The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Last year I was really excited for Haagen-Dazs original TRIOS, but I thought all three flavors were kind of a let down. Mainly, they weren't well balanced so one element always ended up more prominent than the others.  Their new flavors, Coconut Caramel Chocolate, Lemon Raspberry White Chocolate, and Vanilla Caramel White Chocolate all sound delicious, and I bought all three hoping they were better than last year's. Coconut Caramel Chocolate is Belgian chocolate and caramel sauce, coconut and chocolate ice cream. If Coconut Caramel Chocolate is any indication, Haagen-Dazs has at least somewhat addressed the balance issues in this new iteration of TRIO flavors. Taking my first bite of this flavor, I was hit with a warm, tropical coconut flavor. As I ate more and more ice cream, the coconut flavor was supplanted by a soft, milky, smooth chocolate spiked with the darker, deeper chocolate of the crunchy layer. The caramel sauce didn't stand out as a distinc...

Leave it to my trusty Tim and Tom's Speedy Market to be the first place in town I found the new Ben and Jerry's truffle flavors! I picked up all three new truffle flavors (Chillin' the Roast, Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake, and Chocolate Shake It) and let Kyle choose which one to crack open first. He chose Caramel Chocolate Cheesecake, caramel cheesecake ice cream with graham cracker-covered cheesecake truffles & chocolate cookie swirls. Even though Ben and Jerry's has a history of sub-par cheesecake ice creams, I was HYPED for this flavor, because the chocolate cookie butter in Ben and Jerry's Boom Chocolatta! is perhaps my favorite ice cream mix-in of all time. ALL TIME! And I've eaten a lot of ice cream mix-ins. I was hoping that would get re-used here. I was pleasantly surprised by my first bite. I got a big shock of cheesecake flavor, so it seems Ben and Jerry's took some steps to remedy their frankly pitiful previous attempts at chees...

Along with a trio of new TRIO flavors, Haagen-Dazs introduced the Decadent Collection consisting of Honey Salted Caramel Almond, Banana Peanut Butter Chip, and Midnight Cookies and Cream. Haagen-Dazs says this about Honey Salted Caramel Almond: This decadent blend of honey ice cream, swirls of salted caramel, and crunchy toasted almonds was lovingly crafted to raise awareness for the honeybees and other pollinators who bring us so many of our favorite ingredients. This ice cream spea ks to the deepest levels of my soul. I tend to enjoy slightly weird or unique flavors, but I like them to be done well. Well-balanced, rich, flavorful. Also, some of my favorite flavors - not flavors of anything in particular - include ginger, honey, lemon, and cinnamon. All are criminally underused as ice cream base flavors, so I was ecstatic to see Haagen-Dazs tackling a honey base. The honey flavor is so rich. The strong, sweet dairy base is the perfect canvas for a honey flavor that...

Klondike Cookie Dough Swirl bars are indulgent cookie dough ice cream with beautiful cookie dough swirls, all dipped in thick milk chocolate y coating. I had really high hopes for these bars, thinking that the cookie dough ice cream would be on a level with the caramel ice cream in the Caramel Pretzel bars and the toffee ice cream in HEATH bars. The cookie dough ice cream starts off with a nice strong eggy, sweet flavor, but this quickly fades. Klondike ice cream isn't particularly dense, so there's not that rich dairy base for the flavor to grab on to. The caramel and toffee ice creams complement the hint of toffee in the shell, so the two elements enhance each other, overcoming the lighter flavor of the ice cream. The cookie dough ice cream has to hold it's own against the chocolate shell, and the flavor is just not quite strong enough. Klondike swirls are always a bit weird - they are very thin ribbons, so don't add much of a textural element. The c...

I was surprised when I saw a new Magnum flavor, Double Cherry Truffle, on freezer shelves as I didn't hear about it at all on social media, and their Double Hazelnut and Double Cookies & Cream were a lot more hyped last year. Double Cherry Truffle is Cherry ice cream with a dark chocolate ganache swirl dipped in a chocolatey coating, luscious cherry sauce, and milk chocolate. The first few bites of the Double Cherry Truffle were absolutely divine. A strong, tart and sweet cherry sauce offsets a warm, rich dark chocolate shell. Unfortunately, about half way through the bar, I ran into the typical problem I have with Magnum bars: the chocolate flavor inevitably overwhelms the ice cream and sauce. Magnum's whole schtick is that they use Belgian chocolate for a superior chocolate shell, and I agree. The shell is superior. I really like Magnum's shells, especially for what is essentially a mass-market brand. The remaining elements of the Magnum bars need to come...

I've been putting off writing a review of Klondike S'mores bars for a few days. These are creamy marshmallow ice cream with sweet graham cracker swirls inside a delightfully breakable milk chocolate flavored shell. The marshmallow ice cream has a very strong and distinctive flavor, and I keep flip-flopping about whether or not I liked the flavor and whether or not these bars are truly s'mores flavored. After a long period of contemplation, I think I didn't really enjoy the marshmallow ice cream and they are not truly s'mores flavored. Calling all my ladies who were tweens in the '00s - the marshmallow ice cream tasted like I imagine a Lip Smackers S'mores chapstick turned into ice cream would taste. A very fake, sweet, and bold marshmallow flavor. Also - I think it's high time we make Lip Smackers retro-cool. The graham cracker swirl toned down the intense base a bit, but I don't think it was a strong enough flavor to really qualify these...

Fuck Halo Top. Lol, wut? This isn't even a Halo Top review, but hear me out. There were 'health' ice creams, such as Arctic Zero, before Halo Top, but Halo Top added a high-protein gimmick and cute marketing and has steadily been capturing more of the ice cream market and I hate them. Mainly I hate their branding and message that completely centers around food guilt. Like, can we just not at this point? Eat real ice cream if you want to. Eat Halo Top if you want to. But let's all just respect and not police each other's food choices. Also, they have a shit product. I think I described their Birthday Cake flavor as like eating paper sprayed with birthday cake-scented perfume. Finally, I hate them because brands like Talenti and Ben and Jerry's now feel the need to step into the 'healthy' ice cream market. Urgh. In an ideal world, I would stay away from these new 'healthy' options, but I'm an ice cream blogger, so I'm taking one from the...