The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Ahhh, Magnum, you have a special place in my heart.  I first tried Magnum ice cream bars during a summer I spent in Morocco after I graduated from college.  The bars were sold at little street vendors and typically went for around $2.50-3 USD a piece.  This was a little expensive, but sometimes you just needed some damn good ice cream! In the States, a box of 3 full-size Magnum bars goes for about $4 (I think).  The Magnum Minis come 6 to a box for about the same price.  At the grocery store, I opted to try the Magnum Mini Gold?! (also, can we all please start using the interrobang ‽) I was a little afraid to try a 'mini' size, as I obviously want to eat as much ice cream as possible at all times, but I took the plunge.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by the size.  These were maybe a half-inch longer than my palm and as wide as half of my palm.  Respectable! I realize this picture gives you no idea of scale. Magnum Gold?! is describ...

No, I did not learn to speak Italian. But I did eat some Italian Gelato. This fancy Italian brand, Selezione Siviero Maria, can be found at Schnucks'! What the name means is Selections of Siviero Maria which is the name of the wife of the founder of the company. This company has a couple of other brands of gelato with different names. I think this one is supposed to be the classy brand of this company, hence the selections . Class at it's finest. You also feel really fancy while eating this ice cream because the packaging is all in Italian so you actually have no idea what you are eating. Of course, when my dad and I sat down to have some of this last night, we were wondering what exactly the whole Bourbon thing was all about. We knew that vanilla had something to do with vanilla in a solution of alcohol and water, so we though maybe Italians used Bourbon as opposed to rum or something. But why would Italians use an American alcohol to make their vanilla? Well they don...

On my most recent trip to the grocery store, a new limited edition Haagen Dazs flavor caught my eye.  I was pretty confused because I'm pretty sure banana split used to be one of Haagen Dazs' core flavors.  Maybe it wasn't selling well and they are trying to phase it out?  Who knows. My past experience with Haagen Dazs limited edition flavors has been so-so.  A few years ago they had a Spiced Caramel Biscuit flavor which is up there on my favorite flavors of all time list.  They also had an exclusive (not sure of the difference between exclusive and limited edition) flavor called Spiced Peach Crumble.  I guess Haagen Dazs does 'spiced' really well.  Last year I tried the Peanut Butter Pie flavor and was underwhelmed.  Peanut butter pie is one of the most amazing and easy to make desserts of all time, so it should be totally amazing in ice cream form, but I found this flavor to be kind of bland.  One thing I do love is the limited edition p...

Dearest reader, I have to begin this blog entry with an apology. I went to an ice cream shop and I didn't take any pictures of the ice cream I ate. I am so sorry, you'll just have to put up with my writing with no pictures to make it actually interesting. Right now I am in the Denver area with my dad visiting his family. After what was supposed to be a four hour hike to the top of James Peak turned into a seven hour bushwhacking adventure when our trail was covered in snow, obviously we were all due for some ice cream. On our way back to Denver we stopped in the town of Idaho Springs to find an ice cream shop. We spotted the Georgetown Valley Candy Company, which also serves ice cream, and decided this was the perfect place to stop. The Georgetown Valley Candy Company has two locations, the one we stopped and one in Georgetown, another mountain town, hence the name. I looked at their Facebook page to try to find some pictures of their ice cream since I didn't take any, bu...

In honor of reaching 1000 page views, Lizzy and I will be (trying to) sample ice creams suggested by you, our readers.  The first suggestion I was able to try out came from my friend Eliot.  He suggested both green tea ice cream and red bean ice cream which he tried at the Missouri Botanical Garden's Japanese Festival. On my most recent trip to Izzy's, I had the opportunity to try some green tea ice cream.  The description on Izzy's website reads The Chinese have served as living proof of green tea's mystical healing powers for centuries.  It seems as if something in those tealeaves has the ability to make the weak strong and the meek brave.  Green Tea ice cream, made with only the finest Matcha Green Tea from St. Paul's own TeaSource also lays claim to this ability.  Results guaranteed within six weeks. So, can we all agree that this description is really weird and move on? About the ice cream:  This had a really pretty green color.  It ...

The week I spent visiting Brett was spend half at his parents' house in Wayland and the half at their house on Cape Cod, in West Dennis. The number one spot in West Dennis to hang on a weekend night is apparently the homemade ice cream shop called, The Sundae School. Apparently it gets so crowded in the middle of the summer that they hire someone just to direct traffic in the parking lot!! Brett and I visited both Friday and Saturday night. With a name like Sundae School I was expecting really punny names of ice cream. None were that punny but they did have creative ones. However, on the first night the flavor, Shark's Tooth, stuck out to me, so I asked the scooper what in the world such a flavor was. Shark's Tooth is Black Raspberry with White Chocolate Chips. This is where the confusion began. I have always assumed that black raspberry was sort of like blue raspberry, as in not a real thing. However, when Brett said that this flavor was his sister's favorite because...

First it was Izzy's ice cream in Minneapolis and now Lizzy's ice cream in the Boston area! People with names ending in "izzy" must just know what is up with ice cream. This week, I visited my boyfriend, Brett, in Boston. For Christmas two years ago he got me a t-shirt from Lizzy's ice cream. I was like, "Sweet! I like ice cream and this is my name! How cool!! ...But I've never had their ice cream... How can I rep their brand without knowing if it's any good." So I've never worn the t-shirt out of the house. And now the day finally came for me to try the ice cream shop sharing my name. Look at their adorable cow logo! Before I left STL for Boston, I checked out their flavors online. Two jumped out at me right away: Grapenuts and Chocolate Orgy. Grapenuts are just such a lovely weird little cereal, but super healthy! I was excited to see how they would turn out in an ice cream. Although a description wasn't on the website, Choco...