Whenever I’m across town near The Fresh Market, I always stop in to see if they have any interesting flavors from the likes of Steve’s, Graeter’s or Jeni’s. After scanning over their selection of pints for a few minutes, I was ready to walk out empty handed. Over the past year, I’d talked myself into trying some of the prepackaged gelatos from The Fresh Market and remembering how they had been above average, I moved on to see what some of the larger containers had to offer. Passing over the gelato, it was their Apple Pie ice cream that caught my attention this time. Apple pie themed flavors always seem to sit well with me and the description of vanilla ice cream with chunks of apple, cinnamon swirls & pie crust pieces sounded particularly enticing.
The $4.99 plus tax that I charged to my card secured me 12 servings of premium ice cream that would set me back a measly 160 calories each. After returning home and lifting off the lid, the first layer looked promising. Littered within the off-white, vanilla ice cream, exposed pieces of pie crust and concentrated splotches of cinnamon swirl had me reminiscing on apple pie ice cream experiences of the past before I dug in. The Fresh Market’s vanilla has a consistency that’s in line with other premium, generic ice creams, which is still dense enough to be considered premium ice cream, while still lacking the high butterfat content to stick around for an extended period of time. Even though I tried to fill my spoon with just the base, the cinnamon-sugar flavoring from the pie crust and swirls had infiltrated the vanilla (in a good way).
Perhaps the most important part of a pie-themed flavor are the pie crust pieces and these rank among the best I’ve had. These various sized chunks not only provide a crunchy texture, but also brings some authenticity to the whole apple pie experience. While the description had me worried about oversized slivers of frozen apples, The Fresh Market keeps restricts their size to avoid an icy consistency. It wasn't until I landed a bite featuring a sizable cluster of pie crust and a large concentration of cinnamon swirl that I realized the full potential of this flavor. The potent, cinnamon sugar stripes combined with the pie crust and vanilla to create one of the better apple pie ice cream interpretations I’ve ever had. So if you’ve tried all the interesting options from the top tier brands at The Fresh Market, keep your eye open for their own brand of gelatos and ice creams. They’ve proven to be pretty dependable.
Where I Found It: The Fresh Market
Grade: B
