The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

I've got some fall and winter flavor reviews, as well as some fun Minneapolis exclusive flavor reviews in the works, but for now I'm steadily making my way through all 14 Klondike Bar flavors. Oreo is the fourth flavor I've tried described as Under a blanket of milk chocolately coating and OREO cookie crumbles, you'll find a satisfyingly delicious slab of vanilla ice cream blended with OREO cookie pieces. I think everyone in the world, except my mother, who hates Oreos, would agree that adding Oreos to any dessert makes it infinitely better. Therefore, I was expecting that Oreo would be one of, if not the best Klondike bar flavor, but it's actually my least favorite of the four I've tried so far.  Somehow the addition of Oreo to both the shell and ice cream made the bar very bland. The shell by itself was decent. The Oreo crumbles were very fine, giving the shell a pleasant gritty, crumby (not crummy!) texture. Also, the complex milk chocolate of the ...

BLOGGER FAIL! Wow Madeline and I have been ice cream blogging for over two years now and neither of us have reviewed ANY Baskin Robbins flavors. Granted, we all know that Baskin Robbins is a giant chain that's not really at the forefront of ice cream innovations, but they are such a big player, they do deserve to be reviewed. Granted, I don't know if there is a Baskin Robbins around where I live now. However, this past Sunday I was in the Southwest Terminal of the St. Louis airport and just craving a treat. I decided to peek at the Baskin Robbins menu, just for shits and giggles. When I saw the Flavor of the Month was Oreo Birthday Cake, I thought that was pretty exciting and just had to get some! However, I can find nothing on the Baskin Robbins website about this flavor, so I make no promises that you will be able to find it at your BR location! There was also no description of this flavor, but to me it seemed like a chocolate base with Oreo cookie pieces, sprinkles, ...

While Iowa and Missouri have their many differences, I've recently discovered that, like Missouri, Iowa isn't into this whole spring  business and has decided to skip straight to summer. And by summer I mean weather with highs over 75 degrees. And yes I know I'm lame, but I'm a runner, so is it too early to be complaining about the heat? I'm really only partly kidding. Either way, Dane's Dairy, a drive-through soft-serve ice cream spot in south Iowa City has opened for the season! I totally failed you, Dearest Readers, by not making it over to Dane's before it closed for the fall/winter, but don't you worry, I am going to more than make up for my mistake this summer. This past Saturday I went to Dane's Dairy with my friends, Emma and Charlie. Dane's is absolutely the most adorable soft serve ice cream shop you will ever go to. There are amazing little farm animal statues everywhere and the side of the building is painted with fun pict...

When Dairy Queen announced S'mores and Oreo S'mores as the Blizzards of the Month for April, I was excited and confused.  Excited because a S'mores Blizzard sounds awesome and an Oreo S'mores Blizzard sounds even more awesome, but confused because I definitely think of S'mores as a summer  camping treat.  I guess I can't really think of any 'typically April' flavors that would have been better fitted to this month. I tried the classic S'mores Blizzard first.  This is described as It's back! The S'mores Blizzard treat with mini marshmallow filled chocolate bars, graham cracker pieces, toasted graham and marshmallow topping, and creamy vanilla soft serve. After the disastrous March Blizzard of the month ( Grasshopper Mousse Pie ), Dairy Queen is back in top form with the S'mores Blizzard.  The toasted graham and marshmallow topping infused the vanilla soft serve base, giving it the flavor of the gooey innards of a perfectly toa...

I'm winning at life so hard right now because I found both the Ben and Jerry's Wal-Mart exclusive Peanut Butter and Cookies and the new Ben and Jerry's Limited Batch Cake My Day before Lizzy.  BOOM!  Just kidding, I hope Lizzy finds these soon. Today I have a review of Peanut Butter and Cookies.  There was not much hype in the ice cream blogger world (there are dozens of us ... DOZENS!) or in the world at large about this flavor, so it was kind of off of my radar until a couple weeks ago.  I knew it had been released, but I wasn't hunting it.  I was at Wal-Mart to buy a new hat, and checked the ice cream section before I left (as I compulsively do at every store), and there was Peanut Butter Cookies. Peanut Butter and Cookies is " Sweet cream ice cram with chocolate sandwich cookies and a crunchy peanut butter swirl." This flavor was good but not great.  I really liked that they went with a sweet cream base instead of a vanilla base as most cooki...

Alright frozen custard fans, finally a review of Culver's is coming your way! Culver's is a frozen custard staple, because unfortunately we don't all live in St. Louis and eat Ted Drewes all the time. Like me. I don't live in St. Louis. :( I'd been craving some custard/a concrete for a few days now. After taking my friend, Charlie, furniture shopping, I was driving by Culver's and saw the flavor of the day was Double Marshmallow Oreo. Mmmm, sounded more than tasty enough for me to stop in. One of my favorite aspects of Culver's is the flavor of the day. I'm incredibly indecisive, and especially indecisive about food, especially ice cream. Like I have a weekly existential crisis in the ice cream section of the grocery store. So when a store can make a decision for me, with a flavor of the day, I feel secure; like I have direction and purpose. So I'm pretty sure sometimes flavors of the day feature flavors, mix-ins, swirls, or combinations you ca...

Remember waaaaaay back at the end of summer I promised to try every Dairy Queen Blizzard of the month flavor? I bet you were worried when I didn't post a review of a Blizzard-of-the-month for the ENTIRE month of November.  I bet you were raging mad.  Because you have nothing better to do than obsessively read our ice cream blog.  Fear not, dear and loyal readers, the Blizzard-of-the-month for both November and December is Candy Cane Oreo, and I have a review for you today.  Also, this Blizzard fits in perfectly with the avalanche of peppermint flavors I'm reviewing this holiday season! Long story short, this Blizzard was ok but not great.  Part of the issue was the spectacular September/October Pumpkin Pie Blizzard.  It cannot possibly be topped, so the next flavor was bound to be a disappointment.  Dairy Queen describes the Peppermint Candy Cane Blizzard as The holidays have officially arrived at DQ.  The smooth mix of candy cane and OREO bi...

So far, late fall in Iowa City has meant temperatures in the mid 30s to low 50s. Even thought I know I am terribly, terribly wrong, I'm currently pretending winter in Iowa City will resemble late fall. With this current delusion of mine, I am fully embracing winter and getting on board the peppermint frozen dairy train. My class on Tuesdays gets out at 6:20, but the next bus I can catch doesn't come until 7. I'm a terribly stereotypically midwesterner, and if I don't get dinner by 5:30 at the latest, I'm a famished wreck. This past week, I did not pack enough snacks, so after my Tuesday class I was starving. As opposed to hangrily doing work in my office for 40 minutes, I decided to go to Yotopia. Best life decisions involve frozen dairy. Although my fruit concoctions at Yotopia have been fabulous, it is far past time I make a desserty concoction, so seasonal peppermint it is! I decided to pair the peppermint with classics chocolate and vanilla. I topped my ...

Heyn's, you're killing it. I am definitely on pace to try every Heyn's flavor before I finish at Iowa and of the four flavors I have tried so far, I love every single one. All four are definitely going to get serious consideration for various superlatives when Madeline and I do our end of the year post for 2015. Obviously, the last ice cream Brett and I had before he left had to be a trip to Heyn's. Once again, I picked two crazy, chunky, desserty flavors, because they looked too good to pass up. The two I chose were Kara's Creation and Heavenly Hazelnut. I actually got pictures of the adorable hand drawn flavor signs this time! Kara's Creation is described as Vanilla ice cream, pralines, Oreos, and swirls of caramel. There was no description of Heavenly Hazelnut at the shop, but on the website it is described as Hazelnut ice cream, swirls of mocha fudge, coffee-flavored toffee pieces, and chocolate chunks . Gosh, where do I even start with eithe...

Today, I took Brett back to the airport after a week long visit from him. Visits from Brett mean two things. Lots of ice cream eating and not a lot of blog post writing. Our first ice cream adventure was actually a froyo adventure. It was his first day in Iowa, we had both worked out earlier in the day and we were hungry. After grabbing dinner, we decided to explore the downtown Iowa City pedestrian mall area which actually means we got froyo. I wanted to go to Yotopia, because it is Iowa City's "original" frozen yogurt or something. But Brett thought he might also want to get some chocolate for later so we chose Aspen Leaf instead, because it is attached to a Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. It has been a while since I've reviewed a frozen yogurt shop, so I will refresh your memory on my eight step evaluation process. 1) The variety of the flavors: is there a good selection? 2) The flavor of my choices 3) The quality of the combination of my choices 4) Th...

Growing up, arctic was one of those words I had a lot of trouble spelling when I was growing up. Mostly because nobody actually pronounces the first "c." Writing this blog post is going to be a spelling struggle. It was my last day in Syracuse and my grandmother and I realized we had only been to one ice cream shop my whole visit. Luckily, my flight wasn't until the afternoon, so there was time to visit one more. Arctic Island is not too far down the road from Gannon's. And in internet ice cream world (aka people commenting on a list of the best ice cream shops in the area) there is much debate about which is better, Gannon's or Arctic Island. My cousins Jack and Ben, used to like Arctic Island more than Gannon's, but as of late the tides have turned. Given the amount of ice cream my cousin, Jack, eats (he had three times the amount of ice cream I did when we were at Gannon's), I think their opinions are trustworthy. The big deal at Arctic Is...

If you read my last blog post you might think I died from hunger while on my recent backpacking trip. You might think, Lizzy! You backpacked for 5 days and only prepared with 2 day of ice cream, are you okay?! Don't worry friends. In addition to going to Scrumptious Ice Cream in Arvada two days in a row, Brett and I ate at Little Man Ice Cream in Denver two days in a row, as well. The first day we were there we, honest to goodness, had no intentions of getting ice cream. We were planning on seeing a Rockies game. But then it was raining a lot as the game would be started, and we were not invested enough in a Rockies vs. Braves game to sit in the rain for hours. Obviously, the next best option would be to get ice cream, because rain should have no impact on ice cream eating, right? Well only if the ice cream you are planning on eating is indoors. Little Man, however, only has outdoor seating. Oh, the lengths I will go to in order to get ice cream. A year ago, I think, my fri...

I don't think there's such a thing as a bad cookies and cream ice cream; it's incredibly hard to fuck up, and fuck it up Kemp's does not.  On their website, Kemp's describes this flavor as Chocolate sandwich cookies in vanilla ice cream. Keepin' it simple.  This is one of the ice creams in Kemp's 'Old Fashioned' line.  The whole point of this line is to offer classic flavors that bring back memories of delightful ice cream moments from your past.  Or something like that.  I threw away the pint without taking a picture of the blurb about their Old Fashioned ice creams.  Cookies and Cream definitely fits the category of classic ice cream flavor. On to the review!  My overall impression was that this was a very solid slightly-above-middle-of-the-pack Cookies and Cream Flavor.  I think in the future, it would be a great ice cream to use as the base for a sundae.  It's good enough to hold its own, but wouldn't overshadow the rest ...

The frozen yogurt bar, Tutti Frutti opened a University City location back in the summer of 2012. After not being super impressed my first visit that summer, I was convinced to go back when I was told they had amazing vegan flavors made with soy. Their soy peanut butter, taro root, and banana milk have been favorites of mine ever since. Look at the adorable designs on the Tutti Frutti cups!! But the University City location, on North & South and Delmar, isn't actually close to where I used to live in University City, so I didn't go a ton, and I hadn't had a chance to go since moving out of St. Louis. Even though frozen yogurt bars aren't the most exciting, I had really been craving some vegan peanut butter froyo, so after my birthday dinner (at the all vegan brick and mortar location of Lulu's Local Eatery) last weekend we all headed to Tutti Frutti for some froyo. A list of things to help you convince yourself that froyo is good for you. A while...