Review: Island Farms "Original Moose Tracks" Ice Cream

After all this time we're super behind on reviews and the queue of products seems to be a mile long. However, I feel that it's about time 2G1S did a review of one of my favourites: Islands Farms Original Moose Tracks Ice Cream.

It's no secret that I love this stuff. As you may have gathered from the reviews of Lucerne's Nuttin' Better and Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter, I kind of like peanut butter and chocolate. A lot. A lot. And this product is the beginning of my love affair with that combo in ice cream form. Now, Moose Tracks is not an Island Farms creation by any means, but here in BC, it is marketed under this brand. And there are now a boatload of different Moose Tracks varieties and flavours to choose from. However, the original will always be my favourite: awesome in its purest form.

This product consists of "vanilla flavoured ice cream with peanut butter cups and famous Moose Tracks fudge".  In my most recent carton, some of the fudge was overblended with the ice cream in places, resulting in spots that looked like they contained chocolate ice cream as well (as you can see in the photo). The fudge ribbon (for lack of a better term) is richly chocolatey and sweet (but not overpowering), melts easily in your mouth, and it is balanced well by the vanilla. The peanut butter cups are small, but there is a generous distribution of them, so the peanut butter flavour is never lacking. Overall, this is a well-done, tried-and-true variation on the peanut butter and chocolate theme that never fails to please in this neck of the woods!


Recommend to a friend? Absolutely
Repurchase? Of course - this will always be a delicious standby

Review: Lucerne "Nuttin' Better" Ice Cream

It's really disappointing to me that there are no Safeways within a reasonable driving distance, because their house brand, Lucerne, makes some really unique ice cream flavours. In fact, their seasonal Christmas flavours are so unique I may have to take a road trip to get my hands on some of them for testing. However, one of my friends, K, lives much closer to a Safeway and was nice enough to purchase a box of Lucerne ice cream for us to try. Since K is a master of puns, it was only appropriate that she select Nuttin' Better, vanilla ice cream with a peanut butter ribbon and chocolate flakes.

The top layer of Nuttin' Better - where's the peanut butter?

Holy mother of legumes, batman! Peanut butter in droves!

While I would normally sample ice cream in small custard cup sized bowls to avoid overdoing it, at K's house they don't mess around when it comes to size: it's go big or go home! Having to eat such a big bowl of ice cream might have been a problem if it had been mediocre, but this was certainly not the case here. Not only was the vanilla ice cream pleasing in both taste and texture, and the chocolate very tasty as well, the peanut butter swirl was pretty bomb. Lucerne was very generous with the swirl, and it was not hard to find large deposits of peanut butter in every serving. Basically the peanut butter seemed like something you might actually be inclined to spread on your toast, and it had a very nice balance between sweet and salty which worked well with the vanilla. K, her boyfriend, and I all enjoyed this selection and despite the bowl size I think we all went back for seconds...

Recommend to a friend? Yes: if you are a peanut butter fan, you will be pleased by the generous amount of peanut butter in this selection – it definitely doesn't take a back seat!

Repurchase? Yes, if I am ever in the vicinity of a Safeway!

Review: Ben and Jerry's "If I Had 1,000,000 Flavours" Ice Cream

As proud Canadians, we were excited to get our hands on this creation by Ben and Jerry's: If I Had 1,000,000 Flavours. Note the "u" in "flavours"! This is one of several Ben and Jerry's ice creams based on songs or bands, and is inspired by the Barenaked Ladies song "If I Had A Million Dollars". True, BNL has had some scandal over the past couple of years, but that doesn't mean we can't enjoy the song that still frequents the muzak of grocery stores everywhere. Especially when it comes in ice cream form.

Disappointingly, this ice cream does not literally contain 1,000,00 flavours, but I supposed that would have been extremely hard to fit into one carton. It's a "collision of chocolate & vanilla ice creams mixed with chocolate-covered toffee, white chocolate chunks, peanut butter cups, and chocolate-covered almonds." It's 999,994 flavours short of a million, but it still sounds delicious and does give more variety than the average pint.

We divided the cartoon between us and dug in to see just how many flavours we could find. There was a fairly even distribution of chocolate and vanilla ice creams, and the chocolate was quite nice. The vanilla tasted OK but it had this weird gritty texture to it. I didn't notice it at first, but once J called my attention to it, it was pretty hard to ignore. It wasn't ice crystals or mix-ins. It was almost...dusty feeling and not at all pleasant. And it was only present in the vanilla for some reason.

In the battle of penny VS peanut butter cup, the peanut butter cup takes home the prize!

As for the mix-ins, Ben and Jerry's did not skimp, especially on the peanut butter cups. Those suckers were HUGE. The white chocolate chunks were also a decent size, and while we found very few chocolate-covered almonds, they were a nice size. J swears she found a chocolate covered peanut in hers, not something listed in the ingredients. However, neither of us were able to find any toffee in either of our bowls. Overall, we felt like the distribution was more like "If I Had 1,000,000 Peanut Butter Cups" than "1,000,000 Flavours".

Our overall feeling on this flavour is that is was good but it felt more like variations on the theme of chocolate, rather than the true mix that is suggested by the name. We love peanut butter cups, and chocolate, but would have loved even more the addition of something like cookie pieces, caramel, nuts, coconut... And the dusty, gritty texture of the vanilla was really hard to ignore. Perhaps having a more even distribution of mix-ins would've made this a more exciting experience (and actually having some toffee would have been nice!)

There is also a nice article written about the band's reaction to the release of this flavour.

Recommend to a friend? Yes, especially if you consider yourself to be a chocoholic. We think that the texture issue with the vanilla was a freak occurrence, but if it was not, then we would be much more hesitant to recommend this.
Repurchase? J: If the texture of the vanilla was improved, yes. B: Since this ice cream was so much about the peanut butter cups, at least in our pint, I would be inclined to get Island Farms "Moose Tracks" instead and get more ice cream for my money.

Review: Haagen Dazs "Chocolate Peanut Butter"

Haagen Dazs ice creams... generally delicious and high quality, but damn are they expensive! So are we ever pleased that they are available in individually sized cups - at 3/$5, J and I can sample and review multiple flavours without totally breaking the bank (not to mention that it relieves the pressure of having to finish off a full carton for each flavour!)

The first in our line up of Haagen Dazs flavours for review is Chocolate Peanut Butter. Chocolate and peanut butter has got to be one of the most iconic combinations of all time. It's right up there with bacon and cheeseburger! OK, J is a vegetarian, so maybe they're not that comparable. But chocolate and peanut butter are definitely a winning pair. Unless you have peanut allergies...Well, darn.

Once we got the lid off (which was actually quite a challenge, though it did reveal the tiny spoon that was included in the container), we found a rich chocolate ice cream with peanut butter pockets throughout. It was extremely hard to see the peanut butter, even when digging through the ice cream, but you could definitely notice it once you were actually eating. The texture of the peanut butter in the ice cream is a bit waxy at first, but once it warms up, it's smooth like just peanut butter from a jar.

I must admit that when I think of chocolate and peanut butter, I think of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. The peanut butter in the candy is a bit salty and somewhat gritty because it has some coarsely ground peanuts in it. So as a result, I was expecting something similar from the peanut butter in this ice cream. However, the peanut butter in Haagen Dazs is, as J put it, essentially what you would expect if you were getting Kraft peanut butter from a jar. It's smooth and tastes mostly like roasted peanut, rather than added sugar or salt. I think I would have liked it to be a little saltier, just for the contrast with the sweetness of the ice cream, but J appreciated that it didn't conform to my preconceived notion of what chocolate and peanut butter should be. And I do have to agree, this is an original and purist take on chocolate-peanut butter, not something trying to imitate the classic candy.

Recommend to a friend? Yes
Repurchase? J + B: Yes