The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Haagen-Dazs is currently at the top of the grocery-store-ice-cream-brand-starts-making-non-dairy-ice-cream game. That is a very specific game with basically only two participants: Ben and Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs. All kidding aside, Haagen-Dazs' non-dairy ice creams, which they introduced last year, are actually quite tasty, and not just tasty-for-non-dairy-tasty. Boy, I'm really into hyphens today. This year, Haagen-Dazs introduced two non-dairy TRIO flavors. About Crunchy Peanut Butter, Haagen-Dazs says Layers of smooth peanut butter brimming with chocolate-covered peanuts are stacked between rich, velvety chocolate and sheets of crispy dark chocolate for a delightfully textured non-dairy experience. The peanut butter 'ice cream' has a nice, round, full texture.  (Cornstarch will do that!) It has a pretty strong peanut butter flavor with a nice balance between salty and sweet. The peanut butter flavor was strong enough that I could taste it against the c...

Chocolate Shake It is the second flavor I've tried from their new line of truffle ice creams. You can read about Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake  here . Chocolate Shake It is chocolate malt milkshake ice cream with chocolate cookie-covered fudge truffles and marshmallow swirls. My father instilled in me a deep love of a good chocolate malt at a young age, so I was pretty stoked to try Chocolate Shake It. The chocolate malt base was actually pretty decent. Ben and Jerry's typically uses a milky chocolate base which sometimes falls flat but which worked here since they were going for a chocolate milkshake flavor. The malt flavor wasn't in-your-face, but it made itself known. There are probably better chocolate malt ice creams out there in scoop shops, but there are not too many available at the average grocery store, and Ben and Jerry's version is good enough to scratch your chocolate malt itch. After the base things went a bit downhill. I realize this is part ...

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 ...

Last year I was really excited for Haagen-Dazs original TRIOS, but I thought all three flavors were kind of a let down. Mainly, they weren't well balanced so one element always ended up more prominent than the others.  Their new flavors, Coconut Caramel Chocolate, Lemon Raspberry White Chocolate, and Vanilla Caramel White Chocolate all sound delicious, and I bought all three hoping they were better than last year's. Coconut Caramel Chocolate is Belgian chocolate and caramel sauce, coconut and chocolate ice cream. If Coconut Caramel Chocolate is any indication, Haagen-Dazs has at least somewhat addressed the balance issues in this new iteration of TRIO flavors. Taking my first bite of this flavor, I was hit with a warm, tropical coconut flavor. As I ate more and more ice cream, the coconut flavor was supplanted by a soft, milky, smooth chocolate spiked with the darker, deeper chocolate of the crunchy layer. The caramel sauce didn't stand out as a distinc...

Fuck Halo Top. Lol, wut? This isn't even a Halo Top review, but hear me out. There were 'health' ice creams, such as Arctic Zero, before Halo Top, but Halo Top added a high-protein gimmick and cute marketing and has steadily been capturing more of the ice cream market and I hate them. Mainly I hate their branding and message that completely centers around food guilt. Like, can we just not at this point? Eat real ice cream if you want to. Eat Halo Top if you want to. But let's all just respect and not police each other's food choices. Also, they have a shit product. I think I described their Birthday Cake flavor as like eating paper sprayed with birthday cake-scented perfume. Finally, I hate them because brands like Talenti and Ben and Jerry's now feel the need to step into the 'healthy' ice cream market. Urgh. In an ideal world, I would stay away from these new 'healthy' options, but I'm an ice cream blogger, so I'm taking one from the...

Kemps' ice creams really run the gamut of quality. Some are phenomenal (omg, their YO2 line) and some less so. Even within the Yogurt Shop line, there is a huge range.  Sadly, Yogurt Shop Fudge Brownie Cookie Dough is at the low quality end of the range.  This flavor is Chocolate and vanilla frozen yogurt with a fudge swirl, cookie dough and brownies topped with semi sweet chocolate curls. Every element of this flavor was sub par. First, can we please just do away with chocolate curls. Almost without fail they are weirdly waxy and you have to be really careful you don't spill them everywhere since they just sit on top of the ice cream. If your name is Fudge Brownie Cookie Dough, you should really, really have substantial fudge brownie and cookie dough chunks. I honestly can't recall if I got any fudge brownie chunks. I got a few cookie dough chunks, but they were SO TINY! Itsy-bitsy cookie dough spheres without much flavor. Teensy-weensy flavorless dough ...

So far in 2018, this is the most confusing flavor I've encountered. It took me like a really long time to realize the name, Keep Caramel and Cookie On, was an homage to the British WWII poster, "keep calm and carry on." But even once I realized that, I was still confused. Why do we need a Ben & Jerry's ice cream flavor dedicated to this poster?? Reading the description of the flavor was no more enlightening. This flavor is described as Caramel malt ice cream with shortbread cookies, fudge flakes & caramel swirls.  Yeah, none of this makes sense. Maybe shortbread cookies are kind of a British thing? But also not really? And none of these components seem like they'll go together.  But I was wrong. Woah, this is the flavor I didn't know I needed. I know I'm behind the times and this has been out for a while, but woah. The base was a mild caramel flavor, but a strong malt flavor. And like, why don't we see malt in more ice c...

My favorite thing about the So Delicious line of non-dairy frozen desserts is that they make flavors with all of the different non-dairy bases. There is a lot of debate in the ice cream world about what non-dairy milk makes the best ice cream base. But with So Delicious, everyone can just have their fav, with no debates. They have some stellar cashew milk bases (which is under utilized as a non-dairy ice cream base imo), so I thought I'd check out a coconut milk base. This flavor is described as Vanilla coconut milk based, dairy-free frozen dessert packed with scrumptious cookie dough chunks and crispy chocolate flakes.  Often coconut milk is a popular base because the coconut flavor can be concealed. In this case, the coconut flavor was very prominent. It was like a coconut base with a hint of vanilla flavor. Now, I don't think this is a terrible thing, but if you don't think cookie dough and coconut will vibe well together, you will be disappointed. Other tha...

Sometime while I was on my ice cream blogging sabbatical, my local HyVee started carrying a lot more Kemps brand products. I knew Madeline really enjoyed a lot of the Yo2 frozen yogurt line, so I decided to give a couple flavors a try. Side note: what does "Yo2" mean??? I picked up Mudslide, because it sounded intriguing and I was craving coffee at the moment. Just kidding, I'm always craving coffee. This flavor is described as Chocolate and Coffee Frozen Yogurt Swirled with Cookies, Fudge & Chocolatey Chunks . I have a lot of feelings about this flavor, almost all of them positive. They can be summed up by: how is a froyo from a regional brand this good?! I seriously apologize to all non-Midwestern readers. The chocolate and coffee bases balanced perfectly; one was not more prominent than the other. On their own, both froyo flavors were strong and rich, but still sweet. The fudge is the best part of this pint. It is a solid swirl and seriously sosososo ri...

Dearest Readers, I am coming back from sabbatical with a BANG. Yes, I am calling my break from blogging a sabbatical because it makes me feel ~fancy~ and YES I already got my hands on one of the newly-released-in-the-US Magnum pints! These have been out in Europe for a while now and they are finally here in the US! I haven't had a good hazelnut ice cream in a while, so that is the flavor I chose first. This flavor is described as Chocolate hazelnut ice cream, hazelnuts, and milk chocolate shards in a cracking milk chocolate shell with more hazelnuts. The whole deal with these pints is they are supposed to be like a Magnum bar in pint form. And by pint form I mean slightly-less-than-15-ounces form. There is a layer of hard chocolate on the top and a layer of chocolate surrounding the inside of the pint. You are supposed to wait a few minutes then squeeze the sides of the container to crack the shell. The chocolate on top is definitely hard to break with your spoon with...

Although it's still listed on Walmart's website, Sam's Choice Ice Cream seems to be no more, at least at my Walmart, but there are some interesting new released under the Great Value Brand including some new ice cream flavors as well as some new treats, including the O'Chunka Chocolate Ice Cream Cones, rich and chunky chocolate chip cookie dough mixed with super velvety chocolate brownie dough, nestled in vanilla ice cream side-by-side with chocolate ice cream and coated in chocolate flavored coating in a sugar cone. What is up with that name? Is it trying to be Irish? I don't exactly associate ice cream with Ireland. Some of the other new flavors and treats also had pretty weird names, but not ~fun~ weird or ~whimsical~ weird. Just weird. These cones would have been great had they been manufactured by Ben and Jerry's, and cost more per box, but as they were, it felt like Great Value was kind of skimping on the mix-ins. The cones are slightly smalle...

So this flavor has been out for a bit, but Madeline and I both have struggled finding this flavor and then BOOM within a couple of days we both had our hands on a pint. When I was staying in the North East, my roommate got home from grocery shopping and pulled out a pint from her bag. I immediately freaked (she did not know at this time that I wrote an ice cream blog) and asked her where she found the pint. Interestingly she found it at a Halal market/convenience store. They were closing in an hour, but I rushed over and got a pint right then. Now, this flavor is described as Banana Ice Cream with Caramel & Graham Cracker Swirls & Fudge Peace Signs. It has been a long time since I've had a B&J's flavor with a banana base. I go back and fourth about whether or not I actually like banana ice cream. I don't go out of my way to eat it, but usually I enjoy it. This base was strong, as I think all banana ice creams are inherently, but it wasn't the rip...

With their new for 2017 flavors, Ben & Jerry's are really calling on some of their old flavors. Oat of this Swirled reminded us of Oatmeal Cookie Chunk and the name of this flavor kind of reminds me of Clusterfluff. Granted, before they brought the flavor to the graveyard they changed the name to What A Cluster, Clusterfluff was one of my most favorite ice creams of all time. And yes, I am only bringing this up as an opportunity to beg for the return of Clusterfluff on the off change anyone from Ben & Jerry's is reading this. But to focus on the matter at hand, Truffle Kerfuffle is a fabulous name of an ice cream and is described as Vanilla Ice Cream with Roasted Pecans, Fudge Chips & a Salted Chocolate Ganache Swirl . To start, I'm going to jump right in with what is arguably the most interesting aspect of this pint, the salted chocolate ganache swirl. Given that this ice cream is called Truffle Kerfuffle, I was expecting this swirl to be like the i...

Look at me go! I am moving through these Trio flavors. I've already tried the two flavors of this line that sounded the best to me, the triple chocolate and the coffee. I've picked up all of these flavors at the North Dodge HyVee. I'm not sure why, but this caramel flavor didn't sound like it would be all that delicious to me. I think the orange-ish-gold color on the label of this flavor looks really strange to me and that's what made me kind of turned off to the idea of this flavor. But this is all very silly, so here we go. Does anyone else think this packaging looks weird? This flavor is described as Layers of crispy Belgian chocolate, salted caramel & chocolate ice cream . When I first opened the pint I was greeted by a vibrant color that matched the color on the label. I was torn by being super enticed by the almost bright color of the caramel ice cream and slightly put off. But when I dug in, the caramel flavor was not nearly as dark, complex...

A year late and a dollar short, but I did it! I have finally tried all of the Haagen-Dazs Destination Series flavors just in time for them to be taken off the shelves. I honestly hope that's soon, because I want my grocery store to make room for the new Haagen-Dazs flavors. Like Espresso Chocolate Cookie Crumble? Get in my face.  This flavor, on the other hand, obviously takes us to Belgium and is described as Our Belgian chocolate combines, rich velvety chocolate ice cream with finely shaved Belgian chocolate for a uniquely textured experience.  With this flavor, HD took simplicity, and mastered it. The base was somehow more chocolatey than other chocolate ice creams. It was an incredibly dense/intense flavor. It wasn't dark at all, in fact, it was very milky, but still very rich. The texture was also very smooth. It was almost gelato-like. The shavings of Belgian chocolate took the whole experience up a notch. They were like little punches of darker Belgian...

Can I just say that it kind of bothers me that there are four flavors in the Trio line? Like three wouldn't actually be enough flavors, but then it would be all threes! After having a great experience with my first Trio flavor, Triple Chocolate, I was very excited to try another one. The coffee one sounded the next most appetizing after the Triple Chocolate, so I grabbed some last time I was at the store. This flavor is described as Layers of crispy Belgian chocolate, coffee & vanilla ice cream . Just like the first Trio flavor I tried, this one got a little bit icy on the top, but it was fine further down. So first impression, the Belgian chocolate in this flavor didn't seem as bitter as in the other flavor I had. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing on it's own, but there was overall, not enough bitterness in this flavor. The coffee ice cream was overall very mild. It was more like a medium or light roast flavor than a dark roast, and definitely had a...

When I was growing up, Monster Mash was one of my favorite songs. Not just one of my favorite Halloween songs, but one of my favorite songs, period. I'm sure Madeline can attest to how often I listened to that song. However, I don't think I often ate monster cookies growing up. I'm not sure I was really cognizant of what a monster cookie was until college. Monster cookies are peanut butter and oatmeal dough with some combination of M&M candies, chocolate chips, and raisins mixed in. I think raisins are gross, and often monster cookies don't have raisins, which I obviously prefer. For all of these reasons, I was very excited to try Blue Bunny's NEW (yay for new!!) flavor Monster Cookie Mash. Unfortunately, I did not listen to Monster Mash while eating this ice cream. This flavor is described as Peanut butter ice cream, fudge ribbon, monster cookie dough pieces . One interesting fact before I start the review. Blue Bunny used to have a Monster Cookie flavo...