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Post by stevejaros on Jan 22, 2014 13:36:33 GMT -5
Chocolate peanut butter was way better. I can't get enough. I think Chocolate Peanut Butter was better, too, but for me it was a closer call. I loved BBC's combination of cheesecake ice cream, thick chunks of cheesecake, and a generous blueberry ribbon. That worked very well for me.
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Post by stevejaros on Jan 19, 2014 6:14:17 GMT -5
In the bygone days of the classic soda fountain, the peanuts used to make this old favorite were poured out of cans, and the sound was similar to rain landing on a tin roof, hence the name of this classic flavor. Blue Bell's version, part of their January rotation, consists of vanilla ice cream with a rich chocolate fudge swirl and roasted peanuts dipped in dark chocolate. Since I love Blue Bell's base vanilla and they usually do a good job with swirls and mix-ins, I was eager to try their take on this venerable flavor. Peeling off the lid of the half-gallon tub, I was greeted with maybe the most impressive initial sight I've ever seen in an ice cream flavor. The bottom of the lid and the top surface of the ice cream was literally a solid mass of chocolate fudge! Dipping my finger in for a quick taste, this swirl is much more of a smooth syrup than a thicker ribbon, and its taste is more of a medium chocolate than a darker fudge. It tasted like someone had poured Hershey's chocolate syrup over the vanilla ice cream, and since I love the taste of chocolate syrup, that was fine by me! The rest of the ice cream doesn't disappoint either. Blue Bell's version of tin roof is a knockout: The vanilla base provides a tasty foundation for the rich pools of chocolate syrup, which are abundantly provided throughout the tub. Time after time, as you work your way down the tub, just as you seem to have exhausted the syrup and appear to be looking at a white mass of vanilla ice cream, your spoon plunges through this vanilla surface and into another thick pool of this delicious syrup. Even better, the ice cream is chock-full of the chocolate-coated peanuts! These peanuts range in size from small bit to large full-sized nuts, and their dark-chocolate coating adds another potent flavor to the medium-chocolate taste of the syrup. From beginning to end, just about every bite consists of a spoonful of vanilla ice cream riddled with a few chocolate-coated peanuts and dripping with chocolate syrup. That tasted great to me, and I bet it will to you too! Grade: A Where Found: Target (Baton Rouge, LA)
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Post by stevejaros on Dec 20, 2013 17:59:57 GMT -5
Wow! Mardi Gras season down here in Cajun country doesn't start until January 6th, but I was pleased to pass by my local Walmart and notice that Blue Bell has gotten a jump start on those festivities by releasing Mardi Gras King Cake, a flavor exclusive to the Gulf Coast region, stretching from the Florida panhandle to east Texas. Blue Bell says that this is a Cinnamon ice cream with pastry pieces, candy sparkles, and a cream cheese swirl, which by my reckoning hits the major King Cake ingredients, and since I always enjoy a good King Cake, i plunged the spoon in eagerly. This ice cream is pretty delicious! The best part is the base, which tastes like the same rich cinnamon concoction that works so well in their Gingerbread House flavor. Also noteworthy are the pieces of pastry, which are really round chunks of cake. While these do not have the consistency and taste of classic King Cake, which really is more of a flaky, donut-like pastry, their thickness and cinnamon spiciness is welcome, they are provided in generous quantity, and they combine very nicely with the thick green cream cheese sauce that winds its way throughout. Unlike in some Blue Bell flavors, the candy pieces are substantial, they add taste and are not just window dressing, but they do have the aesthetic effect of reminding you that this is a "King Cake" offering. Overall, the combination of the cinnamon base, pastry/cake pieces, and cream cheese sauce adds up to a very satisfying treat. I was initially unsure how cinnamon ice cream might combine with cream cheese, but the impact on the taste buds is pleasurable. I rate this flavor a half-notch below the top level but still, this is well-worth grabbing if you live in Mardi Gras territory in the deep south. Grade: A- Where I found it: Walmart (Baton Rouge)
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Post by stevejaros on Dec 17, 2013 8:02:22 GMT -5
I would say it depends on how you define that term with respect to time-frame. Certainly, during those 30 or so hours, eating 3 tubs of ice cream and a giant pizza is an enormous amount of food, far more than I "needed" during that time and so yes, gluttonous. You claim your own poor eating habits and disorder in your own post. Thats the problem its a Binge/Restrict cycle that you get yourself involved in by shortchanging yourself severely throughout the week. Not good for your metabolism. Probably not. It's certainly not an ideal situation. But, it does have two positive aspects. First, it works, in the sense that this approach has kept me at a normal weight for 15 years, no small achievement for someone who was morbidly obese. Second, it's fun! Once Friday rolls around, I know I have that ice cream and pizza (sometimes I go out for a steak dinner) to chow down on, and it is a real treat.
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Post by stevejaros on Dec 16, 2013 22:14:38 GMT -5
1.5 gallons in 36 hours... Not sure if trolling... hello 450g of sugar and a large pizza to top it off. Thats being a glutton. I would say it depends on how you define that term with respect to time-frame. Certainly, during those 30 or so hours, eating 3 tubs of ice cream and a giant pizza is an enormous amount of food, far more than I "needed" during that time and so yes, gluttonous. But for the week, my weight was the same as it was 7 days before, so that meant I compensated for those extra Friday-Saturday calories by eating much less the rest of the week, so overall, not gluttonous.
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Post by stevejaros on Dec 15, 2013 8:05:07 GMT -5
Here's what I had Friday. This tub lasted about a half-hour, LOL: .. and then for the Saturday feast, breakfast on the left (tub of Happy Tracks!) and dinner on the right (a 16" pizza): ... and finally an evening dessert, oh man is this stuff good!:
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Post by stevejaros on Dec 13, 2013 17:25:56 GMT -5
Sounds like we agree on Gingerbread House, though. Wish they'd have brought that back for this Holiday season. I actually saw Gingerbread House being sold at my local Publix grocery store this week. Oh Man! No Publix's near me, hope I can find that at Target or Wal Mart!
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Post by stevejaros on Dec 12, 2013 23:51:49 GMT -5
I like the way you compare the ice cream you are reviewing with others you've had in the past. Gives some valuable perspective.
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Post by stevejaros on Dec 6, 2013 18:22:45 GMT -5
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! Grade: A Where I found it: Target
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Post by stevejaros on Dec 3, 2013 7:38:40 GMT -5
In Baton Rouge, a major disappointment has been Kleinpeter's Ice Cream. Kleinpeter's is a local dairy that makes excellent organic milk and has a very good reputation. A couple years ago they decided to foray into ice cream, and it was eagerly anticipated. Many grocers actually reduced the freezer space allotted to Blue Bell to clear more room for Kleinpeter's, which was positioned as challenging Blue Bell.
Three years later, BB has reclaimed all that space, most grocers have eliminated KP ice cream entirely, and the ones that still carry it only carry 4 or 5 flavors. The problem? Kleinpeter's initially came out with only basic flavors like Vanilla and Chocolate, their price point was more than BB, and the ice cream itself was just bland. Not bad, but nothing special, no reason to switch. And when they finally came out with more flavors, they chose common stuff like butter pecan and cookies and cream, which again were not bad but no reason to switch from your existing favorites either.
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 25, 2013 16:24:08 GMT -5
Not bragging, just sharing the fun I had. It was a whole lot of fun to eat all that ice cream and pizza in one day.
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 24, 2013 9:29:09 GMT -5
Here's what I had Saturday: Breakfast: Lunch: (18" pizza) Dinner: About 11,000 calories for the day. Did burn 1450 on an elliptical machine, though. Gotta save some cals for Thanksgiving.
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 20, 2013 14:25:23 GMT -5
My favorite ice cream right now is Blue Bell's "Caramel Turtle Cheesecake". Good luck finding it, though.
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 19, 2013 16:19:19 GMT -5
Those chunks of cookie dough look bodacious! Great pic.
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 16, 2013 0:15:25 GMT -5
I'm not the biggest fan of Rocky Road ice cream, as the traditional combination of a chocolate base, chopped walnuts, and marshmallows comes off as a bit too basic for my mix-ins craving palate. But the description of Blue Bell's Rocky Mountain Road piqued my interest, since it seems to offer more than the basics. Blue Bell describes this flavor as A rich, dark chocolate ice cream combined with dark chocolate-coated peanuts, milk chocolate-coated pecans, white chocolate-coated almonds, and roasted walnuts, all surrounded by a flavorful marshmallow sauce swirl, and since I am a sucker for chocolate-coated nuts, well, I just had to indulge! Tearing off the lid, I was greeted by a reasonably appealing sight: Chocolate ice cream with a generous swirl of white marshmallow. However, there was no evidence of the four different types of nuts that the description promised. Not to worry! As soon as my spoon slid in to the ice cream, a profusion of nuts was revealed, with the great bulk of them being the chocolate-covered varieties rather than the plain walnuts! Even better was the taste. Rather than the feared bland ordinary rocky road concoction, my mouth experienced the joyous sensation of chomping through dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and white chocolate coated nuts. The barrage of chocolate covered nuts never let up, top to bottom the container was full of them! Furthermore, the profusion of these candied nuts blended very well with the base ice cream and the marshmallow swirl. The swirl was provided in just the right amount: Enough to add a nice sweet marshmallow flavor to the predominantly chocolate taste, but not too much so as to overwhelm it. Also, rather than being the advertised dark chocolate, the base had the look and taste of a lighter milk-chocolate ice cream, which I found very agreeable, as it contrasted nicely with the richer candy-chocolate taste of the nuts. Bottom line: If you like lots of chocolate-coated nut mix-ins, you can hardly do better than Rocky Mountain Road! Grade: A Where I found it: Winn Dixie
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 14, 2013 12:35:04 GMT -5
Sorry man, but I have to disagree. Christmas Cookies and Spiced Pumpkin Pecan were loaded with tasty flavors in my mouth. In contrast, while Peppermint is fine, it lacked any mix-ins or anything else to make it special, just ordinary. Sounds like we agree on Gingerbread House, though. Wish they'd have brought that back for this Holiday season.
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 11, 2013 21:17:28 GMT -5
You had 2 1/2 gallons on Saturday and now this today? Wow..... It's worse than that. I had a 1/2 gallon on Friday (Spiced Pumpkin Pecan), two more half-gallons on Saturday, and then this half-gallon of Birthday Cake on Sunday. So a total of four half-gallons in about a 50 hour period of time. Just can't get enough of this ice cream right now!
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 10, 2013 23:44:33 GMT -5
Birthday cake ice cream (Blue Bell)! Had the tub for dinner. Yummy!
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 8, 2013 18:33:32 GMT -5
After having sampled Blue Bell's Christmas Cookies and Fudge Divinity, I felt compelled to give yet another one of their Holiday seasonal flavors a try, so say hello to Spiced Pumpkin Pecan. The container promised a spiced pumpkin ice cream with sugar-coated pecans and rich cinnamon-honey-praline sauce. Since I love every single ingredient mentioned, I couldn't wait to dig in! Peeling back the lid, I was greeted by a pleasant sight: the base ice cream, rather than looking like a vanilla with some kind of pumpkin flavoring feebly mixed in, had the rich brownish-orange look of pure pumpkin. Even better was the sight of a thick dark honey-colored ribbon of cinnamon that was pooling plentifully on the surface. Digging in, my spoon quickly encountered the crunch of the pecans. However, at first glance these pecans were disappointing: Instead of the larger, whole-sized pecans Blue Bell mixes in to their Pecan Praline flavor, these were the smaller pecan pieces that characterized their Fudge Divinity offering, pieces that added little to that flavor's taste. But this initial evaluation proved to be misleading: Biting in to the ice cream, I quickly realized that the sugar-coating on these pecans makes them a very welcome addition to Spiced Pumpkin Pecan's taste. Still, the real reason I polished this tub off in record time is the fantastic base and copious cinnamon swirl. The base ice cream has a rich, nutmeg-pumpkin flavor definitely evocative of a good pumpkin pie filling. Complimenting this perfectly is the thick cinnamon ribbon that does indeed combine both honey and praline flavors. As can be seen below, this ribbon is provided in a generous quantity that drenches the ice cream and pecans making each spoonful a blissful treat. I am not sure that even this picture does justice to the sheer quantity of cinnamon swirl, as my spoon constantly broke through what appeared to be a solid ice cream surface into yet another rich subterranean pool of sauce. I highly recommend Spiced Pumpkin Pecan to anyone with a sweet tooth aching to be satisfied with a smorgasbord of pumpkin, nutmeg, cinnamon, pecan, honey, and praline flavors. At this time of the year, it hit just the right spot! But a warning: If you are in more of a savory mood, pick something else, as this flavor is sweet with a capital "S". Grade: A Where I found it: Winn Dixie
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Post by stevejaros on Nov 6, 2013 10:42:59 GMT -5
Thanks! Love seeing my reviews on the blog.
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