The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Even though it's the beginning of a new year, it's still winter, which means it's still peppermint season! Today I have a review of Market Pantry seasonal flavor Peppermint Neapolitan.  This is described as Peppermint ice cream and artificially flavored vanilla ice cream swirled with mint stockings and trees. Again, what is up with that 'artificially flavored vanilla' description? This ice cream was so-so.  Not the greatest flavor, but pretty fun.  The artificially flavored vanilla was your standard, bland  cheap vanilla.  The peppermint ice cream was your standard, peppermint oil-flavored cheap peppermint ice cream; however, it was green! Normally peppermint ice cream is colored red, but I really enjoyed that Market Pantry decided to color theirs green instead! The mint stockings and trees were an awesome addition to a mediocre ice cream.  Surprisingly, these little guys were BUTTER MINTS! This is not at all what I was expecting.  T...

I totally forgot to check whether or not any of Target's in-house brands had seasonal offerings this winter!  Better late than never, though!  I picked up 2 out of the 3 seasonal Market Pantry flavors I saw: Frosted Sugar Cookie and Peppermint Neapolitan.  The other was Triple Berry Cobbler, which does not exactly scream 'HOLIDAYS! WINTER!" to me, so I skipped it.  Sorry I'm not sorry. I have a review of Frosted Sugar Cookie today.  This is described as Artifically flavored vanilla ice cream with sugar cookie pieces and red sprinkles swirled with red frosting. There must be some rule requiring the description 'artificially flavored vanilla ice cream' if the ice cream is artificially flavored.  Otherwise it seems weird to me that they would start their description this way. The description was a rocky start for this ice cream, but it was better than it's first impressions.  It wasn't phenomenal but it was pretty decent, especially for the p...

I've tried a few Market Pantry (Target in-house brand) ice creams in the past and not been that impressed.  They had an adventurous-sounding popcorn-flavored ice cream that fell a bit flat.  In general, I've felt the Market Pantry ice cream's were ok, but pretty decent for their price point ($3-4 for 1.5 quarts).  I do NOT feel this way about Market Pantry Monster Cookie.  This was a simply fantastic ice cream, despite the fact it was reduced fat! Apparently monster cookies are a thing.  They are a thing I have never had before, and I am ANGRY that I have not heard of them until now.  For all of you out there who have had a monster cookie, and have not taken it upon yourselves to inform me of their existence, SHAME ON YOU. Monster cookies are peanut butter/oatmeal cookies with M&M's.  Sounds good right?  There was not a description of this ice cream on the pint, but from what I could tell it was vanilla (or maybe peanut butter ice cre...

I just cannot resist buying ice cream when I go to Target; it consistently way cheaper than at the grocery store.  During my most recent trip to Target, one of the ice creams I picked up was Market Pantry Strawberry Cheesecake.  I have tried one other Market Pantry (a Target brand) ice cream, Cinema Snack, and was impressed that they attempted a popcorn flavored base, but less than thrilled with the execution.  I decided to give the brand another try to see how they did with a more traditional flavor.  The Strawberry Cheesecake is described as: Cheesecake ice cream with strawberries, Graham crunch, and a strawberry swirl. The first thing that struck me when I opened the container was how white the ice cream was.  I've never thought about this before, but ice cream is very rarely stark, bright white.  Since it has cream it in it, it is more often cream colored (like, duh).  This made me very wary, as the brightness felt a bit artificial. The ...

Last week, Kyle and I went to Target to pick up a few things.  As we were heading toward the cash registers the conversation went something like this: Kyle: Do you want to swing by the freezers and check out the ice cream. Me: No it's ok, we already have some in the freezer at home, and I'll just wait to buy more.  Well, maybe, I am mean Target does have Ben and Jerry's for, like, way cheap.  Well, no it's ok, let's just go check out.  Ooh, but that Target gelato I picked up that one time had a really unique flavor, maybe I'll pick up another flavor ... Kyle: Oh my god, shut up, we're going to look at the ice cream. That exchange resulted in me going home with a 1.5 Qt container of Market Pantry Cinema Snack.  Market Pantry is a Target brand, but they do some pretty interesting and unique flavors in other areas (trail mix, salsa, etc...).  I saw this ice cream and am pretty certain that it's trying to be  Ben and Jerry's Late Night Snack . ...