This is a recurring series of posts based on new products we find in the marketplace that are fun, different, and FLAVORFUL! 

While this summer may be ‘locked down’ and ‘distanced’ like no other we’ve seen, there are still small moments where we can grab a little summer joy. Enter – ice cream pints.

Pints obviously aren’t new, but we wanted to bring fun and flavorful ice cream enlightenment to your computer/tablet/phone. We even picked up a few syrups that can add a little pizzazz to your bowl. Marketing analyst, Sydney Cromwell, and I took on the hard task of eating these for your reviewing benefit! Let’s dig in!

Syrups

Torani Cookies & Cream Syrup

The smell of this is absolutely amazing. It smells exactly like cookies and cream, no joke! However, once we tried it, there was this great darker chocolate taste than what you normally get with a cookies and cream product. It wasn’t bitter, just a great dark chocolate that would be amazing for any plain ice cream. But if you love you some chocolate, grab a chocolate ice cream for a bit of a chocolate rush!

Ghirardelli White Chocolate Syrup

The smell of this is interesting but the taste for us was decidedly sweet and floral – which we know seems weird. We have talked on here about how white chocolate isn’t chocolate, but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it as it’s own flavor! Our immediate thought was “put this on a fruity ice cream and you’re ready to go!”

Esch Coffee Caramel Sauce

This syrup was absolutely fascinating to us. When you open the jar (room temp), it’s more like a spread than a sauce and you can see the coffee grounds in it. This was a major WIN for us. The taste was a great dark caramel that was supplemented by the coffee taste. It almost had that wonderful bitter taste that coffee is known for without being too overbearing, and a kick of sweet molasses. A really wonderful mix if you ask us.

We started riffing about how else we might use this: on a donut, in a coffee, as a cake topping, heat it up for hot fudge, what if you put some sea salt on top of these as a cookie frosting? I say that it doesn’t matter, just give it to me!

Ice Creams

My/Mo: Green Tea Mochi

Sydney and I have always wanted to try these things – this was a great opportunity for us to indulge. We were really fascinated by these little mochis. It looks as though they’re rolled in powdered sugar or some actual green tea. When you bite in, they’re definitely frozen on the outside, but wonderfully soft and pillowy on the inside. These were the perfect blend of the savory green tea with the soft sweetness of ice cream. We’ll definitely be going back for more.

Side note: Besides the taste of these, we were also fascinated by the ingredient statement. It says that turmeric and red cabbage were used for natural coloring. The mochis were a light green color, so we wondered about the usage rate of the turmeric and red cabbage. But we loved these natural coloring options.

Aglamesis Brothers’ Champagne Italian Ice

This as a perfectly, light, fluffy, and icy Italian ice. The lemon flavor does not overpower the nice light champagne flavor. What’s great about this is that it features 100% grape wine! We love it! It’s incredibly fresh for a hot summer day. We also discussed mixing this Italian ice with a fruity ice cream or sorbet to mingle the two flavors even more! This does not disappoint!

Jeni’s Ooey Gooey Butter Cake

This ice cream boasts “grass-grazed milk” and gluten-free – two trendy claims for a variety of categories right now.

This ice cream labels as a cream cheese ice cream, layered with crumbles of vanilla cake and a swirl of caramel butterscotch sauce. We thought it smelled almost as though you were baking a pan of blondies in your home. Once we got passed the smell and tasted it, we found this brown buttery-goodness. Sydney and I each adore butterscotch, so it was so good to get a bit of it mixed with that brown cakey taste. It really was one of our favorites from our tasting session – in fact, I’ve recommended it twice in the 3 days since I’ve tasted!

Noona’s Turmeric Honeycomb

You guys, when I found this in the store, I could barely wait to open it. When you open the pint, you can smell the turmeric wafting from it. But don’t let that fool you, it taste like honey and the warm taste of a cinnamon-like turmeric comes forward in such a wonderful and refreshing way. We even found bits of honeycomb in the pint! The flavor is not at all overpowering and the sweetness level is just perfect. If you’re someone who enjoys a lighter, fluffier ice cream, I suggest this one. The flavor hits at just the right level. It’s absolutely delish!

Ben & Jerry’s Plant-based Cherry Garcia

You cannot review ice creams today without bringing in some of the amazing plant-based options out there. I am someone who needs plant-based ice cream if I’m going to sit down and have a bowl; my stomach only tolerates so much lactose. So while I perused the shelves looking for interesting plant-based options, I came across this flavor. This was one of the most “out-there” plant-based flavors I could find, which leaves a great opportunity for plant-based ice cream companies to further innovate.

This cherry ice cream features an almond base cream with pieces of cherry and fudge included. This ice cream was well-balanced. The almond base married perfectly with the tart of the cherries and the fudge pieces. While I’m not a fan of cherries most days, this didn’t feature too many cherries, thus not turning off this non-cherry eater. Overall, this is a great item for those looking for something flavorful while still staying true to whatever dairy-free diet you’re needing to stick to.

Jeni’s Skillet Cinnamon Roll

This ice cream features dark caramel, cream cheese pastries, and cinnamon. I was hesitant that they’d be able to get that “skillet” taste. But I should know better working in the flavor industry: it’s amazing what people can do! The ice cream is heavy on cinnamon and the cream cheese flavors really pair nicely with those flavors. We also love the execution of pasty bits in the ice cream itself. It’s so unique and different. This – as always with Jeni’s – highlight the fact that it uses cream from grass-grazed cows.

Noona’s Black Sesame

So this was, literally, the most intriguing pint out of the bunch to me.

I was curious, would this ice cream be more savory? But not to worry, black sesame is often used in ice creams and other sweeter dishes. Once we opened it, we LOVED the grey coloring. Just perfect: it’s unique but not too scary. And we immediately smelled the nutty taste. Once we dipped our spoons in, we found BIG peanut-ty flavor and possibly a hint of pecan. Obviously this was the black sesame taste, but we tried to describe it using flavors we’re, obviously, more used to tasting.

It also looks like there are a few pieces of black sesame seeds in the pint, but not overwhelming as you can see in the photos. This is just pure nutty-ice-cream-heaven. If you see this one, I suggest you give it a try!

Ben & Jerry’s Boom Chocolatta Cookie Core

This mocha and caramel ice cream with chocolate cookies, fudge flakes, and a chocolate cookie core was a bit daunting for me. I’m not a big chocolate fan, it can sometimes be too much, so I was hesitant here. But the mocha and caramel ice cream was delightful in every imaginable way. You could literally just give me that without the added ingredients and I’d be good to go. The chocolate cookie was good, but I couldn’t eat too much of it before my stomach would start to go in to chocolate overload.

Overall, I’d say this was a pretty decent pint. That base mocha/caramel ice cream is literally to die for!

Jeni’s Raspberry Rose Jelly Donut

This pint was one Sydney got really excited about when I pulled it from the bag. This vanilla custard with donut pieces and soft raspberry rose petal jam was something we were a little hesitant about. If you play in the culinary or flavor space, you know that rose can go really wrong if you don’t play it right. A little too much and it can ruin the dish.

The final decision on this one? The donut pieces were truly fun and the raspberry rose jam was not too tart. The funny thing: we were so concerned with the rose flavor but we barely noticed it! We thought that it likely cut some of the tartness of the raspberry but helped keep the jam very jam-like. This was a win-win for both of us.

And looking at the ingredients, we found it interesting that this ice cream used Madagascar vanilla bourbon extract. We didn’t overwhelmingly taste those flavors so it just seemed a fascinating ingredient.

Others on Twitter agree, and I might have to get some cinnamon cookies to eat with the leftovers we had.

Lucky Charms

This was just something I couldn’t pass up – a childhood favorite come to life in an ice cream?!?! This March 2020 release features vanilla ice cream with a cereal swirl and lucky charms marshmallows. GUYS…. this dead-on tasted like Lucky Charms cereal – I could not get over it. I kept coming back for more. Growing up, I always thought that Lucky Charms had a slight “sugar powdered” tastes to it – not a bad taste, just this sweet dusted powder feeling. And the ice cream captures that taste perfectly. I was blown away. Sydney definitely got some “cake batter” notes, but I couldn’t get passed the idea that I was sitting in front of my Saturday morning cartoons. I felt like an 7-year-old again!

Jeni’s Middle West Whiskey with Pecans

We tried this one nearly last because this actually featured Middle West Whiskey in it. It says it is “Middle West Spirits Whiskey-Fueled ice cream with notes of butterscotch, honey and vanilla, laden with pecans.” When we tried it we were taken aback. WhOOOOOoooooooooooooooo! WHISKEY! And yes, I 100% mean all those “o’s”. As two non-whiskey drinking people, Sydney and I were bowled over. But for those who love whiskey, I suggest you give it a try.

Hopefully this inspires your flavor mind to wander the next time you’re standing in the frozen ice cream aisle. Take a chance on something interesting and unique, it might surprise you!