The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Because I am sure you have been waiting with bated breath, here it is! The brand of the second pint I bought at Lucky's Market has been revealed!! I was drawn to pick up this pint for a couple of reasons. First, Madeline and I don't review a ton of organic ice creams, so it is good to add some to our repertoire. Second, I thought the design on the pint was beautiful! Now a bit about Julie's . First, they are located in Oregon, which is not surprising at all. In addition to ice cream pints, Julie's offers frozen yogurt, sorbet, dairy-free ice creams, bars and sandwiches of all kinds (including gluten-free)! From their website, it looks like they have a bunch of interesting flavors like Pomegranate Cranberry with Vanilla, Toasted Coconut & Pineapple, Cinnamon Apple Yogurt, Mandarin and Cream sorbet, and Caramel Macaroon dairy-free.  I could keep listing flavors, but I am going to stop torturing myself. They only sold a couple of the more standard ice cream flavo...

I finally, FINALLY have a review of the last of the three pints of Sweet Science I picked up at their September free tasting.  I had a cold for a really long time and wanted to wait until my sense of taste and sense of smell were back to normal before digging in to this ice cream.  I remembered loving it at the tasting, and didn't want anything to get in the way of that.  This flavor is Organic apple cider ice cream swirled with honey caramel and our gluten free streusel for crunch. Simply amazing. Fall flavors are everywhere.  Most brands do a pumpkin/pumpkin pie/pumpkin spice.  Fewer brands do apple pie/caramel apple.  I have never seen an apple cider ice cream before, and I definitely see why.  Oh wow, that sounds like I hated the flavor and I didn't, it's just kind of a weird concept.  For me, imagining a combination of tart, acidic apple cider and cream seems a bit gross; along the lines of combining orange juice and milk. Ther...

If you remember way back in August, I vowed to review every Dairy Queen Blizzard of the Month Flavor.  And yet .... and yet I didn't review the September flavor.  You might think I broke my promise, but you would be wrong.  Pumpkin Pie was the flavor for both September and October, so I decided to wait October to try it.  October feels more like fall, and it's more fun to eat pumpkin when it feels like fall. Holy Cow.  If you only eat one pumpkin-themed item this fall, put this blizzard on the short list.  It was amazing.  This blizzard is described as Pumpkin pie pieces blended with creamy vanilla soft serve, crowned with whipped topping and nutmeg. This description is totally wrong.  It's more like pumpkin pie filling, unbaked, straight from the can, blended with vanilla soft serve with small pieces of crust-like graham-ish pieces mixed in.  Whatever.  The mis-matched description didn't take away from my enjoyment of th...

Moving to a new place is fun and exciting, especially because it means new food adventures! In addition to new scoop shops, there are new grocery stores to visit. My roommate suggested I check out a new grocery store in town, Lucky's Market. Lucky's is a chain grocery store I would say is somewhere on the continuum between Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. It isn't quite as expensive and snobbish as Whole Foods, but not quite as cheap as Trader Joe's, as it does carry a lot of different brands. When I shopped there last weekend, I picked up two pints of ice cream. One pint was of a brand new to me (which I won't reveal until I write the review!!) and a pint of Steve's. I have only had one flavor of Steve's before this, but not for lack of trying. Their flavors sound incredibly interesting, but they aren't sold in a ton of stores. Steve's is also descended from the scoop shop that first mixed candies and such into ice cream. What I'm trying ...

Let me set the scene for you.  It's late at night.  Your desk lamp casts a small circle of light that is a weak defense against the slowly seeping darkness.  You've been wrestling with a math problem all day.  You would like to quit, but the homework is due tomorrow.  More importantly, you are no quitter, but you begin to wonder what your fate will be on this lonesome night, and you begin to doubt your ability to finish.  You decide the only way out of this abyss is to eat your feelings. This was me at approximately 11pm on Tuesday night.  (So I realize that 11pm is not that late, but since I wake up at 5:30am to run, I'm super tired by 11. Hashtag grumble-brag.)  Luckily, I picked up a pint of Haagen-Dazs Dark Chocolate Chip gelato earlier that day.  This gelato is Decadent and creamy, our dark chocolate chip gelato perfectly blends bittersweet chocolatey chips into dark chocolate gelato. I didn't find the chocolate base particula...

I can't even talk about the Haagen-Dazs coupon business anymore. It is too painful. I can't deal with it. So here's another Haagen-Dazs review. But in reality, my life isn't too miserable. Haagen-Dazs has release some pretty interesting gelato flavors I have been ignoring for the past year or so. I like the pomegranate flavor, and this banana flavor sounded interesting. There aren't a ton of banana flavors out there on the market. I also don't love  banana ice creams. Granted, the last time I had a banana ice cream was years ago. I had the Ben & Jerry's Banana Split flavor and did not like it. It was so strongly and artificially banana flavored. I love bananas, but not over ripe tasting bananas or banana products. Like banana chips, dried bananas, and frozen bananas are gross. This flavor is described as  Delectably sweet, Haagen-Dazs Caramelized Banana Chip gelato blends rich caramelized banana gelato with semi-sweet chocolatey chips, creati...

I am continually surprised while writing this blog. Mostly by how much we suck. Like what are we doing with our lives? We have had an ice cream blog for almost a year and a half now and we have not made it over to Cold Stone. One of my goals for graduate school, other than trying every flavor at Heyn's, is to go to every frozen dairy shop in Iowa City. (lol who has academic goals during graduate school.) Yotopia and Cold Stone are the only frozen dairy shops in down town Iowa City. I've already hit up Yotopia, and loved it, so I figured it is about time I hit up Cold Stone. I also had a weird, hectic day and I needed twenty minutes to sit and eat ice cream in peace. Part of my weird, hectic day involved leaving my phone in my car. So I have no pictures of my treat. Sorry. But not sorry. So this treat was seasonal for the summer. Yes summer is over, I know. However, there is still more than enough time in fall to try their fall treats, but I'm guessing the days are numbe...