Having recently reviewed the amazing Gifford’s Mount Katahdin Crunch, I found myself in the mood for something similarly toffee-based after working my way through the entire quart in only a few days’ time. I found a pint of Adirondack’s Barkeater stashed in my freezer and figured it would fit the bill nicely. The flavor is described as vanilla ice cream with English almond toffee, which sounded fantastic to me.
When I first peeled back the lid, I was pleasantly surprised to find several toffee pieces already peeking out. And as I dug deeper, I found that the mix-in ratio was pretty respectable. The toffee pieces were scattered nicely throughout, and it was easy to get a taste of the toffee in practically every bite.
Unfortunately, the more I ate this ice cream, the more I realized that wasn’t actually a good thing. For some reason, the toffee brittle itself was just way too sweet for me—and this is coming from someone who doesn’t shy away from candy and chocolate, even in non-ice cream form. Adirondack uses homemade toffee as opposed to a commercially available candy like Heath, so maybe something went awry with this particular batch. Or maybe their recipe is just designed to produce a much sweater toffee product than the ones I’m used to. Either way, the toffee just didn’t do it for me.
The vanilla base, on the other hand, was creamy and rich, and it worked to somewhat tame the cloying sweetness of the toffee so that the ice cream, on a whole, was still fairly decent. In fact, I was able to get a few bites of the vanilla alone and enjoyed them considerably.
I’d be curious to know whether others who have tried this flavor feel the same way about the sweetness of the toffee. I have to say, I’m surprised at how much I really didn’t like it. Maybe part of it stems from the fact that I have really high standards when it comes to toffee-based ice creams, especially given the competition from Gifford’s and Ben & Jerry’s. I do think hardcore toffee fans will appreciate the rich, super sweet toffee flavor and abundance of brittle this flavor sports. But as for me, I guess I need something a little less intense—that, and a glass of milk to wash this stuff down.
Where Mo Found It: Whole Foods
Mo's Grade: C
