The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

It seems like every year I get SO HYPED about new ice creams flavors and then I wait ... and wait ... and wait for them to hit shelves in the Midwest. It's mid-February for goodness sakes! So, instead of new flavors, I have a fall limited edition, Edy's Pumpkin Spice Latte. This flavor is coffee light ice cream swirled with pumpkin light ice cream. Honestly, I was not excited for this flavor (which is why I didn't pick it up in the fall). Edy's light ice creams have a tendency to be terrible, and this flavor sounded like it had the potential to be very bland. I have to say, I was pleasantly surprised by this flavor. It was a legitimately good ice cream. It was thick, creamy, and smooth which is rare for a light ice cream. The coffee and pumpkin ice creams were very similar in color, but were tightly swirled together so you always got some of both in each bite. The prominent flavor was the spices, particularly the cloves, and the coffee added a nice, milky finis...

When I tried  HEATH Klondike Bars  I thought FOR SURE no other Klondike bar could possibly top it, but I think Caramel Pretzel managed to do it! Klondike Caramel Pretzel is "Silky-smooth caramel ice cream complete with ribbons of caramel swirls - all covered in a thick chocolatey coating that's been loaded with pretzel pieces." I think the caramel-based Klondike bars are so good because they really help bring out the complex, roasted notes of the chocolate shell. The caramel swirl intensified the flavor of the caramel ice cream. I noticed the texture the pretzels added right away, but didn't immediately notice the taste; however, I think they  gave the bars a slight saltiness that helped sharpen the sweetness of the chocolate and caramel. As I ate a few more bars, I started to notice the actual taste of the pretzels, so it's there if you pay attention. I give these 🍦🍦🍦.5/4. Current rankings 1. Caramel Pretzel 2. HEATH 3. Brownie Fudge Sw...

The new Magnum pints are so far the only new-for-2018 to reach me so far in the frozen north. Lizzy reviewed  Milk Chocolate Hazelnut  so I picked up two different flavors: White Chocolate Vanilla and Dark Chocolate Raspberry. Before I review the ice creams, I have to get something off my chest. Magnum tries SO hard to be this 'swanky' and 'sexy' and 'classy' ice cream brand and then they call their new pints TUBS! Yes, tubs! Possibly the least swanky, sexy, classy word in existence. What were they thinking?! "Let me just sit down with my TUB of Magnum." White Chocolate Vanilla is  Velvety vanilla ice cream and thick white chocolate shards encased in a crackling white chocolate shell.  Dark Chocolate Raspberry is  Raspberry ice cream with thick dark chocolate shards, all surrounded by a cracking layer of dark chocolate. Made with 65% cacao dark chocolate, it's luxury in every bite. Who wants to eat SHARDS?! Again with the off-putting...

You guys. Grad school is, like, really hard. I've been on an unplanned hiatus the last month and a half or so because I've been working on preparing for my preliminary oral exams which has taken up literally all of my time and brain space. BUT, I passed yesterday, so I now officially have a Master's Degree in math and I'm officially a doctoral candidate. Yay! And even more exciting, I have time to blog again.  I'm jumping straight back in to my series of Klondike reviews with their Reese's bar, described as Rich Reese's peanut butter cup chunks mixed into smooth Reese's flavored ice cream - all wrapped in our thick chocolatey coating.  Ya'll. It should be impossible to fuck up a peanut butter and chocolate combo. IMPOSSIBLE. And yet .... and yet .... and yet Klondike almost managed it. Maybe I was just expecting too much, but these bars were so bland and tasteless. The peanut butter ice cream was just barely peanut butter flavored, and I swe...

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...

My favorite thing about the So Delicious line of non-dairy frozen desserts is that they make flavors with all of the different non-dairy bases. There is a lot of debate in the ice cream world about what non-dairy milk makes the best ice cream base. But with So Delicious, everyone can just have their fav, with no debates. They have some stellar cashew milk bases (which is under utilized as a non-dairy ice cream base imo), so I thought I'd check out a coconut milk base. This flavor is described as Vanilla coconut milk based, dairy-free frozen dessert packed with scrumptious cookie dough chunks and crispy chocolate flakes.  Often coconut milk is a popular base because the coconut flavor can be concealed. In this case, the coconut flavor was very prominent. It was like a coconut base with a hint of vanilla flavor. Now, I don't think this is a terrible thing, but if you don't think cookie dough and coconut will vibe well together, you will be disappointed. Other tha...

A caramel ice cream that's not salted caramel! Hallelujah! BLVD Tasty Ice Cream Caramel Dulce Slam is Dulce de leche ice cream with a ribbon of homemade caramel. The top of the pint looked phenomenal. Dark caramel ice cream with a prominent thick, gooey swirl. This was a bit misleading as the swirl was most prominent on the top and bottom of the pint and fairly sparse throughout the middle of the pint. At least you start and end on a good note. The caramel base really stood out from other ice creams. It was much darker and had much more of that browned, complex, bordering-on-burnt 'Maillard reaction taste' than most other caramel ice creams. Unfortunately, because the base was so strong it overwhelmed the lighter sweeter swirl. That seems to be a theme with BLVD; amazing bases which the mix-ins don't quite live up to. I give Caramel Dulce Slam 🍦🍦.5/4. I think it's worth trying for the base alone and would be great in a sundae, but because the ba...