The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

I am excited about this new Ben and Jerry's non-dairy flavor for two reasons. One is that Coconut Seven Layer Bar is one of my favorite Ben and Jerry's flavors ever, but it's a scoop shop exclusive so I don't have it very often. I'm excited to have a version available in stores. The other is that there was a lot of hype surrounding last year's release of Ben and Jerry's first ever non-dairy flavors, but I didn't think they were very good. I've only tried Coconut Seven Layer Bar, but if this year's other non-dairy flavors are as good, it's definitely an improvement over last year's line. Non-Dairy Coconut Seven Layer Bar is Coconut non-dairy frozen dessert with fudge chunks, walnuts, and swirls of graham cracker and caramel. Ben and Jerry's uses almond milk as their non-dairy base, so the coconut oil provides the coconut flavoring rather than coconut milk (what a missed opportunity!!).  The coconut becomes overwhelming at times...

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...

I keep reading the name of this flavor as coocoo for coconuts, which would be something completely different, albeit delicious. I've finally worked my way around to trying this flavor, which I was very excited about when it came out. I love coconut flakes in ice cream. The description of this flavor is Caramel & Sweet Cream Coconut Ice Cream with Fudge Flakes & a Caramel Core . Overall I really enjoyed this ice cream. I think it is my second ever core flavor after Boom Chocolatta Core. I wanted to say that first cause I have a few nit picky issues with it, and I didn't want it to sound like I didn't like the flavor. First, is a good comment. I loved the sweet cream coconut ice cream. It had a perfect balance of sweet and nutty flavors. It was also filled with coconut flakes, which are just the perfect texture in ice cream. However, the fudge flakes were also in the coconut ice cream, but not in the caramel. So there was a whole lot of texture on one side, an...

I'm a little salty (heh) that Minneapolis is just now starting to get this year's new flavors.  It's March people, the third month of the year! On the other hand, I'm kind of ok with it, because how the hell is it already March?! Haagen-Dazs Peanut Butter Salted Fudge is the first is Peanut butter ice cream with salted fudge swirls and chocolate covered peanuts. When I opened this pint, the smell of peanut butter walloped me in the face.  Whoa! I thought this was a quite auspicious beginning for this flavor.  Haagen-Dazs has a 50/50 record on peanut butter ice creams; their Chocolate Peanut Butter is amazing, but their Limited Edition Peanut Butter Pie was only so-so.  With Peanut Butter Salted Fudge, they're now batting over .500.  The peanut butter flavor was intense, but with enough dairy element that it almost tasted like the peanut butter/cream cheese combination of a peanut butter pie. The salted fudge swirls would have been amazing in a less...

While Madeline is over there in MN getting all the new for 2017 stuff, I'm over here kind of underwhelmed, to be honest, with the concept of Ben & Jerry's pint slices. I'll try them when they hit my grocery store, but I'm hoping they up the ante for whatever else they release in 2017. So in the meantime, I'm working my way through So Delicious's Cashew Milk line and continuing to play my tune that cashew milk is the superior milk for non-dairy ice cream. This flavor, Dark Chocolate Truffle, is described as A fair trade cocoa decadence folded with fudge and premium shaved chocolate. "Decadence"   and "folded" are both really good food words. However, I didn't think this flavor lived up to its luscious description. The base was good. This was the first time I'd had a chocolate based cashew milk ice cream. If you don't like being able to taste the cashew normally, I recommend the chocolate base. The strong cocoa flav...

After I tried the divine  Kemps Yo2 Cold Brewed Coffee , I picked up Mudslide from the same line. I figured that if their coffee and fudge flavor was mind-blowing, the addition of chocolate and cookies could only make things better.  I was mostly correct. Mudslide is Chocolate and coffee frozen yogurt swirled with cookies, fudge, and chocolatey chunks. I was a bit confused when I read the description as I've never heard the term 'mudslide' used to describe anything other than the Kahlua+vodka+Bailey's drink that we all drank and then vomited in high school.  What? We didn't all do that? Well, I did that in high school.  Sorry mom and dad, at least I was still valedictorian. This frozen yogurt is more similar to a Mississippi Mud Pie than a Mudslide, but with the addition of cookies. I'll forgive the strange nomenclature decision though. Each element of this flavor was predictably amazing, but the combination wasn't, as Goldilocks would say,...

Very rarely I try an ice cream that makes me react like this: Even more rarely I find a frozen yogurt that makes me wiggle my arms with excitement, but I found one in Kemps Yo2 Cold Brewed Coffee Frozen Yogurt.  The Yo2 (really 'Yo Squared,' but I'm too lazy to figure out how to superscript, halp plz) line was new last year and intended to be a schmancy, decadent fro-yo line.  I'm finally getting around to trying some of the flavors.  Ewps. Cold Brewed Coffee is Coffee frozen yogurt swirled with fudge. Such a boring description for such an amazing frozen yogurt!  The cold brew base is exactly what cold brew coffee is supposed to be: coffee with all of the richness and flavor of coffee but much less acidity, which allows the deep coffee flavor to shine through.  Some might say, "If it was so amazing, why not make it an ice cream?" I think the frozen yogurt base actually works better than ice cream.  As I've mentioned before, Kemps frozen yogu...

I'm currently in this weird in-between place with ice cream. I never caught up with all the new ice cream that came out in 2016 because I was working my way through the NOLA ice cream, but the new ice cream for 2017 haven't hit the shelves yet, or even been announced as far as I know. Not that I'm going to have time to go back and review everything I missed from 2016, but while there is a lull in the ice cream world, I'm at least going to try. The brownies á la mode flavor was probably the least "exotic" of the destination series. It is inspired by Chicago and the description is Savor a special collection of new flavors inspired by some of the world's most popular travel destinations. Like Chicago (the birthplace of the brownie) our Brownies á la Mode is rich with flavor. We combine our signature vanilla ice cream with rich fudge and decadent brownie pieces, to bring this American original to life.  A quick history lesson about the brownie. The...

It's a party over here in freezing cold Iowa! I bought this flavor a few weeks ago, but didn't get around to eating it until returning from visiting St. Louis for the holidays. Madeline spent a day and a half with me in Iowa before returning to the tundra, aka Minneapolis. In addition to the Iowa wind and hills, Madeline and I got a taste of the other Blue Bunny winter seasonal flavor. After being rather impressed with their Cocoa Bunny we were excited to try Peppermint Party. This flavor is described as Peppermint Ice Cream, Fudge Swirls, Peppermint Red and Green Filled Bunnies . I go back and forth on this flavor. Overall I enjoyed it and there were some fun elements, but I can't decide if I wanted more peppermint flavor and more chocolate. The peppermint base is probably the mildest peppermint ice cream out there. A lot of other reviewers have considered this to be negative, but I'm leaning to think it was just different, not worse. You could also compla...

PEPPERMINT IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON.  There are even carols about it.  Take, for example, the Irving Berlin classic "I'm Dreaming of a White (Chocolate Peppermint Bark) Christmas." The grocery stores in Minneapolis do not seem to fully appreciate the importance of seasonal peppermint flavors.  Christmas, the traditional peak of peppermint season, has past with nary a pint of peppermint ice cream in sight. Lizzy and I are currently home in St. Louis for the holidays, and luckily our dad had the next best thing, Prairie Farms Mint Moose Tracks ice cream.  There's not an official description, but it is a mint base with thick swirls of Moose Tracks fudge and chocolate mint cups. Prairie Farms (I keep wanting to type Purina Farms, which is a different thing entirely) is a generally solid brand of premium ice cream so I was expecting to like but not love this ice cream, and boy was I wrong! This moved into my top three favorite mint flavors of all time. The ...