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...

My local Target finally had Haagen Dazs Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge Non-Dairy stocked! I've tried and enjoyed the other three flavors in their new non-dairy line, and have been impatiently waiting to try Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge because PEANUT BUTTER. Haagen Dazs says Our non-dairy peanut butter chocolate fudge blends creamy peanut butter with swirls of chocolate fudge for the ultimate non-dairy indulgence. Water is the first ingredient in this flavor and corn syrup is the second. From the texture, I could definitely tell it had a high-corn syrup content. As a stabilizer, corn syrup makes ice cream a bit smoother, but Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge was smooth to the extreme - almost slippery. Also, it had a bit of resistance. It wasn't a bad or unpleasant texture, but it definitely didn't mimic the creaminess of dairy ice cream. The flavor of the peanut butter reminded me of the peanut butter in a Reese's cup; bordering on overly sweet, but with just...

After enjoying the two new Haagen-Dazs  chocolate non-dairy  flavors, I got pretty amped to try the last two flavors in the new line-up. Target was out of Peanut Butter Chocolate Fudge (drat!!!), so I only picked up Coconut Caramel. Haagen-Dazs says For an authentic coconut flavor, we start with a creamy base of coconut cream before complementing it with ribbons of luscious caramel. What odd grammatical construction and uninventive word choice! "Creamy base of coconut cream." Really?! Per Wikipedia, coconut cream is made by simmering 1 part coconut shredded coconut with 1 part water, straining through a cheesecloth and squeezing out as much liquid as possible. (Haagen-Dazs lists coconut extract and water as the ingredients for their coconut cream.)  I imagine this would freeze pretty hard, but Haagen-Dazs adds some corn syrup and other stabilizers to combat this. The coconut in the base was very warm and the flavor reminded me of coconut oil - slightly mor...

Haagen-Dazs recently released a line of four non-dairy flavors exclusively available at Target to surprisingly little fanfare. I picked up the two chocolate flavors Mocha Chocolate Cookie and Chocolate Salted Fudge Truffle, because chocolate.  These flavors were both very good, and I was originally planning to write two separate reviews but they tasted so similar that I wanted emphasize their similarity by comparing and contrasting them within one review. Mocha Chocolate Cookie: A luxurious foundation of rich Belgian chocolate and fragrant coffee is blended together with swirls of cookie crumble and pieces of chocolate cookie. Chocolate Salted Fudge Truffle: We start with lavishly rich Belgian chocolate for that truer chocolate flavor, before blending in swirls of salted fudge and chunks of fudge truffle for the ultimate indulgence. Most non-dairy ice cream, including Ben and Jerry's line and many brands specializing in non-dairy desserts substitute almond, cashew, or...

All hail the vegan ice cream goddesses who have brought beauty to this earth! So yes, I kind of spoiled the punch line of this blog post (aka this ice cream is good), but seriously, we are not worthy of this ice cream!! Madeline already reviewed the new non-dairy Coconut Seven Layer Bar and noted that it was much improved over the Ben & Jerry's non-dairy flavors from last year. This new flavor is described as Almond non dairy frozen dessert with salted caramel swirls & pieces of almond brittle . First, the texture of this ice cream was much improved over B&J's initial non-dairy releases. There was a teeny tiny hint of dryness in this base, but much improved over last year. It also melted down really well, and was very creamy and smooth. Now the flavor of the base was on point. If you don't like almonds and almond extract specifically, you will not  like this flavor. The bast had a very strong almond flavor. Almond milk plus more almond flavoring will...

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...

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...

Wheeee, November is nearly half-way over and I've barely posted any reviews! Grad school ate my liiiiffffeeee! I recently discovered New Barn AlmondCreme, an almond milk-based frozen dessert.  I tried  Cereal and Almond Milk  and wasn't too impressed, but absolutely loved  Sunflower Butter .  I decided I would try Ginger Snap Cookie next because ginger is the best and ginger snaps are especially the best.  New Barn describes Ginger Snap Cookie as Our friends at the amazing Rubicon Bakery in Richmond, CA bake us the most delicious gingersnap cookies which are then crumbled and swirled into each carton. If you're a fan of cookies, we've got you covered. Ginger Snap Cookie was basically a plain almond base with gingersnap cookies mixed in. Individually, each element was great, but that didn't quite translate into a great combination. I really like the flavor of New Barn's almond milk base. It has the natural sweetness of almonds, but isn't overly sw...

Last winter I tried one of the then new-ish So Delicious Cashew Milk ice creams. After I published the review, a lactose intolerant friend of mine very excitedly told me I should try the Snickerdoodle flavor. Some how, getting around to this reader request kept getting pushed to the bottom of my ice cream to-do list. It's also been too long since I've reviewed a vegan ice cream, so woohoo here we go~~ In my opinion, vegan ice cream raises some important ontological questions. Because obviously ice cream should be at the center of any good ontological question as Reddit proved to us a few years back: https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/comments/287bw4/everything_is_or_isnt_ice_cream/ If everything is or isn't ice cream, what is vegan ice cream? I'll just let that one sit for a bit and get back to the more important stuff, reviewing ice cream. This flavor is described as A cinnamon delight loaded with chunks of gluten-free snickerdoodle cookie doug...

This review is a little unique as it's actually two reviews in one ... but of the same product. Review 1: Oh my god this was the most frustrating ice cream experience I've ever had, but this is most likely due to what I'll call 'user error.' Last week I stopped at Whole Foods after a dance class and picked up a pint of Luna and Larry's Coconut Bliss Chocolate Hazelnut Fudge.  I took the bus home, so this pint was out of the freezer for ~35 minutes.  I stuck it in the freezer as soon as I got home.  The next day I grabbed the pint to scoop myself a bowl.  If you're a frequent non-dairy ice cream consumer, you know that you frequently have to let non-dairy ice creams temper before they're soft enough to scoop.  This is just due to the nature of the ingredients.  So, I let the pint temper for 5 minutes and tried to scoop it.  Solid as a rock.  So I let it sit for 5 more minutes.  Solid as a rock.  Ten more minutes; same thing. I fin...

The worst part about going away for the summer is leaving behind all the ice cream you didn't get around to before you left. Or at least that's the worst part for me! Luckily, the best part is coming back to all that ice cream. So much anticipation! And now that I'm back, I'm getting to finish off all of the ice cream tasks I started before I left, like trying all of the Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy flavors! The last flavor I needed to try was Chunky Monkey, and now I've done it. Gotta love finishing lists! This flavor is described as Banana non-dairy frozen dessert with fudge chunks & walnuts . Now it has been aaaaages since I've had the normal version of this flavor. I'm sure I tried it back in college when my roommates and I tried every Ben & Jerry's flavor being sold at the time. Not being the biggest fan of banana flavors, I think I only had a couple of bites and then let everybody else work on the rest of the pint. But I kept...

No you are not experiencing deja vu! But yes I did post about FoMu quite recently. I stopped at the Cambridge FoMu pop up shop a few weeks ago when passing through Boston to my second research location of the summer. Luckily, I passed through Boston again on my way home! The pop up shop is also located next door to a super tasty vegetarian fast/casual restaurant with a couple locations in Boston. I obviously was stopping their for dinner, and decided to grab some FoMu for the walk back! The first flavor that caught my eye was called Magic Bar. It is described as Coconut ice cream, shaved coconut, dark chocolate pieces, pecans, crumbled oats. I was pretty excited by the prospect of basically a coconut squared flavor, so decided to try the Magic Bar. I decided to mix it up a bit with my second flavor and get something fruity, since I hadn't tried a fruity offering from FoMu yet. I went with Almond Raspberry Crumble described as Raspberry ice cream, crunch almond granola . ...

Okay, so when I was in the St. Louis airport eating Baskin Robbins, I was flying to Boston en-route to my next research location. When I arrived in Boston, my friend Brett immediately asked me if I wanted to get ice cream. I surprised him when I said no, because I'd eaten some in the airport. His response of, "WHO EVEN ARE YOU?" was of course, appropriate. When he continued on to tell me that FoMu, a Boston vegan ice cream company had a pop-up shop only a few blocks from his apartment, I changed my mind. Not that it was that difficult. I'd heard of FoMu before, but this was my first time trying their ice cream, because they are still only sold around Massachusetts and Rhode Island. FoMu makes their vegan ice creams with coconut milk and they also make vegan baked goods. The flavor offerings at the pop-up shop were a combination of totally desserty flavors and super unique creations. I decided to get one of each, Avocado and Peanut Butter Mud Pie. I don't...

Thank goodness for hippie California. I'm traveling right now, and needed some groceries, so stopped by the grocery store closest to where I'm staying. The ice cream selection wasn't necessarily that exciting in this store, except for the Coconut Bliss selection!  They had a whole, long row of Coconut Bliss flavors, and a bunch I had never seen before. Only in California can you find great beaches, a bunch of unvaccinated children, and lots of vegan ice cream options. What a fabulous combination. and by fabulous I mean beaches and ice cream are great and unvaccinated children terrify me. After agonizing over the decision for a while, I picked the Ginger Cookie Caramel flavor, because I had heard good things about it and I love ginger cookies. This flavor is described as Spicy Cookies and Creamy Caramel in Rich Vanilla . The first look upon opening the pint was pretty WOW. I saw SEVEN different cookies chunks and a light, this caramel swirl. My first bite tasted ...

Alright, its time for my third review of the new Ben & Jerry's Non-Dairy line. I like the P.B. and Cookies and wasn't thrilled by the Coffee, Caramel, Fudge. How will Chocolate Fudge Brownie hold up? This flavor is described as Chocolate with Fudge Brownies . Now, it has been a long time since I've had the dairy version of Chocolate Fudge Brownie, so I went back and read my review of that flavor to prepare for writing this review. Sadly, the non-dairy version does not live up to the original. Now, I know the bast isn't going to taste the same. As I've said in my reviews of the other non-dairy flavors, the you can really taste the almond milk flavor in these bases, although less so in P.B. and Cookies. However, it is still disappointing that this flavor had so much prominent almond milk taste. It really just does not work for this ice cream. But putting that aside, even the rest of this flavor doesn't live up to the original. Look at th...