The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

I love the beginning of a new year because it means that it's time to look back at all of our posts from the previous year and pick our favorite ice creams.  While looking through old posts I inevitably stumble on one or two AMAZING flavors that I had completely forgotten! To choose the award categories, I look through my old posts and say, "Ooooh, that ice cream/sorbet/gelato was great, I should give it the 'Best ______ of the year' award!"  Then I make sure I didn't forget a super obvious award like 'Best ice cream of the year." The whole process is SUPER OFFICIAL. On to the awards! Best 'Away' Scoop Shop (best scoop shop not located in St. Louis, Iowa City, or Minneapolis) Madeline: Rockwell Ice Cream Co , Provo, UT Rockwell's signature Honey Comb I spent 3 weeks in the Park City, UT area this summer and an amazing ice cream scene was the last thing I was expecting to find.  I wanted to include at least one Utah ice cream ...

Guys. I liked speculoos cookies before they were cool, okay. I liked speculoos cookies before I even really knew what they were, and just knew them as the cookies you got on Delta flights.  Then Trader Joe's came along and made Speculoos Cookie Butter (which, btw, you can get Biscoff spread for way cheaper and it's the same thing).  Then Ben and Jerry's came along and made Spectacular Speculoos, their speculoos cookie core ice cream.  Now everybody and their uncle is on the speculoos train! And, you know what, I'm not even mad. MORE SPECULOOS FOR EVERYONE! If you don't know what speculoos (sometimes English-ized as speculaas) is, you've probably been living under a rock and it's now time to emerge. Speculoos are a thin, buttery, crunchy, delicate shortbread cookie spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. Sam's Choice Cookie Butter ice cream is based on speculoos cookies though they don't state that explicitly.  The ice cream is Vanilla ice cream with ...

You know at Big Muddy, we always try to give the people what they want. And it seems like you all want more reviews of Sam's Choice ice cream. Almost all of our reviews of Sam's Choice ice cream get about twice the number of views as our other reviews. So when I was coming home and my mom asked what I needed from the grocery store, I obviously asked her to pick up some Sam's Choice! When I first saw this flavor in the freezer I thought it looked totally weird. I always thought that Moose Tracks referred to the little peanut butter cups in those flavors. So mint and peanut butter? Well, Moose Tracks is actually the fudge, which made me way more excited about this flavor. Because, as you might now, the fudge in those Moose Tracks flavors are the bomb! Also exciting news that Moose Tracks is partnering with Sam's Choice to make some stellar, but affordable ice cream! The other Sam's Choice flavor with Moose Tracks is just a traditional Moose Tracks flavor. ...

Do you guys watch the TV show Bob's Burgers?  Do you know that sound Tina Belcher makes best translated to text as "uuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhh." That sound is the aural equivalent of how this ice cream made me feel.  Until now I have absolutely loved every Sam's Choice ice cream I have tried, so I thought this one would be no different.  Also, I absolutely love a good coconut, almond, and fudge combo (get at me Mounds Bars!) so I was doubly excited for this ice cream.  This flavor is Coconut ice cream with roasted almond pieces, coconut, and chocolate flavored flakes. This ice cream wasn't bad or gross, it was just bland.  Things started out well as I caught the aroma of warm coconut wafting from the pint.  Unfortunately that taste did not translate to the base.  I really had to concentrate to be able to say that, yes, this was indeed coconut ice cream. The roasted almonds and chocolate flakes were similarly tasteless.  There were tons of both ...

There's nothing I love more than a great peach ice cream, and Sam's Choice has really delivered with their new Peach Cobbler.  This flavor is Peach ice cream with pie crust and peach bits and cream cheese swirl. The peach base of this flavor ranks up there with Graeter's (seasonal) Peach as the best peach ice cream I've ever had.  The front of the flavor profile is a strong peach, just like biting in to a fresh, juicy, ripe fruit.  Then the flavor transitions and finishes with a deep and rich cream. There weren't very many pie crust bits; I think I had about 6 in my pint.  The few I did get were 1/2'' squares barely on the too-dry side of perfectly flaky.  They had a buttery, rather than an oily, flavor. Holy cow, the peach bits were amazing, maybe even better than the Graeter's peach bits.  I don't know what kind of chemical magic Sam's Choice worked (probably corn starch and preservatives), but these did not taste frozen at al...

In addition to the Coffee and Donuts, Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle is one of the other Sam's Choice flavors being discontinued sometime in 2016. After trying the Coffee and Donuts, Madeline and I are both quite devastated it is being taken away. Will the loss of Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle be as devastating? Read on to find out! The description of this flavor is Chocolate Ice Cream with Pieces of Hazelnut Flavored Truffles and Chocolate Hazelnut Swirl . Lizzy's take: It is basically going to be impossible to not compare this ice cream to Ben & Jerry's Hazed and Confused Core, because the two flavors are so similar in so many components. The chocolate base of this flavor is pretty standard, milky and sweet. Nothing to lose your mind over, but there is also a lot going on in this ice cream besides the base. The swirl was also quite good. More strongly chocolate flavored than the base, and also with a heavy dose of hazelnut. The texture of the swirl was thin and ...

I'm going to start this post off with some bad news. Sam's Choice is going to discontinue this flavor, in addition to their Chocolate and Chocolate Hazelnut Truffle. However, this change isn't happening until March, and while taking these three flavors away, Sam's Choice will be adding 5 new, yet to be disclosed, flavors to their line up! So you still have plenty of time to give this one a try and get pumped for the new flavors! Yes these is actual coffee in this flavor, unlike the Great Value flavor! This flavor is described as Coffee Ice Cream with Swirls of Icing and Donut Pieces . So this flavor is the only ice cream I've seen with an icing swirl. And what an icing swirl it is. Look at the picture of the swirl. Wow. The swirl, however, did not stay this thick through the entire container. The swirl is also incredibly sweet and intense. It tastes exactly like the glaze on a donut and was super goopy. It also had little sugar granules in the sw...