Review: President's Choice “Loads of Pecan Butter Tart” Ice Cream

J and I have both finished the classroom portion of our university program, and are currently in the practical part. While it's nice to be out of the stuffy university building, that does mean that J has moved back to her home further north to do her practical segment up there, and that means that our ice cream reviews will no longer be done together. But never fear! We will still be reviewing many a treat, just not both of us on the same one. Without any further review, here is the 2G1S review of another President's Choice product, Loads of Pecan Butter Tart ice cream.

Since we reviewed President's Choice's Pumpkin Pie ice cream, it has become our most viewed post, with many people coming to view this blog by googling the product...and it's a good thing too, because we wouldn't want people to miss out on something as awesomely delicious as PC Pumpkin Pie ice cream was. I was excited, therefore, to review a second pastry-inspired ice cream in President's Choice “Loads of Pecan Butter Tart”, one of the selections in their “loads of” series that focuses on ice creams with “loads of” mix-ins. I love butter tarts, as they have strong associations for me with cold weather and the spirit of giving, and with the weather getting nastier by the day it only seemed appropriate to give myself the gift of butter tarts in ice cream form.

This product advertises itself as “yummy butter tart flavoured ripple ice cream, positively packed with butter tart pieces and praline pecans”. Normally I like to have raisins in my butter tarts, but it is totally understandable that they were not included in this mix. The ice cream itself is light brown in colour and while there don't appear to be too many mix-ins on the surface, they are plentiful once you get past the first layer. Now, butter tarts are a sugary, sugary beast, so I was initially a bit concerned that this ice cream would be too sweet to handle. I guess there's only one way to find out, so let the taste testing begin!

Oh. My. Word.

This stuff is just... amazing. In fact, I kind of don't want to stop eating it.

First off, this isn't nearly as sweet as I anticipated it might be. At first I thought the ice cream base was almost maple flavoured, but after a moment or so I realized that what I was tasting was a rich brown sugar flavour and that it was surprisingly well-balanced in terms of sweetness. Well played, PC. Your product development team saw the potential pitfall and made it a non-issue. The praline pecans are fairly small but well distributed, and they give a nice nutty, earthy flavour to the whole thing which gives it some added depth. PC wasn't lying when they named this thing: there is literally loads of tart pastry pieces. Again, they are not very sweet, and they're a bit crunchy. Overall, they remind me a bit of commercial shortbread, and they work really, really well with the brown sugar ice cream base.

This whole concoction just meshes together so well. The flavours are well balanced, the sugar is just the right amount, the differences in texture are great, and the overall feeling is one of ice cream nirvana. Oddly enough, I never did find the “rippled” part of the ice cream listed in the description, but whatever it was supposed to be, it was either mixed in enough to where the flavour melded with the ice cream, or it wasn't necessary to begin with. President's Choice got this one so, so right, and if you have access to this brand, you should make a point to try this out.

Recommend to a friend? Yes! What are you waiting for? Get in your car and drive to your nearest Superstore or Extra Foods!

Repurchase? Yes x 1,000,000! (got J to try this, and she is also a big fan)

Review: President's Choice "Pink Lemonade"

 Our first pink ice cream selection in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month:

The weather is starting to turn chilly, so we decided we wanted a little taste of summer to boost our spirits. What better way to do this than sampling pink lemonade in ice cream form, one of the flavours in the President's Choice ice cream shop line? And yes, it's an ice cream - not a sorbet, a sherbet, or a gelato, an ice cream. Maybe a bit odd for a citrus flavour...but we're curious to see how President's Choice makes this work!

The things you learn when you're blogging: pink lemonade is apparently the same as regular lemonade, except that it is dyed with pink food colouring to sometimes indicate that it is somewhat sweeter. It can also, however, be dyed with natural substances such as grenadine and cranberry juice which will not only sweeten it but also alter the flavour slightly. Thanks wikipedia! The colour of this ice cream is, indeed, pink, almost like a bubblegum or cotton candy pink. It was a bit weird to be eating a citrus dessert of this colour, but not really a big deal. This ice cream was easy to scoop out and almost had a "fluffy" texture, like it had been whipped or something.

In terms of taste, the closest comparison is probably lemon yogurt. J regularly buys lemon yogurt to eat with breakfast or as a snack, so it's a taste we were both familiar with already. Otherwise, the combination of citrus and dairy might have been a bit off-putting. Normally lemon-flavoured frozen desserts take the form of a sorbet or a gelato, which lets the taste of the lemon juice shine through uninhibited - such desserts have a really clean and refreshing flavour. The flavour of PC pink lemonade was refreshing in its own way, but the dairy aspect gave it a certain depth or richness that you wouldn't find in a gelato. It almost tones down the lemon flavour, the way that would add sour cream to a spicy salsa to balance the flavours. If you are expecting the same experience you would get with a lemon gelato or sorbet, you will be initially thrown off when you taste this product, but overall it is a pleasant ice cream.

Recommend to a friend? If you like lemon yogurt, you will most likely enjoy this. This flavour won't be for everyone, but it adds an innovative richness to the array of currently available citrus frozen desserts.
Repurchase? J: Absolutely B: Maybe. I feel like I might be more inclined to purchase lemon yogurt if I were craving this flavour, as I am more partial to the clean, fresh taste you would get in a citrus gelato. But I certainly wouldn't blacklist this one.

Review: President's Choice "Pumpkin Pie" Ice Cream

Sometimes we must make reconciliations in the name of progress. For example, my experience with Loblaws (the company that owns Superstore and Extra Foods) has not necessarily been positive, and I am hesitant to give them my money. However, even I have to admit that President's Choice products, their house brand, are usually pretty freakin' awesome, and that includes their ice cream. So I put my prejudice aside, and J and I went to Superstore to see if there was anything worth reviewing. We were certainly not disappointed.

Though we will have to return to sample some other President's Choice flavours, but we decided to start off with Pumpkin Pie ice cream, which is billed as "A seasonal favourite in ice cream form: luscious pumpkin pie filling with spiced graham cracker pieces – just like a pumpkin pie." Thanksgiving is (kind of) just around the corner, after all. Starbucks is rolling out the Pumpkin Spice lattes and everything! And heck, even if it wasn't, is there really a bad time for pumpkin pie? I mean, really?

The lid, for your viewing pleasure

Given our last reviewing experience, we were feeling a bit cynical about what might be in the ingredients of such a concoction. However, we were pleased to discover that nearly everything listed sounded like....well, food. Something you can read and go "Oh yea, I know what that is, and I would certainly let it within ten feet of my digestive system." When the ingredients of the "pumpkin pie base" of the ice cream portion read "brown sugar, pumpkin purée, water, modified corn starch, modified milk ingredients, natural colour, caramel colour, salt, cinnamon," this is certainly a strong start for this contender. Because honestly, it could be a heck of a lot worse.

This picture, we feel, is not entirely accurate in its portrayal of what colour this ice cream actually is. This sort of looks like a light caramel, whereas when we took off the lid and protective seal, the initial reaction was "Eeee, really?" It was orange. Which is fine, pumpkins are orange. Pumpkin pie is orange. But this was just a very odd-looking shade of orange, like almost peach-crayon, and for a moment I felt like maybe I needed to double-check the ingredients list. This picture also doesn't really give a good idea of how many spiced graham cracker pieces there were. Because there were a lot. I mean look!

And the pilgrims gave thanks for the bountiful graham cracker harvest...

But how does it taste, you ask? How can we put this into words...

It was absolutely freakin' amazing. Man, this stuff is what that Breyers Vanilla Baked Apple wants to be when it grows up. Everything Breyers did wrong when trying to emulate pie flavour, PC has done right.

The main star of the show in this ice cream is definitely the spiced graham cracker component. These guys are a great bite size (see below for scale), and are the main conveyers of spice. Both J and I were reminded strongly of speculaas cookies, as they were sweet but not too sweet and carried some very tasty spice flavours. They were also surprisingly crunchy, rather than having absorbed a ton of liquid from the ice cream.

Graham cracker piece VS penny

As for the ice cream part, it was very creamy with just the right amount of sugar. However, it didn't really taste like pumpkin. Don't get me wrong, it was still totally awesome, but not distinctly pumpkin-y. Pumpkin is kind of a bland fruit (vegetable?) so I guess we can give them a pass on that. Although the ingredients for the pumpkin pie base that formed the overall flavour for the ice cream included things like cinnamon, we can't really say we tasted any spice in the actual ice cream. Which was fine, as we think balancing the spicy graham crackers with the cool, light flavour of the ice cream worked really well. However, if you come into this expecting the ice cream part to taste exactly like pumpkin pie filling, you will be disappointed.

OK fine, so this ice cream isn't perfect. And as far as actually tasting like pumpkin pie, it may not be spot on. But it is still totally, utterly, ridiculously delicious.

Recommend to a friend? Totally, utterly yes
Repurchase? J: Yes B: Absolutely