The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

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 ...

Earlier this week I was at Target with my mom. I'm bumming around my parents' house right now until I move to Iowa City. Unless Madeline or I are around my parents don't have ice cream in the freezer. So while we were at Target, I put on my best two-year-old-who-wants-a-candy-bar-while-at-the-store voice and was like "Mahhmmmm will you buy me ice cream?" Not actually. It basically went down like this. Mom: "Do you want to grab some ice cream while we are here?" Me: "Yes" Thought I will say, I am not afraid to pull out my whiny two year old voice if I feel I might not get ice cream. Not sure if it would still work on my parents 21 years after it was relevant, but you gotta do what you gotta do. In reality, Target doesn't have too many ice cream brands and I wanted to try something New and Different. So I decided to try Target's Archer Farms brand. They make super tasty trail mix, so what the heck, they might make good ice cream, too...

Occasionally, I eat food besides ice cream. Hands down, my favorite sandwich shop in St. Louis is Fozzie's Sandwich Emporium. They seriously have the best black bean burger ever. I mean, it is called an Emporium, how could it not be good? Not only do they have great sandwiches and salads, for omnivores, vegetarians, and vegans alike, Fozzies has superb milkshakes. Fozzie's is also a favorite of Madeline and not long ago I found out she had never had a milkshake from Fozzie's! Obviously when she visited St. Louis a few weekends ago, we had to get some milkshakes! Fozzie's standard milkshakes are super awesome. In fact, I am so in love with their Salty Kisses shake I sometimes forget to even look at their specials. When we ate there one of their specials was a Nutty Professor milkshake. As it is my life goal to be a nutty professor, I had to order this milkshake. This milkshake also features blondies. I have a newfound appreciation for blondies after eating Ben & Je...

Not too long ago, I was sent, by my friend Bronwyn, a picture of a pint of Ben & Jerry's called Blondie Ambition. It was an exclusive flavor, and she told me she had gotten it at Target. At first, I was really excited because I thought it was a new flavor. But the more I thought about it, I realized they might have just renamed their Rockin' Blondie flavor. I never want to miss trying a Ben & Herr's flavor, so just to be safe, I purchased a pint. I took the pint over to my old apartment, where my friends Bronwyn and Katy still live, and where we have our Ben & Jerry's tower stored, and compared the descriptions. Alas, the descriptions were the same. They had just renamed this pint. The description of this flavor is Buttery Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Blonde Brownies & Butterscotch Toffee Flakes . By this point in the blog, you may be starting to get to know my ice cream tastes. This is not something I would normally pick up, so I'm glad I kind...

Today I tried Ben and Jerry's Rockin' Blondies, another Target Exclusive flavor.  This is described as "Buttery Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Blonde Brownies and Butterscotch Toffee Flakes." I picked up this ice cream at Target (obviously) for $3.99!!!  That is so cheap for a pint of B&J's!  I may have to buy ice cream here from now on. I was really really excited about this flavor, and thought it had a lot of potential.  From the description I was expecting a light, delicate, warm brown sugar flavor with gooey, chewy blondie chunks, but I was kind of disappointed.  To me, the ice cream did not taste at all like brown sugar.  If I really strained my tastebuds and tilted my head the right way I could pick up on a slight buttery flavor.  I could, however, taste the cream the ice cream was made out of, which was interesting because you don't often taste the 'cream' part of ice cream, it is often overwhelmed by the flavor.  While this was no...