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Post by stevejaros on May 9, 2014 16:05:13 GMT -5
Mocha Madness isn't a brand new flavor for Blue Bell, but it has been a few years since it appeared in their rotation, and the last time was before I started eating their ice cream so, well, it's new to me. Thus, when the Ice Cream Informant recently announced its (re)appearance, I was intrigued enough to invest in a tub. As I peeled off the lid, "intrigued" does capture how I felt more than "excited", because I've never been a huge fan of the mocha/coffee ice cream flavor. I like drinking coffee with a dish of ice cream, but past experiences have led me to be indifferent about coffee flavoring in my ice cream. But my opinion seems to be in the minority, as evidenced by several recent reviews of coffee flavored ice creams and gelato's on this forum. So let's dig in and see how this coffee is brewed. Blue Bell describes Mocha Madness as coffee ice cream with pecans, chocolate chips, and caramel sauce. The "mocha" aspect of this flavor's name, the base ice cream, is fine, but nothing special. It does have a nice creamy texture, but tastes like your run-of-the-mill mocha/coffee flavor. Recently, the Ice Cream Informant reviewed a flavor of Steve's brand coffee ice cream and raved about the taste of its "cold-brewed grated cinnamon" flavor. If that ice cream was almost an "A" then Mocha Madness's base is a shaky "C" as it lacks any such sophistication. But Mocha is only half the name of this ice cream. The other half is "madness", and my goodness, does this flavor live up to that name! Blue Bell blows past the mediocre base issue by fortifying this flavor with three marvelous mix-ins. The caramel ribbon is thick, salty, and chewy, it tastes identical to the excellent caramel in their recent Sea Salt Caramel flavor. The pecans are not shaved pieces, rather they are half-nuts, fresh, rich and meaty. And the chocolate pieces are not mere sliver "chips" but rather large rectangular chunk-type chips boasting a savory dark chocolate flavor. Best of all, these mix-ins are provided in copious quantity! Just click on the three-picture panorama. The picture on the left is from just under the surface at the top of the tub. The up-close spoonful was taken half-way down, and the picture on the right shows the bottom of the tub. You can see that this ice cream is a maelstrom of mix-ins top to bottom! Mocha Madness truly does live up to its name. The sheer quantity of mix-ins and their quality is insane. Connoisseurs of sophisticated coffee will probably regard the mediocre base as a fatal flaw capping this ice cream at a lower grade, but my taste buds were completely won over by the way the mix-ins barrage combined with this base to create a delicious ice cream experience. Steve's Grade: A Where Found: Albertson's
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Post by stevejaros on May 5, 2014 16:04:34 GMT -5
I'm with you Steve in that I'm wary against fruit flavored ice creams. I'm not a fan of the frozen fruit pieces those flavors are inclined to contain. Despite that I think I may give this flavor a chance after reading your review. I think I'll opt for a pint rather than a tub however. A pint will work great for this flavor. In my experience, if we're talking a flavor with lots of mix-ins, you get more mix-ins per spoon with a tub. But since RWBB doesn't have those you will get the same flavor experience with a pint.
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Post by stevejaros on May 4, 2014 7:38:02 GMT -5
This is not my favorite time of the year to eat Blue Bell ice cream. As summer approaches, out go the rich, chocolaty, mix-in filled flavors and in come the light, fruity flavors. I'd rather eat I ♥ Chocolate all year long rather than something like Summer Berries during the hot months but I bet Blue Bell knows their market better than I do. Hence the arrival of their newest flavor, Red, White and Blue Bell, which Blue Bell describes as strawberry flavored ice cream with strawberries, vanilla flavored ice cream, and blueberry ice cream with blueberries. Quite honestly, I was not overly excited as I popped open the lid, but sometimes you get a pleasant surprise! Exploring this flavor, we see that the container is divided into three roughly equal pie-shaped areas corresponding to the three advertised flavors. Trying each in turn, I found the vanilla ice cream to be the least satisfying. The label describes this as "vanilla flavored ice cream" not "vanilla ice cream" and this difference appears to be not merely semantic. I love Blue Bell's usual vanilla ice cream base, but this seems to be lighter, not as creamy. Maybe the description made me mentally predisposed to think it wouldn't taste as good, but it didn't. However, the blueberry and strawberry portions were better than I anticipated. One big worry I had going in was that both contained actual fruit pieces, and historically, the weakest aspect of Blue Bell ice cream has been fruit pieces, because in other flavors they are usually frozen solid and taste more like popsicle chunks rather than fruit. Not so here! The strawberry chunks (some very big and substantial) were not frozen and tasted fresh, as were the smaller blueberry pieces. I did let this ice cream melt for a while before I ate it so maybe these pieces were originally frozen, but when I ate them they definitely were not and the flavor was excellent. Also, the blueberry ice cream in particular had a creamy texture and tasted quite good. Finally, when tasted together, I found that the three flavors blended quite nicely into a refreshing fruity concoction. Still, Red, White and Blue Bell (RWBB) lacks the candy mix-ins I crave, and it tastes like the 150-calories per serving flavor it is, lacking the richness of the best Blue Bell flavors. I just had a tub of Caramel Turtle Cheesecake the other day and couldn't help but compare RWBB unfavorably to it, the former is so much richer for your money. But, summer is fruit pie-eating and cobbler season and I imagine this flavor would do splendidly melting over a slice of apple or cherry pie, or as an accompaniment to birthday cake. And if your tastes in ice cream are more inclined to fruit, you'd probably grade it a point higher. Steve's Grade: C+ Where found: Winn-Dixie
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Post by stevejaros on Apr 4, 2014 17:41:58 GMT -5
This has been a rather chocolaty winter and early spring for Blue Bell, what with the release of flavors like I ♥ chocolate and dutch chocolate. This month, another chocolate flavor is added to the parade, Nutty Chocolate. Blue Bell describes this flavor as a rich chocolate ice cream loaded with milk chocolate coated pecans, dark chocolate coated peanuts, white chocolate coated almonds and roasted walnuts. So we're promised lots of different kinds of nuts, most coated with chocolate candy, and immersed in a rich chocolate base ice cream? Oh yes, I am definitely inclined to want some! Of course, promising is one thing, delivering is another. Fortunately, Blue Bell delivers on the description: If you love chocolate ice cream loaded with nuts, this flavor is for you. Nutty chocolate succeeds in terms of both quality and quantity. Quality-wise, the base ice cream tastes pretty good. This is Blue Bell's basic chocolate, almost a milk-chocolate, and while it does not reach the taste heights of their excellent vanilla, it serves as a fine foundation for the mix-ins, which are the stars of this show. The pecans, peanuts, and almonds are all outstanding. These nuts taste very fresh, they crunch in your mouth rather than having a mushy consistency, and the use of different types of nuts creates a nice variety of taste for the palate. This taste diversity is further enhanced by the three kinds of chocolate candy coatings. You can really taste the differences among the milk, dark, and white chocolate that coats these respective nuts, and the roasted walnuts add nicely to the flavor sensation. Quantity-wise, there is no skimping! This ice cream is, start to finish and top to bottom, stuffed chock-full of the various nuts! Peeling off the lid, you see some nuts. Digging in with the spoon reveals even more nuts. The nut-barrage puts this flavor over the top and then some. I found it virtually impossible to carve out a spoonful that contained no nuts, and just about every spoonful had multiple nuts. I suspect that if the chocolate base was judged alone, it would merit a C+ maybe at best a B-, it's OK but nothing special. But the overwhelming quantity and high quality of the nut mix-ins take Nutty Chocolate to the highest level. Grade: A Where Found: Walmart
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Post by stevejaros on Apr 3, 2014 8:04:32 GMT -5
I'm a B&J and HD mark, but my God that Nutty Chocolate sounds awesome! I've had it a few times and it is really good. Chock-full of these various kinds of chocolate-coated nuts. Your mouth just fills up with them, and the base ice cream is good, too. A real winner of a flavor.
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Post by stevejaros on Apr 2, 2014 15:08:55 GMT -5
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Post by stevejaros on Mar 25, 2014 11:35:32 GMT -5
I guess I don't live too deep here in the South because I still can't find Mardi Gras cake anywhere in Birmingham. So bummed. Jen, that does suck. I am sorry, I should have chosen my words better: MDKC is a gulf coast exclusive, so I bet you could find it down in Mobile, but Birmingham is too far removed. FWIW, I am bummed as well, as those in the upper south have been able to enjoy a flavor called "Kentucky Delight" that I would really like to try, but it's not available in Baton Rouge.
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Post by stevejaros on Mar 21, 2014 17:51:23 GMT -5
I love a good banana split - who doesn't? So it was inevitable that I eventually get around to trying Blue Bell's version of this classic treat, an old flavor that they have been making since at least the mid-1990s. Banana Split is described as ... fresh sliced bananas, crushed pineapple, diced maraschino cherries and chopped, roasted almonds into a rich vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce and chocolate sundae sauce. Sounds decadent enough so i was eager to plunge the spoon in. Banana Split is a difficult flavor to evaluate, as there are so many things go on with it, some of which work and some of which do not. On the positive side of the ledger is the combination of the rich and creamy vanilla base and the strawberry sauce, which is tasty, and so evenly distributed that it makes it seem like one is eating a combination of vanilla and strawberry ice cream. The chopped roasted almonds are also a plus, something you can sink your teeth into while adding a nice nutty texture. Finally, the chocolate sundae sauce is another winner. It's really more of a chocolate syrup than a thick sauce, but it sure does taste good and gels nicely with the other ingredients. But, Banana Split is not all to the good. While the label claims that the fruits are "fresh sliced", what we get is frozen. All three fruits are of the frozen variety, which is both unpleasant to bite and saps the fruit of their natural flavors. The bananas fare the best, as they tend to be large slices and hence have a soft, fresh core. But the cherries and pineapple are frozen through and through. Ugh. But, this is one case where mix-in stinginess is rewarded. The fruits are not provided in abundance, meaning that most of the spoonfuls lack them. And when that happens, the synergy among the ice cream, nuts, and various sauces produces a most pleasant sensation in the mouth. Grade: B Where found: Winn Dixie
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Post by stevejaros on Mar 10, 2014 0:15:55 GMT -5
If you like Blue Bell, February and now March are truly salad days. All of the following excellent choices are on the shelves: Caramel Turtle Cheesecake I ♥ Chocolate Happy Tracks Tin Roof Chocolate Covered Cherries Rocky Mountain Road ... and if you are in the deep south, Mardi Gras King Cake It's been a few years since so many flavors I rate an "A" have been available at the same time. Great month!
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Post by stevejaros on Mar 7, 2014 19:13:38 GMT -5
Seems like salt-and-caramel has become what chipotle was five years ago, a newly-hyped taste sensation every food company has to capitalize on. Blue Bell is a little late to this game, as just about every other major ice cream company has released a flavor with this theme. But better late than never! Blue Bell says that Sea Salt Caramel is a creamy vanilla ice cream surrounded by a tasty salted caramel sauce swirl. Hmm. No mention of mix-ins, which doesn't sound promising. Then again, Blue Bell does do vanilla and swirl sauces pretty well, so I'm game to dig in anyway. Sea salt caramel has three good things going for it: The vanilla base, the caramel, and the sea salt. The vanilla is Blue Bell's best base, a pure creamy classic vanilla flavor. The caramel ribbon is generously supplied top to bottom, and the flavor is real caramel, not a butter-scotchy substitute of the kind another reviewer described about a recent Ben and Jerry's offering. This stuff is thick and chewy! And the salt is deftly handled. It is pitched at just the right level of intensity, neither too overpowering nor too weak. The result is a smooth refreshing treat. But, while the components do blend together nicely, the whole is not any greater than the sum of the parts. Unlike say Blue Bell's chocolate peanut butter flavor, where bite after bite the peanut butter slowly builds in your mouth until you feel like you are drowning in its pleasure, sea salt caramel is what it is, start to finish. And this means you do end up missing what is absent, namely a kicker of a mix-in that could provide that extra boost of flavor. So unless I decide I can't afford to eat more than 170 calories a serving, it will probably be a long time before I have this again. I'm glad I ate it, but once is enough. Grade: B- Where found: Walmart
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Post by stevejaros on Feb 23, 2014 9:47:22 GMT -5
I like mint chocolate chip ice cream and also cookies and cream ice cream, so when I heard that Blue Bell had mixed them together into this concoction well, I just had to mix it in to my weekend ice cream feast rotation. Blue Bell says Mint Cookies ‘n Cream is a smooth mint ice cream combined with mint crème-filled chocolate cookies and semi-sweet chocolate chips. Sounds good to me, so let's dig in! Peeling off the lid, I immediately liked what I saw. I had let the ice cream melt in the refrigerator for an hour or so, and this gave the light green base a creamy appearance. I also noticed the flecks of chocolate chips and some evidence of the cookies. Digging in, I found the base mint ice cream to have a delightful mint taste. However, the base also struck my palate as "light", almost as a kind of ice-milk. The mint flavoring was not very strong and the ice cream was, despite the initial melting, somewhat "fluffy" in texture. This base simply does not have the rich, creamy texture of some of Blue Bell's superior flavors. That said, the mix-ins were not in any way disappointing. The chocolate chips were small and flaky, but also provided in plentiful abundance. The best aspect of this flavor was the chocolate cookies. Blue Bell used "house" cookies (i.e., they did not contract with a cookie company like Oreo's for the mix-in) but this works just fine. These cookies have a rich dark chocolate flavor and the larger chunks have the promised mint filling, which provides a creamier mint flavor than the base ice cream. As you can see in this picture, some of these cookie chunks are downright HUGE, and combined with the chocolate chips they provide some needed heft to the fluffier base. Overall, mint cookies and cream is, like any good mint ice cream should be, cool, tasty, and refreshing, and arguably a better spring/summer release than something for late winter. The weakness here is the base, which is merely average, but the quality and quantity of the mixes raises this into a higher domain. Grade: B Where Found: Winn Dixie (Baton Rouge)
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Post by stevejaros on Feb 7, 2014 18:45:16 GMT -5
Blue Bell continues its winter blitz of tasty flavors with the release of February rotational flavor Caramel Turtle Cheesecake, winner of last year's "crankin' back the clock" contest as the discontinued flavor fans voted they wanted brought back. Blue Bell describes this concoction as a luscious cheesecake ice cream filled with chocolate-coated caramel turtles, roasted pecans, cheesecake pieces with a chocolate cookie crust all surrounded by a smooth caramel swirl. Whoa! That description, along with the Ice Cream Informant's "A" grade, certainly had me primed to demolish a tub! Let me tell you, this tub was polished off in record time. I enjoyed the flavor so much I just couldn't stop scooping! The base ice cream is a cheesecake flavor and it tastes excellent, but it impossible to isolate much of it for separate analysis, as the other components flood the ice cream so thoroughly. The roasted pecans permeate the entire tub and provide a savory, buttery taste and texture. This combination of the cheesecake base and pecans would merit a grade of B on its own, as it would compare favorably to most good butter-pecan ice creams. But we also get three outstanding mix-ins: The swirl oozes real caramel and winds its way throughout the tub coating the other mix-ins. The candy turtles are large, similar to the chocolate candies in the I ♥ Chocolate flavor (and unlike the smaller candies in say Moollenium Crunch) and when bitten the chocolate shell gives way most satisfyingly to the caramel inside. This flavor peaks when these turtles end up in the same spoon with a thick chunk of cookie-coated cheesecake, which are moist and creamy on the inside and crumbly on the outside. In the midst of all the other stuff going on in this flavor, putting a chocolate cookie coating on these cheesecake chunks is pure over-the-top decadence. I love it! And because both are amply supplied, this occurs pretty frequently. I've tried about 55 Blue Bell flavors, and Caramel Turtle Cheesecake is the best of that lot. There is just so much bang for the taste-buds. This is a very rich ice cream, with loads of caramel and chocolate candy and cheesecake, all embedded in a buttery base. So don't do as I did (wolf down the whole tub!), dole it out to yourself in moderate doses and savor each bite! Grade: A+ Where found it: Walmart (Baton Rouge)
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Post by stevejaros on Feb 7, 2014 15:14:06 GMT -5
Love your pictures. You get such clear close-ups of the ice cream. I just can't seem to get the same for my reviews. Iphone 5 I see! I use a Galaxy S3 and my wife has your I5. I now realize how you do it, as the I5 seems to have a much better ability to focus, particularly on short-range shots. The S3 takes a nice pic IF you get a good focus but it is very sensitive. Even when its 'green box' appears, which allegedly indicates a good focus, the resultant pic doesn't always show it. With her I5 my wife just points, pauses for a second, then snaps, and an excellent pic usually results.
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Post by stevejaros on Feb 5, 2014 19:38:32 GMT -5
Love your pictures. You get such clear close-ups of the ice cream. I just can't seem to get the same for my reviews.
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Post by stevejaros on Feb 2, 2014 20:05:11 GMT -5
There were three tubs in the store today and I grabbed all three. No sharing on this one, LOL
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Post by stevejaros on Feb 2, 2014 12:13:02 GMT -5
Blue Bell's contest winner from last year is back as a February flavor. Just copped this it a WalMart in Baton Rouge today. Hooray! The official description is very accurate: " Luscious cheesecake ice cream filled with chocolate-coated caramel turtles, roasted pecans, cheesecake pieces with a chocolate cookie crust all surrounded by a smooth caramel swirl". IMO this is an A+ flavor so don't miss out!
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Post by stevejaros on Feb 1, 2014 22:49:11 GMT -5
A great vanilla base + real Reese's Peanut Butter Cups! Jealous that this isn't available down south.
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Post by stevejaros on Jan 25, 2014 10:02:27 GMT -5
Another first-rate review Steve! I picked up a tub of this today and I must say I wholeheartedly agree. Every component of this flavor really shines. For chocolate lovers it's definitely a must try. Thanks jbb. I liked it so much I'm having another tub tonight, LOL.
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Post by stevejaros on Jan 24, 2014 18:53:16 GMT -5
When the Ice Cream Informant posted his recent Blue Bell "freezer find", a brand new flavor introduced for January called "I ♥ Chocolate", i almost pitched my cookies. The official description just seemed so scrumptious: I ♥ Chocolate is a smooth Milk Chocolate Ice Cream combined with luscious dark chocolate-filled chocolate hearts, chocolate-coated cake pieces and a chocolate icing swirl. Wow! So i immediately dashed out to several grocers to acquire a tub, only to be told this week's deliveries hadn't arrived yet. Finally, a stop at a local Target hit pay-dirt. Tearing off the lid, I was met by an initially unimpressive sight: Basically a smooth surface of light-brown chocolate ice cream with a smattering of syrup, the alleged "chocolate icing swirl". But, this initial look proved to be prodigiously deceiving: As soon as the spoon dug through the top layer, this featureless sheen of chocolate ice cream quickly gave way to a maelstrom of mix-ins, as i unearthed gobs of the promised cake chunks, chocolate hearts, and icing! This ice cream tastes as good as it looks. The base is indeed a smooth milk-chocolate, a flavor I am very partial to. This creamy base is an excellent background for the stronger flavors of the mix-ins. The hearts are large hard-shelled candies that give way to a softer chocolate center. The chocolate icing swirl has a strong caramel aspect, in both its chewy, elastic consistency and its delicious flavor. Best of all are the chunks of cake. These chunks are NOT the bland, small, seemingly machine-made disc-shaped pieces of cake that Blue Bell has begun to use in flavors like Birthday Cake, rather these are the massive, irregularly shaped chunks one finds in their Dessert Trio flavor (check out the second frame from right in the following picture for an isolated view of a heart and a cake chunk). These huge ragged chunks provided an aesthetically pleasurable chomping experience, as the crusty coating gives way to the soft moist chocolate cake within. And because these cake chunks and hearts are in such abundant supply, just about every spoonful has one or the other, and often both! This ice cream is crammed with mix-ins! Overall, "I ♥ Chocolate" is an outstanding ice cream, right up there with Caramel Turtle Cheesecake as my favorite Blue Bell offering. The creamy milk chocolate of the base, the medium chocolate of the hearts, the richer dark chocolate of the cake, and the caramel-chocolate of the swirl create a chocolate smorgasbord in the mouth. I know that some aficionados will never agree that a 210-calorie per serving semi-premium ice cream can truly pack the same flavor punch as a 300+ calorie super-premium, but in my view this one does just that. Grade: A+ Where found: Target (Baton Rouge, LA)
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Post by stevejaros on Jan 22, 2014 13:41:26 GMT -5
Well I won't give a 1/10th of a review like Steve did for Tin Roof, but as someone who generally doesn't prefer a chocolate ice cream, this new one is incredible. If it has me going for multiple bowls in 1 sitting, it's gained my vote.. Hope your joy it! Wish you were driving around my town, I have been searching like CRAZY for this in Baton Rouge the past three days and haven't been able to find it. Have checked Target, Wal Mart, Winn Dixie, Albertsons ... No luck !!!
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