REVIEW: Publix Premium New York Cherry Cheesecake (Limited Edition)

After trying their Chocolate Peanut Butter Pretzel Sensation a few weeks ago, I was encouraged to further explore the new limited edition offerings from Publix. Themed around a Broadway production, Publix Premium's latest comes in the form of New York Cherry Cheesecake. Although I've had quite a collection of cheesecake creations over my ice cream career, Jeni's Splendid Goat Cheese with Red Cherries was the only one to revolve around the small red fruit. Although I'm not expecting the same quality in this carton, the description of cheesecake-flavored ice cream with a tart cherry ribbon and graham crust pieces keeps me optimistic, especially after popping off the top and taking a peek inside.

In addition, since this only contains 170 calories per serving, it's a lot less calorie dense than it's adversary from Jeni's. Thick enough to resist the edge of my spoon, I finally get a bowl filled with the impressive looking ice cream above. The vivid red stripes of cherry sauce and dark pieces of graham cracker crust look even more enticing when contrasted against the light-colored cheesecake base. Since I'm well versed in the realm of cheesecake-flavored ice cream, and haven't had any from Publix Premium, I'm looking forward to my first experience. The bright white base leads with the familiar taste of cream cheese, but has a nice balance of sweetness on the back end. Although this isn't on the level of Jeni's when it comes to complexity, the mildness should allow the mix-ins to flourish.

The density of the cheesecake ice cream walks the line between the lower-calorie likes of Edy's and Blue Bunny and the premiums like Ben & Jerry's. The cherry swirl seemingly makes it's way into nearly every bite, adding an aesthetically pleasing red-striped design throughout the entire carton. The taste didn't have the bitter tartness of other sour swirls I've seen, but instead acts much like the finishing drizzle of sauce placed on an authentic piece of cheesecake, only adding a slight sweetness and a bit of a texture. The final component, the graham crust pieces, are among the most unique pie crust pieces available. Where most are slightly crunchy and finish with a gritty feel, these share the same consistency as a soft, chewy cookie. So if you're in the mood for Jeni's Goat Cheese with Red Cherries and money is an issue, as well as availability, Publix Premium's product should act as an acceptable substitute.

Where I Found It: Publix
Grade: C

REVIEW: Blue Bell Chocolate Covered Cherries

As I soon as we received the Reader Review of Blue Bell’s Chocolate Covered Cherries, we were on high alert to locate a carton. This combination of smooth, creamy cherry ice cream with heart-shaped chocolate covered cherry candies and a thick chocolate sundae sauce swirl wouldn’t be the first time chocolate and cherries had come together in ice cream, but this description sounded far better than the competition.

After seeing the amount of chocolate sauce and candies they stuff inside this carton, the 180 calories per serving is more than reasonable. The cherry ice cream tastes comparable to other cherry ice creams on the market, but that’s where the similarities stop. The sundae sauce swirl is the same one found in flavors like Coconut Fudge or Century Sundae and it just as impressive as before. Blue Bell is one of the best in the business when it comes to your basic chocolate sauce swirl.

Blue Bell fully expresses the theme of this flavor by tossing in a high amount of chocolate covered cherry candies to accompany the cherry ice cream and chocolate sauce. While the outside of these are made of chocolate, as soon as the thin exterior is cracked, a concentrated cherry syrup center is released. When combined with the cherry ice cream and thick, fudge swirl, this was one of the best cherry-based ice creams we’ve had.

Where I Found It: Walmart
Grade: A

READER REVIEW: Steve's Review of Blue Bell Chocolate Covered Cherries

Passing by my local Target freezer the other day, my eyes did a double-take at the sight of a cherry-red carton in the Blue Bell section. Turns out that in the midst of their holiday offerings, Blue Bell has added "Chocolate Covered Cherries" as a December rotational flavor. Reading the carton label revealed that this is a smooth, creamy cherry ice cream with heart-shaped chocolate covered cherry candies and a thick chocolate sundae sauce swirl. Since this sounded like a bunch of cherry cordials embedded within Blue Bell's excellent cherry-base ice cream, I pounced at the opportunity to taste it!

Opening the lid, I was greeted by a very enticing sight: A base ice cream colored deep-cherry, and interspersed by thick bands of chocolate sauce. This sauce looked like someone mixed a can of Hershey's chocolate syrup into the ice cream! Alas, I did not see any cherry cordial mix-ins, which was the real reason I was so eager to eat this tub. I was really hoping that these cordials would be generously mixed in, but not to worry! As soon as my spoon started exploring beneath the surface, I hit pay-dirt.

"Chocolate covered cherries" is a fantastic ice cream flavor, one that i compare favorably to similar offerings such as Ben & Jerry's "Cherry Garcia". The mix-ins do indeed taste like a good cherry cordial. The surrounding chocolate shell is basically the same as Blue Bell uses for their Happy Tracks peanut butter cups (in other words, a very tasty chocolate!), and the inner cherry, rather than being a hard candy, is a soft, syrupy center that bursts in your mouth when teeth penetrate the candy shell. Having these cordials burst in your mouth is a treat by itself, but having that occur in the context of the ice cream is scrumptious. The base really tastes like a true cherry ice cream as opposed to a weakly-flavored vanilla, and the chocolate syrup is a thick ribbon. Best of all, syrup and cordials are generously supplied top to bottom. If you like cherry cordial candies and a decadent cherry ice cream, this flavor is for you!

Where Steve Found It: Target

Steve's Grade: A

READER REVIEW: Elliot's Review of New Orleans Ice Cream Co. Mint Chocolate Cookie and Cherries Jubilee

New Orleans Ice Cream Company is a brand that has a special place in my heart. In a world of ice cream where a prevalent trend is to throw around often meaningless, misleading or ambiguous terms like artisan, small batch and from scratch, this company has said from the beginning that they didn't invent ice cream, they are just good at flavoring it and specialize in churning out fun, New Orleans themed flavors.

The ice cream itself is held together with gums that serve as emulsifiers and stabilizers. These ingredients get the job done to hold things together and provide consistency and mouthfeel. This is a common practice in the world of ice cream, even among so many self-proclaimed artisans. There's nothing evil about that approach, it is really a matter of what you get in the end product, your preference and desire for transparency. New Orleans Ice Cream Company relies on this approach and is more apt to highlight the flavors they infuse to create a memorable experience. Personally, if I were able to have the best of both worlds, I'd always choose my platonic ideal ice cream made by an artisan from only milk, cream, eggs and sugar to create a consistent, low overrun, high butterfat base upon which to build a flavor. When there is a specific or unique flavor profile I'd like to enjoy that's not available in a product directly in line with my preference, I may choose a stabilized product.

Let's start with their Mint Chocolate Cookie:

While Mint Chocolate Cookie isn't a New Orleans themed flavor, some of the profits garnered from sales of this flavor are donated to the Make it Right http://makeitright.org/ movement to build homes in communities in need in New Orleans. According to the company, getting the "crackle" / sugary swirl right was a labor of love.

While plenty of sweet, crunchy, well-textured mint chocolate cookies to soak up the spotlight, the sugar "crackle" and mild mint flavored base carries this pint the rest of the way home. This is an altogether enjoyable mint chocolate ice cream, especially if you like your ice cream on the lighter and sweeter end of the spectrum.

This is a great example of how the brand leverages their approach to create a distinctly flavored, consistent product. The stabilizers add durability and some shelf life, and help to keep the mix ins crunchy. The downside with this type of construction is that past a certain point, when you leave this out to temper/soften, the dam breaks and the valley gets flooded, as the ice cream will fall apart.

Elliot's Grade: B

And now on to Cherries Jubilee:

Many of the Crescent City themed flavors from New Orleans Ice Cream Co. have been able to win me over. I've worked my way through most of their catalogue, coming away holding them in high regard. Cherries Jubilee was one of the pints I cared for the least.

Due to it's boozy nature, Cherries Jubilee is a dessert that was too grown up for my taste as a child, and even still. The flavor was lifted from a New Orleans menu and deconstructed into ice cream. This is one of the lighter offerings in the New Orleans Ice Cream Company lineup, and the short ingredient list reveals a reliance upon brandy and orange liqueur for flavor.

The alcohol taste is slightly diminished by letting the flavor temper, allowing the sweetness the cherries provided to carry the flavor a bit. If you're a big fan of the taste element that liquor brings to ice cream, this might be a welcome addition to your ice cream stash.

Elliot's Grade: D

REVIEW: Blue Bell Century Sundae

The end of the month is usually pretty unexciting in the world of ice cream. Most new releases tend to come out near the beginning of a month, so finding interesting flavors to blog about can become pretty difficult at this point. Luckily, I ran across a Blue Bell flavor that I’d been dying to get my hands on: Century Sundae. This carton celebrates the 100 year anniversary of Blue Bell (established back in 1907) and includes the company’s all-time best seller, Homemade Vanilla. To accompany one of the best vanilla ice creams on the market, they’ve also included swirls of caramel and chocolate, whipped topping and maraschino cherries.

The ability of Blue Bell to keep these incredible creations under 200 calories per serving is always appreciated and they’ve managed to keep this one at 180 calories per serving. Unlike other companies, it doesn’t seem like they have to compromise taste or creativity to keep the nutrition facts in check either. They’ve found a happy medium between calories and overall experience that is unlike any other company I’ve found. The first layer of this particular flavor looks similar to many banana split offerings I’ve seen in the past, but became considerably better looking once a few scoops were taken out of the top.

Blue Bell’s Homemade Vanilla was impressive enough to secure a B back when I reviewed it by itself, so it came as no surprise that with the addition of a thick chocolate and caramel sauce, Century Sundae had enough to make the leap to the next level. The gaudy swirls flow throughout the entire carton and are included in high enough amounts that they force themselves into nearly every bite. While the cherries don’t add much aside from an authentic sundae feel, they don’t do any damage either. Seeing how well their Homemade Vanilla plays with others in Century Sundae, I’m surprised they don’t incorporate it into some of their more intricate flavors.

Where I Found It: Ingles Markets
Grade: A

REVIEW: New Orleans Ice Cream Co. Mississippi Debris

The fifth stop of my tour through the flavors of New Orleans Ice Cream Company, Mississippi Debris has a rather impressive ingredients list. At first glance it appears this pint was produced merely by taking their chocolate base and tossing in every chocolate covered mix-in they could get their hands on. I'm a bit worried that this offering may result in cocoa overload.

With a smorgasbord of chocolate including brownies, truffles, malt balls, cherry cups and an influx of fudge chunks and swirls, they leave nothing to the imagination. With so many options in such close proximity to one another, and drowning in chocolate ice cream, I keep the lid handy so I can refer back to the index in order to see exactly what I'm munching on. It's impossible to grab just the chocolate ice cream, so I opt for a little bit of the fudge swirl for my first bite.

The rich chocolate ice cream is on par with the quality of their vanilla. It provides the perfect foundation to flaunt all these mix-ins. The most inconspicuous of the ingredients, the fudge swirl amplifies the chocolate base more than I had anticipated. Even richer than the ice cream, the thickness requires some chewing and as I'd soon find out, hard to differentiate from the fudge truffles.

Then came the copious amount of chocolate mix-ins. The brownie bits were decadent, dense and took multiple bites to break down. The chocolate flakes, as hard pieces of fudge tend to be, are more of a hinderance than a highlight. The truffles were the same consistency and texture as the fudge swirl, but consisted of a more complex, dark chocolate.

Then came these. These malt balls aren't your standard Whoppers. Coated in high quality chocolate, the crunch from these are audible in different area codes. Unfortunately there were only four or five of these, but with this magnitude of mix-ins, I can't complain. The chocolate covered almonds didn't differ in quality and combined with the malt balls to really beef up the texture.

Another kicker came with the cherry cups. I wasn't sure what to expect, but these ended up being like miniature chocolate-covered cherries that were able to completely change the flavor profile of the entire ice cream. The finishing touch comes with bits of real marshmallow. These mini-mallows were the most accurate marshmallow interpretation I've seen in an ice cream. The fluffiness and texture were tremendous. New Orleans Ice Cream leave no stone unturned in this unique offering. I thought I would get burnt out on so much chocolate, but the high-quality, high-quantity ingredients won't allow that to happen. So sit down, relax and prepare to take your time with this slow-moving pint.

Where I Found This: Ice Cream Source
Grade: A

REVIEW: Breyers Real Fruit Toppings

After enjoying a few servings from my pint of Ben & Jerry’s Vanilla, I found myself looking for some of my own mix-ins to add to the equation. I immediately thought of the collection of Breyers toppings that I had sitting unused in my cabinet. Their Rainbow and Chocolate sprinkles hadn’t been half bad and I still top some of my ice cream with a few shakes of each. This time I decided to give their Real Fruit Toppings a shot.

I went through the three types in this particular order: Mixed Berry, Cherry and Strawberry. Each contained 45 calories per 2 tablespoon serving and made sure to let everyone know that these are made with “Real Fruit” and contain no high fructose corn syrup. Putting my distaste for Breyers ice cream aside, I went into this review trying to give their toppings a fair opportunity. With that said, it didn’t take long for me to find something negative to say. As soon as I opened the lid, the strange, lumpy, gelatinous mixture lacked the aesthetics of scoop-shop fruit toppings and it only went down hill from there. While the Mixed Berry was by far the worst, the cherry and strawberry weren’t much better. The mixed berry was far too tart, the cherry far too artificial, and the strawberry came off as a poor imitation of strawberry jam.

Mixed Berry

Cherry

Strawberry

As you can see from the pictures, even when spooned directly over the top of the ice cream, the “real fruit topping” ended up pooling up around the sides and bottom, but ended up being beneficial considering it wasn't able to ruin the super-premium vanilla ice cream until the end. If you’re feeling in the mood for some fruit with your ice cream, I suggest heading towards the produce section for the real thing instead of this “real fruit topping”, whatever that means.

SCOOP SHOP READER REVIEW: Winston's Review of the Graeter's 1870 Tower

One of Graeter’s signature desserts, "The 1870 tower” caught my attention during a recent visit to the local Graeter’s Ice Cream scoop shop. Described as “A fresh chocolate bundt cake filled with hot fudge, a scoop of black raspberry chip ice cream, drizzled with hot fudge, topped with whipped cream, pecans and a cherry”, how could I resist?

Upon questioning, the employee reported that the bundt cake is not actually what I would call “fresh”, but comes frozen. I watched as the employee poured a considerable amount (~3 TBSP) of chocolate fudge over the palm-sized warm chocolate bundt cake, followed by a massive (~3/4cup) scoop of their signature black chocolate raspberry ice cream; I was severely impressed.

The taste and satisfaction of the dessert proved nothing short of a masterpiece: the bundt cake oozed with moist, rich chocolate and fudge flavoring; the ice cream delivered an extremely rich base without any real tartness and melted into the gooey fudge and bundt cake; the nuts integrated a fantastic crunch and texture contrast; the whipped cream offered a light kick to the overall richness.

If you make your way to a Graeter’s, you absolutely must try this dessert.

Where Winston Found It: Graeter’s Scoop Shop
Winston's Grade : A

REVIEW: Jeni's Splendid Goat Cheese With Red Cherries

The first few times I looked into the Jeni's Splendid selections I was a bit scared away by the thoughts of Goat Cheese and Red Cherries. Goat cheese always tends to be just a tad too tangy for my liking and cherries are among my least favorite fruits when adopted into desserts. It wasn't until I jogged over to Jeni's site that I realized this was actually her rendition of a cheesecake ice cream. She describes this as sweet/tart cherries balanced by the natural tang of pure goat cheese. Like a rich, luscious cherry cheesecake, but less dense.

Now that I've grown accustomed to companies displaying the description on the outside of the carton, I loath those who don't. I want to be able to read what I'm eating while I'm eating it. The descriptions provided by Jeni's aren't only informative, but she also shares the experience you're about to be taken on. For instance, before I even take my first bite I know that this creamy and subtly tangy goat cheese ice cream is going to be the perfect base for juicy bursts of tart red cherries. All of her descriptions thus far have been spot-on. Staying true to the slow food movement and supporting local establishments, Jeni's sources her goat cheese goodness from Mackenzie Creamery, owned and operated by Jean Mackenzie in Northern Ohio.

To my surprise only about a fourth of the ice cream held the impression of the lid after taking off the top. The consistency of the goat cheese ice cream becomes evident right away, before even tasting it. It lacks the absolute smoothness you'd suspect, and instead lets the look and feel of actual goat cheese remain incorporated. My first taste takes me by surprise. This is such a unique taste on classic cheesecake ice cream. The slightly-sweet, tangy base is tremendous. If the corkscrew of cherry swirl can prove up to par, we may have a real winner.

I'm always suspicious of selections lacking a crunchy aspect. I've had way too many unenjoyable experiences with flavors that tend to forget about adding texture. The goat cheese was a peculiar approach at adding texture, but the real curveball came with the cherries. Scooping through the swirl of shredded cherries emitted an interesting sound. My suspicions were confirmed when I chomped down. Not only did the cherries offer tid-bits of tartness, they also shared the same crunch as Rice Krispies. Accompanying the crispy feel of the fruit was also a sweet syrup that trailed behind; a dangerous duo when gathered between gobs of goat cheese ice cream. And these aren't your standard radioactive looking red marciano cherries. These are remindful of farm-fresh, recently plucked, nearly-purple-they're-so-ripe cherries.

The tangy goat cheese ice cream with crunchy, cherry fruit-fragments results in an unforgettable cheesecake experience. The unique approach that Jeni utilizes in her takes on traditional flavors is something I can't help but appreciate. Anyone can do things with their own twists, but these Splendid selections aren't only different, they demand admiration.

Where I Found It: The Fresh Market
Grade: A