark chocolate. Made with 65% cacao dark chocolate, it's luxury in every bite. Who wants to eat SHARDS?! Again with the off-putting...

Dearest Readers, I am coming back from sabbatical with a BANG. Yes, I am calling my break from blogging a sabbatical because it makes me feel ~fancy~ and YES I already got my hands on one of the newly-released-in-the-US Magnum pints! These have been out in Europe for a while now and they are finally here in the US! I haven't had a good hazelnut ice cream in a while, so that is the flavor I chose first. This flavor is described as Chocolate hazelnut ice cream, hazelnuts, and milk chocolate shards in a cracking milk chocolate shell with more hazelnuts. The whole deal with these pints is they are supposed to be like a Magnum bar in pint form. And by pint form I mean slightly-less-than-15-ounces form. There is a layer of hard chocolate on the top and a layer of chocolate surrounding the inside of the pint. You are supposed to wait a few minutes then squeeze the sides of the container to crack the shell. The chocolate on top is definitely hard to break with your spoon with...

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 ...

Magnum is entering the new ice cream for the new year fray with their new Double Raspberry bars.  These bars are Raspberry ice cream dipped in a chocolatey coating, raspberry sauce with other natural flavors, and milk chocolate. I didn't love Double Peanut Butter, Magnum's 2015 new flavor, so I was a little hesitant to pick up Double Raspberry, but decided to do it when I saw they were on sale.  I'm glad I did, as I feel like Magnum is back on track with the Double Raspberry bars after an off year in 2015. These reminded me a bit of the divine Haagen-Dazs Pomegranate Dark Chocolate Bars (which at one point were limited edition, but now look like they are part of the main line) with the tart berry flavor against the rich chocolate. The raspberry ice cream gave off a mild, but present raspberry and cream vibe, and was the perfect ice cream bar texture.  It was airy enough that I could bite through it, as opposed to very dense ice cream where it is dif...

Not long ago, I must have been super bored, and I sat down and looked through the junk mail. I was lucky to find a coupon for $3.00 off three Breyer's Gelato, Magnum, or Klondike products. I think there were some other products you could use the coupon on, but they were popsicle type products. Not exciting. I haven't reviewed a Magnum product in a while, so I was happy this coupon forced me to buy one. I wanted to try the Magnum White Ice Cream Bar, but HyVee didn't have any. So I picked up these guys instead. The last Magnum product I tried was a Magnum Infinity Bar. I expected these bars to be similar in size to those bars. I was a bit disappointed when I took it out of the wrapper and it was quite a bit smaller. They are at 240 calories, and if I were in my peak of training, I could definitely throw back two of these puppies with no issue. The description of these bars is Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Dipped in Dark Chocolate 60% Cacao. They are also made with Belgian...

Man, I have been peanut-buttering it up this last week or so! Chubby Hubby, Peanut Butter Pie frozen custard and now a new (ish) peanut butter ice cream bar from Magnum.  Man I love peanut butter so much.  I eat it with a spoon.  I have fond memories of sitting on my kitchen floor after a night out on the Loop drukenly eating half a jar of peanut butter and laughing with my roommates.  We *might* have found a lemon on the sidewalk, brought it back with us, drawn a face on it and named it Liz.  Oh college. Anyway, enough with the nostalgia trip and on to the review.  I think saw Magnum Double Peanut Butter on shelves for the first time about 2 months ago and made a mental note to try them at some point.  The 'doubles' are my favorite bars from magnum.  There's just something awesome about a gooey layer of sauce between the crunchy outer and creamy inner layers of an ice cream bar. This bar is Peanut butter ice cream dipped in a chocolatey co...

I know, of all the ice cream bars out there in the world I could review I review another Magnum. My really devoted reader(s) (my mom may in reality be the only person I could consider a devoted reader of this blog) will notice that I have been trying to review a wider variety of ice creams and ice cream products. The beginning of the blog was a little Ben and Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs crazy, admittedly and I'm trying to do better. And to be honest, the day I bought these bars, I really really wasn't trying to buy ice cream that day. It wasn't on my grocery list, it really wasn't. Like, I am one of those people that makes lists for the sake of the sense of satisfaction of crossing things off the list. And if ice cream isn't on my grocery list, what satisfaction would I get from buying it?! None!! BUT! As I wandered down the aisles at Gerbe's, a sign of the goodness of this planet appeared. A coupon dispenser of coupons for $1 of a box of Magnum bars!! A light...

Ahhh, Magnum, you have a special place in my heart.  I first tried Magnum ice cream bars during a summer I spent in Morocco after I graduated from college.  The bars were sold at little street vendors and typically went for around $2.50-3 USD a piece.  This was a little expensive, but sometimes you just needed some damn good ice cream! In the States, a box of 3 full-size Magnum bars goes for about $4 (I think).  The Magnum Minis come 6 to a box for about the same price.  At the grocery store, I opted to try the Magnum Mini Gold?! (also, can we all please start using the interrobang ‽) I was a little afraid to try a 'mini' size, as I obviously want to eat as much ice cream as possible at all times, but I took the plunge.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by the size.  These were maybe a half-inch longer than my palm and as wide as half of my palm.  Respectable! I realize this picture gives you no idea of scale. Magnum Gold?! is describ...

I decided it is well past time I write a blog post about an ice cream bar. For my first post about an ice cream bar I decided to go with the cream of the crop, a Magnum. I stood in Target for a long while deciding which one of the many flavors of Magnum to try. I opted to go with the Infinity Chocolate for two reasons. First, the description sounded the most scrumptious. Second, as we know there is more than one infinity, right Madeline? And if I had to choose which kind of infinity I had to deal with for, well, forever, I would choose the chocolate kind. Chocolate infinity is real mathematics, fo sho. Also, with my great mathematical authority I would say the chocolate infinity is definitely uncountable. The Magnum Infinity Chocolate Bar is described as Dark Chocolate Ice Cream with a Chocolate Swirl, Dipped in Dark Chocolate and Cocoa Bean Nibs. My excitement level? Through the roof. Anything that describes itself as "Dark Chocolate Ice Cream" makes me salivate. How...