The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Leave it to my trusty Tim and Tom's Speedy Market to be the first place in town I found the new Ben and Jerry's truffle flavors! I picked up all three new truffle flavors (Chillin' the Roast, Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake, and Chocolate Shake It) and let Kyle choose which one to crack open first. He chose Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake, caramel cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker-covered cheesecake truffles & chocolate cookie swirls. Even though Ben and Jerry's has a history of sub-par cheesecake ice creams, I was HYPED for this flavor, because the chocolate cookie butter in Ben and Jerry's Boom Chocolatta! is perhaps my favorite ice cream mix-in of all time. ALL TIME! And I've eaten a lot of ice cream mix-ins. I was hoping that would get re-used here. I was pleasantly surprised by my first bite. I got a big shock of cheesecake flavor, so it seems Ben and Jerry's took some steps to remedy their frankly pitiful previous attempts at chees...

Damn Kemps, back at it again with the dope frozen yogurt! (Sorry, I can't help memin'!)  After being completely blown away by Cold Brewed Coffee and almost completely blown away by Mudslide, I wanted to get my hands on a non-chocolate pint from the line, so I picked up Kemps Yo2 Raspberry Cheesecake Frozen Yogurt, described as Cheesecake frozen yogurt with graham crunch and raspberry swirl. What a generic description. The Talenti flavor description writer(s) would come up with something way  more interesting.  BUT! It's what's inside that counts or don't judge a book by it's cover or something.  I was wowed by Raspberry Cheesecake. Good cheesecake ice creams are hard to come by. I think too many companies rely on cheesecake mix-ins instead of going for a cheesecake base, but a cheesecake mix-in isn't really enough to carry an entire cheesecake flavor. Not only did Kemps make the right choice to go with a cheesecake base, but they managed to exec...

Fuuuucccccckkkkkkkk.  You guys.  Fuuuucccccckkkkkkkk. Tillamook ice cream is so good and I can't get it where I live.  I'm planning to just gorge myself on the stuff until I leave Utah. For those who don't know, Tillamook  is a dairy coop based in Oregon that makes products ranging from cheese to ice cream to butter.  Obviously, I'm most interested in their ice cream and frozen custard.  One thing Tillamook does that I find super interesting in awesome, is produce both a super-premium line as well as a premium line.  The super-premium flavors come in pints, and the premium flavors come in larger containers, keeping the cost down.  I think it's really cool that this is both a fancy brand and a more accessible brand. I picked up a pint of Oregon Marionberry Cheesecake Frozen Custard, described as Sweet mascarpone frozen custard swirled with an Oregon marionberry ripple and pieces of graham cracker crust. I took my first bite of this fla...

I'm going to give you a little insight into the life of a graduate student. At 8:30 this past Sunday, my brain was pretty fried from doing work and I was caught up on reviews (for the most part). Basically I had nothing to do. I thought about just going to bed right then and there, but then I remembered I'm 24 years old, not 74. So instead I decided to go to Heyn's by myself, because YOLO. I live a wild life. Heyn's is a pretty small shop and all the seats were full, so I sat outside in the cool weather to eat my ice cream, that's how dedicated I am. I thought the lighting would be bad for pictures, but they turned out great! Well Heyn's was pretty popping, I guess I'm not the only Iowa City resident who decided to go crazy and get some delicious ice cream on a Sunday night. After sampling a couple of flavors I picked Key Lime Pie Cheesecake, which I had never seen offered before, and Chocoholic Delight. The Chocoholic Delight is described as Chocola...

Finally we have the last of the new Ben & Jerry's Core flavors for you, and it's a joint review!  This flavor is Chocolate and Cheesecake ice creams with chocolate cookies and a cheesecake core. Madeline's take: I don't know, guys. I think Ben & Jerry's tried really hard to top last year's cookie cores, and didn't even come close.  In concept the flavors sound amazing, but the execution was lacking.  I've read other reviews of this flavor and the main criticism is that it's not cheesy enough, and I have to say I agree but that I'm not surprised either.  Ben & Jerry's does not have a strong cheesecake game. The chocolate ice cream was their standard chocolate base; not much needs to be said there.  The cheesecake ice cream was not cheesy enough.  It tasted more like sweet cream ice cream with a bit of added cream cheese. I couldn't really taste the chocolate cookies against the chocolate or the cheesecake base, a...

Raspberry Cheesecake was the second of two new-in-2015 Talenti flavors I found (for the first time!) recently.  I really disliked Chocolate Cookie Dough, but thankfully, Raspberry Cheesecake was much better.  This flavor is Cheesecake: heavy.  Cheesecake gelato: not heavy.  There's some science in there somewhere, but all we know is, when we blend real pieces of raspberry cheesecake and sweet raspberry vinaigrette, we never want to eat our desserts on a plate again. First impression:  Wow, the base really tastes like cheese, but a mild cheese, so not offensively cheesy. Mmmm Cheese. We need more cheese in our desserts.  As this gelato began to melt, it even smelled cheesy.  This was a great cheesecake base, one of the best I've ever tasted.  The mix-ins weren't overly bold, so the base was the starring element of this flavor. The raspberry swirl was also quite good, but it was not thick enough or prevalent enough to thoroughly enjoy. ...

Tim and Tom's Speedy Market recently started selling pints of Gelato Petrini, and after thoroughly enjoying their Cinnamon Espresso Chip , I was excited to try more flavors.  I recently picked up Cookies and Cream Cheesecake.  Here is the blurb from their website: For this recipe we have taken two of our all-time favorites and combined them into a single showstopper that is even better than the sum of its parts.  Cookie and cream meets NY Cheesecake in a flavor that is sure to please the whole family. Gelato Petrini gets it.   We are totally, 100% on the same dessert level.  How do you make cookies and cream better? Damn the consequences, throw it in some cheesecake! (Not that it  needs  to be better, you're delicious just the way you are, mmmkay cookies and cream.) I ate this in two servings.  The first was a small-ish bowl.  Then I devoured the rest for dinner the next night.  I eat ice cream for dinner way more t...

You all know that Lizzy is not a huge fan of Ben & Jerry's various cheesecake flavors.  I don't think I've ever had one, so when I was in the grocery store craving a fruity ice cream, I picked up Ben and Jerry's Strawberry Cheesecake.  This ice cream is Strawberry cheesecake ice cream with strawberries and a thick graham cracker swirl. Even before digging into the pint, I had a beef with this flavor.  In this humble ice cream aficionado's (aficianada's?) opinion, a cheesecake flavor should contain chunks of actual cheesecake.  Duh. Unfortunately, this flavor does not. Boo. Not to review what this ice cream is instead of what it is not.  My first bite of this ice cream I was hit with the really strong flavor of dried strawberries.  But, maybe more like half-way dried strawberries.  Those ones that are still a bit chewy.  Ok, so far so good.  I picked up some hints of cream-cheesiness in the base, but it wasn't a super strong fla...

Usually I wouldn't review ice cream or gelato I get at a restaurant. In fact, I wouldn't normally get ice cream or gelato at a restaurant; I would get a meal and then go somewhere else for lunch. Or I would use it as an opportunity to enjoy a dessert other  than ice cream, what a shock. However, this past weekend when I dined at Acero in Maplewood with my boyfriend's family and Acero's sister restaurant, The Crossing in Clayton with a friend's family, I learned they both make their own gelato and The Crossing recently started making their own ice cream as well. In addition, both of the dessert menus featured different desserts a la mode. A bit of back story, this past weekend was Washington University's graduation weekend, so there were many celebrations to be had, which was the cause of all this going out to eat. I am combining my reviews of these frozen desserts because of the coincidence that I dined at these sister restaurants in the same weekend, and be...

My friend Molly asked me to review Yo My Goodness. Yo My Goodness is a fro-yo chain that just opened up a location on Wydown, not far from Wash U, this past spring, when Chill closed. I reviewed the Yo My Goodness Yummy Yellow Cake Batter Flavor  here . However, this was a review of just one flavor, not really the whole experience. As any avid fro-yoer (is some one who yo-yos at a fro-yo place a fro-yo-yoer??) will tell you, fro-yo is not just about the flavors, or just the textures, or just the toppings, but the whole experience. So how do I go about reviewing a froyo place for it's entire experience? I've decided there are a few categories with which I can evaluate the fro-yo experience: 1) The variety of flavors: Is there a good selection? 2) The flavor of my choices. 3) The quality of the combination of my choices. 4) The texture of the fro-yo (or sorbet, etc.) 5) The variety of toppings. 6) Quality of toppings 7) How well my toppings coordinate with my fro-yo flavor...