The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Life is basically just screaming into the void, so I'm going to go ahead and scream this review of Talenti Almond Butter & Honey Special Batch gelato into the void of it's old news and this point and maybe not even available anymore. Talenti says: We blend almond butter with fresh milk and cream to create a creamy almond butter gelato before topping it off with a dash of salt and a swirl of wildflower honey. It's very hard to categorize what makes a Talenti success. They're generally terrible at mix-ins, but their chocolate flakes are divine. This makes you think their mix-in free flavors would generally be better than the non-mix in flavors, but they have some terrible mix-in free flavors. Their nut flavors are generally pretty good, but some, like Pistachio, are just meh. Whatever the recipe for Talenti success, Almond Butter & Honey achieves it. The almond butter base had a light, delicate sweetness with almost a floral hint to it. This was compleme...

I've reviewed a few Culinary Circle ice creams in the past and thought pretty positively about them all, but the brand itself is an enigma.  Culinary Circle fills the niche between store-brand ice creams and higher-end ice creams; it's pretty decent and not too expensive. Last time I wrote a review, their website didn't even include a list of products and in fact I don't think it even included any links. It was just a page with no information. The website has since been improved, and has a list of ice creams and gelatos that interestingly does not include Caramel Cookie Crunch Gelato. This is a cookies and cream gelato with large cookie (OREO) chunks and a thick salted caramel swirl. The flavors were NOT subtle, which is okay. Not everything has to be subtle or refined. The caramel was in-your-face salty and the cookie chunks were large and in charge. The base was a standard cookies and cream, which I think actually worked a bit better as a gelato than as an i...

Hello friends! Last summer while traveling I brought you reviews of Gelato Fiasco's Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk and Maine Wild Blueberry Crisp. The Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk was THE best gelato I ate last year and the second best flavor of any kind of frozen dessert I tried in 2016. Since I was back on the East Coast I definitely wanted to try another Gelato Fiasco flavor.  The color of this strawberry flavor, the cute pink, caught my eye in the grocery store so I picked it up. This flavor is described on the Gelato Fiasco website as Simple and smooth, strawberries are combined with a touch of lemon juice and our fresh cream base for a silky and fruity gelato. The taste of this flavor matched the color. The color was a light pink and the gelato was sweet and fruity. It was definitely made with high quality real strawberries, no artificial flavoring here. I didn't notice the lemon, but this flavor was both fresh and fruity tasting, while also creamy. I'm bettin...

When it comes to this year's new flavors in your grocery store dairy aisle, I've found that Haagen-Dazs is shining and other brands offerings are pretty lackluster. Talenti has a few new flavors, but they didn't really publicize their release, and I just now found a new flavor, Vanilla Blueberry Crumble, at my local Target. Vanilla Blueberry Crumble is Vanilla Bean gelato with real blueberry sauce and brown sugared oat crumbles. It's like eating a delicious, crispy baked dessert a la mode, all at once. I don't love Talenti's vanilla gelato.  It's overly sugary to begin with, necessitating an overwhelming vanilla flavor to balance out the sugar all combining into a nauseatingly sweet gelato.  To make vanilla stand out, I don't think you should add more vanilla, instead I think you should dial back the intensity of the base until a bit of vanilla flavor stands out. Because the base was so overwhelming, I couldn't taste the blueberry sauce...

A few weeks ago, it felt like spring in Iowa City. Now that spring break has arrived, we've been pulled right back to winter, with highs in the 20s and a few inches of snow! For those of you who don't live in the Midwest you may be thinking, isn't it the wrong season for Peppermint Bark ice cream? Well, you are 100% correct, but if it feels like winter outside, I'm going to eat winter ice cream flavors. Peppermint Bark was the second Talenti flavor I got at the Coralville Wal-Mart the other day. I never saw this flavor, or very many seasonal winter flavors at all, for that matter, at my grocery store. This disappointed me, so I was happy to pick up a pint in March! This flavor is described as We combine the most refreshing peppermint gelato with chocolatey flecks of semisweet Belgian Callebaut, and it tastes like polar bear smiles and the northern lights. (Which is delicious, in case you were wondering.)  Gosh Talenti, you are getting real with your flavor d...

The other day I went grocery shopping with Colin at the Coralville Wal-Mart. I'd never been over to that Wal-Mart before because it is quite far away from me, but it just around the corner from his apartment. I was hoping to find some of the new for 2017 flavors, and was disappointed. (Don't worry I found some the next couple of days at my own grocery store.) Instead, I found some Talenti flavors I've never tried that I've also never seen at any grocery store in Iowa City. Obviously, I snatched them up immediately. This flavor is described as We loved our creamy, traditional, perfect hazelnut gelato so much that we had to give it some friends. And by friends, we mean tons of roasted hazelnuts and bits of rich chocolatey chips. Giving-isn't that what love is all about? The Talenti flavor description writer is back at it again. I'm just imagining the plain hazelnut gelato being all sad and lonely without any friends. Chocolate chips and hazelnut chunks...

Alright, Iowa, if you haven't made it over to Capanna Coffee and Gelato over in Coralville and North Liberty yet, you need to fix that ASAP. Colin and I went there a couple of days ago, since he lives over in Coralville not far from Capanna. I really don't go there enough since it is way over heck on the other side of town from me. When we got there the fruity flavors looked very appetizing, so I picked up mango. The other flavor I got was "Scotcheroo" because like what the heck is that? Apparently scotcheroos are kind of like rice krispies with peanut butter and butter scotch topped with chocolate. Cool. I feel like I've probably had one before, but I didn't know they were named scotcheroos. What a goofy name. I feel ridiculous typing that word. I'll start with the mango. Ermagersh. This was some tasty gelato. The mango flavor was very strong. It tasted like perfectly ripe mangos. Interesting, there wasn't too much dairy flavor, like it almost...

When you measure time by ice cream pints, time seems to go a lot faster in my mind. When I picked up this pint at the store I was thinking, "I wonder if this will taste like the Talenti Black Raspberry Chocolate Chip, which I had just the other day!" After eating the pint (which did remind me of the Black Raspberry flavor, but we'll get to that in a bit), I searched on our blog to find my review of the Black Raspberry flavor. Turns out, I wrote that review over three months ago. But I swear it feels like just yesterday. Anyway, this flavor is described as A smooth, creamy blackberry gelato with swirls of crushed blackberries throughout? If only this grew on bushes, too.  Welp, I'm pretty okay with that this pint doesn't grow on bushes. I thought this flavor was decidedly meh. In my opinion, the base hardly tasted like blackberries. It tasted much more like a mild blackberry yogurt. Madeline described the base as tasting like blackberries and cream, b...

Now that finals week is over, it's time to review the ice cream I stress ate while writing all of my papers. Talenti always makes me feel better, so I picked up this pint of gelato I hadn't tried yet, Coconut Almond Chocolate. Usually the writer of the Talenti flavor descriptions makes me laugh out loud, but the description of this flavor is pretty normal. This new flavor is like if Caribbean Coconut Talenti took its best friends on vacation. Coconut shreds, semi-sweet chocolatey flakes, and salted roasted almonds make quite a party.  Now, the Talenti flavor descriptions are not printed on the packaging, so I usually do not read them before scooping the pint. And the first thing I have to say about this flavor is texture! Lots of texture! There were tons of chocolate flakes. They were thin and tad crunchy and a bit dark in flavor. About every other bite there was a large chunk of roasted almond. Some were even whole almonds. They had just a bit of salt, which helpe...

THE SEMESTER IS FINALLY OVER! Finally. It was just one thing after another since the beginning of September with an extra serving of crap at the end, and it's all finally done!  For me, that means back to blogging more regularly and generally being an actual, real, functioning human person. Talenti's Belgian Milk gelato is my first foray back into the blogging world.  Belgian Milk Chocolate is Hand-melted, imported Belgian milk chocolate blended until smooth with fresh milk, cream, eggs and a hint of vanilla. It's totally acceptable for you to become best friends with this pint. What even is hand-melted chocolate.  I can't help but imagine very sticky factory workers rolling big balls of chocolate between their palms.  I'm sure it really means that they have someone supervising and stirring a big vat of chocolate, but the image was too hilarious to keep to myself. I would describe Belgian Milk Chocolate as a chocolate and sugar gelato.  As a dark...

Whew, I've been reviewing a lot of Talenti flavors recently! I discovered that Kowalski's, a pretty hoity-toity grocery store, carries a bunch of Talenti flavors that my grocery store doesn't have.  Raspberries and Cream is the last of three pints I bought there. Talenti says: We did it! We made tart and creamy happen at the same time by blending our sweet cream gelato with fresh raspberries, vanilla, balsamic vinaigrette and a delicious raspberry swirl. I have a ~complicated~ history with milk.  Growing up, we always had skim milk, and my parents made my sister and I drink a glass of milk every night with dinner.  I hated it. I hated drinking that stupid glass of skim milk.  Looking back, this was probably 50% because I didn't like the taste of milk and 50% because I was stubborn about everything and didn't want to do something just because my parents wanted me to. Today I like milk a little better. I actually prefer whole milk, and will someti...

Dearest Readers, I apologize for being super MIA as of late. My life and computer exploded right at about the same time and I have not been able to write any posts. Luckily a friend of mine is lending me his old computer, so now I'll be doing some major catching up on the blog front. A while ago, this pint caught my eye in the store because of its beautiful color. I also think Talenti's strongest flavors are their simple ones, so I was excited to try this pint. This flavor is described as Just like a beloved heroine in your favorite novel, this gelato is tart and sweet. We combine farm-fresh black raspberries with bits of rich, dark chocolate, and fold it all into creamy gelato. I'm not entirely sure why, but this flavor reminded me of raspberry yogurt. It was more sweet than tart in my opinion and the flavor of the milk came through relatively strongly. I would have appreciated a fruitier more tart flavor, like a fruit and cream flavor as opposed to sweet yo...

I finally found the new Talenti flavor I was most excited for this year, Wild Blackberry.  This is A smooth, creamy blackberry gelato with swirls of crushed blackberries throughout? If only this grew on bushes, too. Talenti, I love you so much, but sometimes I also hate you.  Why do you ALWAYS fail so terribly at swirl? Arrrggghhhh. I bought Wild Blackberry and dug in before I read the flavor description.  I thought to myself, "Gee, this gelato is great, but it would be SO MUCH BETTER with a blackberry swirl to intensify the blackberry flavor of the base." Lo and behold, it is supposed to have a swirl, but it was completely absent in my pint.  This is not an isolated problem with Talenti, so I've learned to look at several pints and buy the swirliest looking one, but I looked at at least 8 pints at the grocery store and none had a hint of swirl. This is literally the swirliest bit I could find. I love Talenti first for it's consistently great texture...

This post is going to contain two things besides a review of a gelato. First, a minor complaint about who I am as a person. Second, a major complaint with Talenti. It goes like this, I do not spend enough time scouring Talenti pints. If I decide to buy Talenti, I go to the ice cream isle, pursue the available Talenti flavors, pick which flavor I want to purchase, grab the pint of that flavor which is nearest to me, and go on my way. This is not a good idea because Talenti pints can be really hit or miss, if it is a flavor with a swirl, some pints are going to have tons of the swirl and others are going to have very little. Since the packaging is clear, you have an opportunity to pick out a pint that is going to be full of the chunks and swirls you want. But, and this is my minor complaint about who I am as a person, I am forgetful, and I never remember to do this when I am buying Talenti. However, my forgetfulness should not be an issue here. And this is my major complaint about ...

Lizzy mentioned in her previous post that when she finishes one ice cream 'challenge' (she recently tried all the flavors from New Orleans Ice Cream Company) she feels more ice cream-related existential angst than usual, and oh my god, I feel that SO hard.  Late summer is a bit of an ice cream dead zone - I've tried all of the new-for-2016 flavors as well as all of the summer flavors, but at the time of purchasing this pint, fall flavors hadn't hit the shelves yet.  On a recent trip to Target, my every movement imbued with existential angst, I grabbed a pint of Talenti Southern Butter Pecan. I think of Butter Pecan as one of the 'classic' ice cream flavors, and Talenti's version is always available at both my local Target and local grocery store, so I'm pretty surprised and disappointed that it took me this long to try it.  Talenti's brilliant flavor description author has this to say: Thank you, South, for deciding to roast your pecans in butte...

This review will be my fifth review of a banana ice cream in the last year and I'm not entirely sure why. As you may know, every single time I purchase and review a banana ice cream I simply end up saying, "I don't really like banana ice creams, but if you do, you'll probably like this." Which I am sure isn't entirely thrilling for you to read. But as I'm currently in between ice cream projects (I'm thinking of going for the whole line of Til the Cows Come Home, next) I get kind of listless and weird and more existential-crisis-y than normal in the ice cream isle and just buy pints I would never normally buy. Who knows, maybe this will be the banana ice cream to finally convince me I like banana ice cream? This flavor is described as We started with rich banana gelato and added a ribbon of golden Argentine caramel and bittersweet chocolatey bits to balance it out. Consider it the best banana flambé that's never actually been on fire .  ...

On my last trip to the grocery store in Midway I saw that ice cream was on sale so I picked up a couple pints including Tillamook Toasted Coconut Fudge Gelato. This gelato is Silky toasted coconut gelato and rich chocolate fudge, sprinkled with crunchy coconut flakes. Interestingly, Tillamook went with the technique of putting mix-ins on top of the gelato, something usually reserved for scoop shops where the shallow gelato pans make it easy to get a bit of topping in each serving.  Because a pint is deeper than it is wide, it would be kind of hard to get the toasted coconut topping in every bowlful unless you ate the whole pint at once, and the coconut topping was critical to the balance of the flavor. The coconut base was good, but didn't read as toasted coconut to me.  It had a slight hint of sunscreen coconut instead of the rich warm flavor of toasted coconut.  This was actually quite good in combination with the toasted coconut flakes, as the flavor of th...

So I think this gelato might be the most Maine thing that ever happened. A Maine company making gelato with Maine blueberries referencing the classic children's book set in Maine. Do you remember the book Blueberries for Sal? I loved that book as a kid, and only after reading the longer description of this flavor on the website did I remember that the book was set in Maine. I really don't associate blueberries with Maine for any other reason besides that book and I have no idea if lots of blueberries are grown in Maine. But I expect this gelato to taste like Maine in a bowl! The gelato is described as Remember blueberry crisp with a scoop on top? Our version has blueberries, crunchy oat streusel and vanilla gelato. Wow. Also I'm currently obsessed with that "Wow." It is so totally necessary, it cracks me up! Now my childhood was more filled with blueberry cake than blueberry crisp, but I'm still loving this blueberry ice cream train I'm riding righ...

Wowzers. Madeline and I have been traveling all over the place having such fantastic ice cream adventures! Right now I am currently in my second field site, a location in New England. I have been wanting to try Gelato Fiasco FOREVER after On Second Scoop reviewed a bunch of their flavors, including Sriracha Peanut. When I heard an ice cream company was making a Sriracha Peanut flavor, I KNEW I needed to try this brand. However, I have never lived in an area that sells Gelato Fiasco, or so I thought. While writing this post, I looked at Gelato Fiasco's distribution map, and while they aren't sold anywhere in St. Louis or anywhere in the entire state of Minnesota, they actually do sell in a store in Cedar Rapids! I will definitely be going there soon when I get back to Iowa! But in the mean time, I picked up a pint of Almond Butter Chocolate Chunk (too bad the grocery store by where I am staying didn't have the Sriracha Peanut). This flavor is described as Roasted...