The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

2012 was a pretty tragic year for ice cream. That year we lost not only Oatmeal Cookie Chunk from Ben & Jerry's, but also Dublin Mudslide, and Crème Brûlée. As soon as Ben & Jerry's announced their new for 2017 flavor, Oat of this Swirled, mourners of Oatmeal Cookie Chunk got excited. This new flavor is described as Buttery Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Fudge Flakes & Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookie Swirls . Now does this flavor hold a candle to Oatmeal Cookie Chunk? Well first the base of this flavor was interesting. I didn't necessarily taste buttery brown sugar distinctly, but the base did have kind of a cookie aura. It was also clear that I wasn't eating a vanilla or sweet cream base. It was overall a warmer vibe, but the buttery brown sugarness could have been stronger. The best part of this pint was definitely the fudge flakes. They were HUGE and amazing. Fudge flakes are definitely one of B&J's best mix-ins. The dark chocolate definitely mell...

Dearest Readers, you have probably gotten the sense by now that I am often late to the party with ice cream happenings. However, it is not always totally my fault. While I love Iowa and Heyn's is great, Iowa City is a bit of an ice cream desert in terms of grocery store flavors. When Pecan Sticky Buns first came out, I spent a lot of time gazing longingly at my Instagram feed and reading everyone else's opinions of the flavor. I drove to the Iowa City Super Wal-Mart frequently and checked to see if they had the flavor. But time and time again, I found they did not. Then, alas, only a few days before I was leaving for summer research, I found the flavor! I bought it, and it has been waiting patiently for me in my freezer for my return. So now, finally, here is a review! This flavor is described as Buttery Brown Sugar Ice Cream with Pecans, Sticky Bun Dough & a Cream Cheese Frosting Swirl. Holy moly! This flavor was A LOT. Like Ben & Jerry's took a dessert mad...

So all the cool kid ice cream bloggers on Insta have been talking about the 7-11 ice cream brand as of late, especially the s'mores flavor. And the last few days I was traveling, my Airbnb host told me to help myself to the ice cream in the freezer. Now, when you visit friends (or stay with strangers) and they tell you, "Oh help yourself to anything in the kitchen" they don't really mean it. Like, they think they do, but usually they don't actually want you to eat all of the ice cream in their freezer and all of their peanut butter. But I was happy to have super awesome Airbnb hosts who actually meant it when they invited me to help myself. And with a pint of 7-11 in the freezer and specific instructions to eat the ice cream, I was like, "Mmmm yes." The flavor they had in their freezer was Double Cookie Dough, so lets see if this flavor is as tasty as everyone seems to think the 7-11 s'mores flavor is.  This flavor is described as Vanilla...

You guys! Pecan Sticky Buns, Ben and Jerry's latest Wal-Mart exclusive was released MONTHS ago and I am just now getting around to reviewing it!  Let's just say the end of the semester was hellacious.  Also, during the past month I went to Wal-Mart twice specifically to look for this flavor and it was out of stock.  I went back and finally found a pint.  This flavor is Buttery brown sugar ice cream with pecans, sticky bun dough and a cream cheese frosting swirl. So let's get the obvious out of the way.  This sounds and tastes a lot like Ben and Jerry's Cinnamon Buns, but I think the cream cheese swirl and addition of pecans distinguishes it enough from Cinnamon Buns to justify releasing it as an exclusive flavor. The brown sugar base was very lightly flavored.  I could tell it wasn't a sweet cream base, but I don't know if I would have been able to identify it as brown sugar in a blind taste test.  Also, the other flavors were quite strong a...

The best part about traveling is ice cream. Seeing family and friends is cool or whatever, but nothing gets me quite as jazzed up as trying out another city's local scoop shops. The other weekend I visited Brett in his new home in Cambridge, MA. The week leading up to the visit I would text him and say, "What are our plans for the weekend? Where are we going to get ice cream?" Of course, most people don't put as much time and emotional labor into pursuing ice cream, so I ended up doing an investigation of local scoop shops all on my own. I was incredibly pleased to discover Brett lives close to a scoop shop considered by many to be the best ice cream in Boston! After drooling, and of course, agonizing, over their flavor list for a week, we made the trek with my friend Lizzie, who also lives in the Boston area, over to Toscanini's on Saturday afternoon. The line for ice cream was almost out the door, but luckily, there were many employees and the line moved quickly...

Being somewhat of a completionist, it is my goal to try every Talenti flavor ever.  And every Ben and Jerry's flavor.  And every Haagen-Dazs flavor.  And every Graeter's flavor. And ever flavor of ice cream in the world ever.  I have a spreadsheet and I check off flavors after I try them. The thought that I won't be able to try every flavor ever keeps me up at night. Because of this compulsion, I keep a mental list of what I like to call 'Unicorn flavors.'  Specifically, these are flavors in the permanent line-up of a decently well-known and widely available brand that I just never, ever, ever see in stores.  Some of them, like Talenti Simply Strawberry, make no sense.  I mean, strawberry is a pretty standard flavor, it should be available everywhere Talenti is sold.  Others like Haagen-Dazs Green Tea (although this seems to be making a surge lately), make a little more sense.  Green Tea is not a super popular or well-known flavor among th...

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...

I also ate Izzy's Ice Cream! I went to Izzy's for the first time in the week following finals.  This was a good week for ice cream; I went to Sebastian Joe's and Izzy's for the first time. When looking at the flavors online before I went (because obviously I would do this) there were several I was really excited about including Cereal Milk and Hot Brown Sugar, so when I saw Hot Brown Sugar was available I knew that this flavor would be mine.  Immediately.  Because I was so excited about this flavor I failed to read anything about anything on their menu, so I didn't realize I would have to choose a flavor for my Izzy scoop.  I panicked and chose Vanilla. The Vanilla wasn't bad, but it wasn't an outstanding vanilla either.  I'm not too upset because I don't typically order vanilla at a scoop shop. Now on to the good stuff.  Er mah gerd the Hot Brown Sugar was the most amazing thing ever.  I want to eat this every day!  Here is the descriptio...

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...