New Orleans Ice Cream Co. Peach Melba

October skies bring with them great things. From the smell of smoking meat at a tailgate before a college football game, to hayrides and corn mazes and the Halloween decorating blitz, the quintessence of fall is one of my favorite times of the year.

The only unfortunate aspect of this time is the passing of the summer produce that delights our taste buds each year. Like falling leaves in early October, the watermelons and blueberries, raspberries and peaches all fall away as the temperature drops. And while I love apples and pumpkin, I take the loss of the peaches quite hard.

Earlier in the summer I took a gander at Turkey Hill’s Limited Edition Peaches and Cream ice cream and thought it was comparatively average. Since then, my prefered way of peach eating has been in a classic summer salad with basil and mozzarella, but when New Orleans Ice Cream Co. shipped a pint of their Peach Melba ice cream a few weeks ago, I knew I’d get one final chance to taste the South’s most sumptuous fruit in one of its classic forms.

I’ve never had the classic peach melba combination before, but I have enjoyed the flavors of peach and raspberry (although, it should be said, not combined in cereal form.) New Orleans Ice Cream adds toasted almonds to complete the pint, an altogether odd choice, if you ask me. I wish they would have added pound cake (more on this later.)

 The first spoonful starts out on a high note. It’s a creamy and smooth ice cream base, super premium but with the kind of dairy-cream freshness and bright vanilla flavor which gives an impression of lightness. The vanilla bean flavor is far from ordinary, and I find myself admiring the slowly melting cream and vanilla bean specks on my tongue. There’s an enjoyable, almost whimsical raspberry swirl which mixes with the fresh cream taste in the kind of way that makes those miniature sundae cups all the rage at elementary school birthday parties, and comes in with enough frequency and impact to lend sweetness and a bit of textural contrast to each lick. Combined with the soft ice cream and chewy, thick peach slices, each bite tastes of the classic flavors of ambrosia. There’s no whipped cream involved, but it sure tastes like it, and given those three elements, I’m inclined to proclaim it as one of the best peach ice cream’s I’ve ever had.

However, as was the case with Mississippi Debris, this flavor goes one mix in too far. In this case I’m pointing the finger at the “toasted” almonds, which, while buttery, have an odd and flimsy chew and lack real roasted flavor. There are too many of them, and combined with the already prominent peach and raspberry swirl, they detract from the vanilla base and break up the overall creamy aspects of the ice cream. I wouldn’t go so far to say I disliked the almonds, but I certainly would have loved the Peach Melba flavor a lot more without them.

The perfect peach ice cream is restrained, simple, yet ethereal –  a classic mixture of cream and juicy peaches, honoring the kind of fruit with enough complexity to make a perfect dessert in its own right. New Orleans Ice Cream Co. comes close to making the perfect peach ice cream, but comes up a little short by trying to improve on something which is, buy its nature, is perfectly and naturally delicious as God made it.

Rating: 8.5/10

Other Reviews: The Ice Cream Informant

New Orleans Ice Cream Co. Mint Chocolate Cookie

One of the difficult things about being a critic of anything — whether it be sports, food, fashion, awful fall TV shows — is that you sometimes have to say less than stellar things about people and companies. Go ahead and paint corporations or certain people as selfish, greedy, and blah blah blah, but having come from a background in writing, I’ve come to understand that most people are, well people. And after several life-changing experiences with many different kinds of people, including a Church mission trip to help rebuild homes — and peoples’ lives — destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, I’ve steadily come to believe most people are fundamentally good.

Kind of like how, despite being let down by a lackluster showing by their Mississippi Debris flavor, I’m coming around to the idea that New Orleans Ice Cream Company’s flavors are fundamentally good. Very good.

One of my major gripes with Mississippi Debris was that its many mix-ins detracted from the texture of the ultra-premium chocolate ice cream, leaving me with no coherent sense of a complete bite. It’s a problem, because for someone who doesn’t want to down more than 2-3 scoops at a time, it adds up to getting an incomplete texture and flavor experience. With an ice cream philosophy forged in the simplicity of fresh dairy exposed by the Utah State Creamery and Aggie Ice Cream, I lean towards flavors that maximize mix-ins to provide coverage for each spoonful, while at the same time appealing to a classic flavor and textural contrast which still allows the ice cream base to shine.

Mint Chocolate Cookie not only embodies this philosophy, but it does so for a great cause. You see, not only is New Orleans Ice Cream Co. working to bring great taste to ice cream lovers across the country, but they’re giving back to real people who need real help by donating a portion of their sales to the Make it Right Foundation. That Foundation is working to help rebuild the city of New Orleans from the devastation experienced during 2005′s Hurricane Katrina. And as someone who is only six months removed from visiting and working to rebuild that devastation on the Gulf Coast, I can tell firsthand that there are still a lot of people in need of any and all the help they can get.

So let’s talk about this ice cream then, and why, just seconds after my trying a spoonful it for the first time, I was ready to proclaim it the best tasting mint flavored ice cream I’ve ever had. It starts, obviously, with the cream itself. It’s smooth and sumptuous, with a texture that slowly melts in your mouth with the bright and herby essence of mint. Sweet and floral, rich and creamy, there are no off flavors or ice crystals to stand in the way of the milky fresh flavor.

If the cream is good, the mix-in is great. The use of mint cookies in place of the classic mint chocolate chips can’t be overstated in terms of creating an effective and tasty contrast. The cookies themselves are crunchier than any cookie I’ve ever encountered in ice cream, with an exterior snap and sweet-floral flavor which  could have come out of those iconic green Girl Scout cookie boxes themselves. The pieces are large and dispersed with adequate frequency, ensuring each spoonfuls gets a piece of the mint cookie action. I did notice the cookies lose the distinctive snap after a few days in the freezer, but such is the cost of moderation.

If you’re a fan of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream you’re going to love this flavor. It’s base is as good as they come, while the mix in of thick and crunchy chocolate-mint cookies really sets it over the edge. Just keep out of the reach of your local neighborhood Girl Scout leader. This is one ice cream that can’t be good for their business. That’s OK. It’s good in my belly, and it’s good for the people of New Orleans. Win-win, anyone?

Ranking: 9/10.

Mississippi Debris Debris Ice Cream

Sometimes, when your football teams get crushed, the only way to try to pick yourself back up is to take a stroll to the freezer and devour a pint of ice cream. Any flavor works, but chocolate, chalk full of all those mood-boosting chemicals and whatnot, works best. And thanks to some free samples from New Orleans Ice Cream Company, I had just the remedy sitting in my freezer for Utah State’s Special Teams woes. I give you, Mississippi  Debris…

Our rich Chocolate Ice Cream is chock full of Fudge Brownie pieces, Chocolate Flakes, Truffles, Malt Balls, Chocolate Almonds, Cherry Liquor Cups and Marshmallow. A Fudge Swirl completes this

Obviously, there’s a lot going on with this ice cream — too much, to tell you the truth. And just like excessive backfield motion can confuse your own offense, the excessive elements of chocolate gluttony in this flavor detract from what otherwise sounds like the most desirable ice cream any chocoholic could ask for. But let’s start with the positives. The fudge swirl is certainly very good. It’s smooth, dark, and rich, with a flavor and texture that exceeds the fudge ribbons most large-scale ice cream manufacturers can produce. There are also nice elements of crunch in there, including the chocolate rich chip pieces. The melt-in-your mouth, sumptuous chocolate ganache flavor is like an extra present from Santa for those who’ve long suffered with sub-par ”chocolate flavored chips” some ice cream makers load up on, and will no doubt appease those truly trained in the “dark arts.”

That being said, I think an ice cream “every man” — and not, you know, the food blogger “type” — will be a little let down by this flavor. The marshmallow bits are extraneous and too prominent. I would have prefered a melted marshmallow swirl or none at all, but the chewed flakes only take up space and detract from the chocolate assault. The ice cream base, while good, doesn’t wow me. It seems to melt too easily, and doesn’t hold the ultra-premium quality I’d typically associate with small batch products. A single, random scoopfull is unlikely to turn up a definitive tastes of buttery almonds or chocolate malted crunch, and despite the claiming Cherry Liquor Cups, I failed to detect much in the way of fruit notes.

It’s a good ice cream, but is it something I’d pay to have shipped? No way. With so much going on it just doesn’t deliver a truely satiating flavor and texture, and unless you’re the kind who eats, sleeps, and dreams chocolate ice cream, it’s probably overkill for a treat. Knowing my own tastes, I think I’d be just as content with a pint from Turkey Hill, or, better yet, a reliable kicking game in the Fourth Quarter.

Fast Food on the Cheap: Chick-Fil-A’s Strawberry Sundae

Note: It’s unfortunate I have to preface this post with this kind of introduction, but please know, if you’re going to use this review to air grievances about the perceived political affiliations of a company or its clients, well, then I’m just going to delete it. Ok, on to the cool and creamy stuff.

Having now shed the feckless monotony of calorically dense and money wasting fast food ventures as a reviewer for GrubGrade.com, I’ve adopted a fast food eating style which is based mostly in moderation. The dollar menu, while disappearing at most fast food enclaves, still exists in one form or another from Burgers Kings to Arbys’ everywhere, and still leads me to one or two treats a week. Basically, it keeps me sane, young, and doesn’t kill my wallet. Now that’s a what I like to call a win-win-win.

Of course my favorite fast food chain, Chick-Fil-A, is notorious for never having a value menu to begin with. That all changed recently, when the chain introduced a revamped line of desserts that included ”improved” versions of brownies, cookies, and their signature Icedream soft serve. Unfortunately they nixed one of my favorite desserts (The pie, oh my!) but the famous milkshakes are still front and center.

I stopped into Chick-Fil-A after a long day at work the other day looking for something sweet but not too massive in size, and found it in the .99 cent “Mini Sundae.” Described as a combination of their ”famous vanilla Icedream®, Hershey’s® chocolate syrup, whipped cream and a cherry on top,” I was stoaked to find out I could replace the chocolate syrup with strawberry syrup. I consider that a huge plus, since, for whatever reason, the majority of McDonalds’ I’ve visited never offer the elusive Strawberry Sundae the chain claims to actually sell.

Chick-fil-A’s mini sundae isn’t huge, but it fills the container to the brim, which, in this case, is actually a bad thing. Not only did it get a dude behind me in line to comment, ”cute” when he saw it, but the amount of stuff going on inside the container can make life messy. You see, I couldn’t for the life of me get the top off, and ended up getting my hands sticky in the futile attempt. All the while, my Icedream was melting, and I was losing precious time.  I guess the point is to eat the sundae through the opening, which I ended up doing. It’s good news and bad news on this one. The good news is that Chick-fil-A’s Icedream is better than the standard soft serve sold at most fast food places. It has a creamier and thicker consistency, although it’s not Rita’s frozen custard. I loved the combination of the thick Icedream with the plentiful Strawberry syrup, and liked airy texture and creamy taste of the whipped cream. The Strawberry syrup is definitely on the very sweet side, but vestiges of seeds and a thick glaze give it an almost pie-filling consistency.

Good, stuff, no doubt. Problem was, it seemed like there was more whipped cream than Icedream. I’m not sure if this was just how my sundae was prepared or if the price point of the product calls for less Icedream (seeing the nutrition, I’m guessing the latter) but I really felt like I was eating mostly puree and whipped cream after two or three spoonfuls of Icedream.

All that being said, for a buck, you’re not going to find many better fast food desserts. While I won’t put it in the same league as the elusive (in Maryland, anyways) $1 Small Chocolate Frosty, it’s definitely a good change of pace and of higher quality than McDonalds’ Sundaes. Heck, it’s even pretty healthy with only 170 calories and 2 grams of saturated fat. Only question I have now is whether the “on the menu” version with Hershey’s® syrup is even better?

• Price: .99 cents
• Ranking: 7/10
• Chances I’d Buy Again: 100% (gotta try the chocolate version!)

M&M’s Peanut Butter Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich

The ice cream cookie sandwich might just be one of the greatest inventions ever conceived on this blue and green orb we call Earth. I mean, not only does it combine the sweet, moist, and buttery taste and texture of cookies, but it turns them into vehicles for consuming ice cream. I mean, is there anything more ideal for the dessert lover?

Well, actually there is. Add in the world’s most iconic bite-sized chocolate candy in a hard shell – M&M’s – and we’re talking about something highlighting everything right in the world of sweets.

When I first heard that I had won On Second Scoop’s Mars coupon contest, my thought was to buy a few packages of M&M Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches. Dubba had good things to say to them in the past, and despite fairly frequent consumption of Rita’s Frozen Custard, it had been a while since I’ve really enjoyed a frozen novelty item. My plans were thrown for a slight twist, however, when I spotted the new M&M Peanut Butter Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches in Walmart. And even though they’d have to survive a 40 minute car ride in a 95 degree day before reaching my own freezer, I knew they were worth taking a chance on.

The cookie element is everything you could want. They’re actually larger than I imagined, pack the obligatory moist and sweet punch you love in a peanut butter cookie, and even manage a robust peanut butter-cookie dough taste on the backend. They remind me a lot of those those classic, if not horrible for you, peanut butter cookies from Grandma’s, except better. Thanks, in large part, to the mini M&Ms. The shells remain crunchy, and there’s something about freezing that makes the chocolate especially good when embedded in the cookie dough. As you can see from the photos, the mini M&M’s don’t stay rock hard though, and begin slowly melting within the buttery cookie when exposed to my hands.

At first I was a little unsure about the ice cream. It’s not particularly rich, but it isn’t gritty or gummy either, and has a smooth quality about it which plays well with the super moist cookie dough. The peanut butter taste definitely comes on the backend and is raised with a solid bite from the cookie, but I can’t help but wonder if an additional element – perhaps a salted peanut butter and corn syrup swirl – would have provided the extra flavor and textural elements to push these over the top.

If you’re a peanut butter lover these are definitely worth a shot, and even if you’re mum on the salty-sweet combination played out in so many desserts, these sandwiches offer enough variety in terms of sweetness, texture, and chocolate crunch that I’d recommend them. That being said, Mars missed a chance to take these to another level. The addition of even a peanut butter-corn syrup “swirl” into the ice cream or the substituting of peanut butter M&M’s for regular M&M’s would have put these over the top, and made them the single most peanut buttery frozen dessert novelty on the market.

• Price: $4.59 (Walmart)
• Ranking: 8/10
• Chances I’d Buy Again: 85%

Turkey Hill Peaches and Cream

When I was younger, I thought the best part about summer was not having to go to school. That was, until I turned 16, and some one an insatiably thirst for straight cash money required me to get a job. Then I thought going on vacation was the best part of summer. Until the economy crashed and aforementioned insatiable teenage thirst for money turned into a need to support myself, which, aside from making me work said jobs, also required me to give up western vacation time.

Which brings us to the summer of 2012. Hot, sticky, and oftentimes seeing a suddenly grown up Adam sitting in an office with a collared shirt, these days summer differentiates itself from the monotony and drudgery of ‘regular life’ in virtually no discernible way. Oh wait, I take that back. It’s worse than regular life. At least regular life contains the fall, which brings me my weekend retreat of college football games and new episodes of Modern Family to look forward to.

Given this sad state of affairs this summer, about the only thing I have to look forward to is a perfectly ripe peach.

Yes, a peach. Better than Chocolate Mini Wheats Little Bites or even my first Animal Style Double Double, a summer peach is a gift from God. Ethereal, you may say, and I’m quite sure Alton Brown will back me up on this one, thank you very much.

Come to think of it, the only thing that could make a perfectly ripe peach any better is deliciously smooth, cool, and certainly rich ice cream.

Such was my train of thought when I picked up the latest ‘seasonal’ flavor of Turkey Hill: Peaches and Cream. One need only spend a few minutes to know this blog has something of a ‘thing’ for ice cream and finds the affordable yet creative flavors of Turkey Hill to offer the middle class and everyman solution to Ben and Jerry’s, and knowing such, you probably saw this review coming.

Taking a scoop of the ice cream, I find it smooth yet firm, with two to three medium-sized peach slices embedded into the dairy. The taste is peachy, but not peachy keen. In other words, it’s not as the peach frozen yogurt I’m used to, and there’s something about the peach slices which strikes me as more from a can than frozen. The ice cream is of typical texture with only a slight hint of gumminess, yet there’s a certain richness — the essential cream flavor, if you will, — which is lacking. To put this in perspective, think about the difference in flavor between whipped cream and whipped light cream. In this case, the flavor of the peaches, the flavor of the milk, it’s all there. But there’s that quality of rich yet sweet flavor that is missing, replaced with a neutral if not mind blowing mild milk flavor. I’m left with the impression that it’s a good ice cream, albeit a garden variety one. Interestingly enough, I find myself craving slightly more acidic frozen peaches with a brighter note and sweeter base. In other words, I want low-fat frozen peach yogurt.

You can’t go wrong with peaches and ice cream, and with 13 grams of sugar and only 130 calories a serving, I’m sure Peaches and Cream will satisfy those looking to cleanse their palate with restraint. Yet when given the choice between that perfectly ripe peach with a touch of firmness and acidity and Turkey Hill’s Peaches and Cream Ice Cream, I think I’ll take the former, with a little help from my buddy, RediWhip.

Turkey Hill Peaches and Cream

• Price: $2.50 (On sale at Weis)
• Ranking: 6/10
• Chances I’d Buy Again: 40%