The Big Muddy Ice Cream Blog

Lizzy and I are both on spring break right now. Last weekend, she and her boyfriend visited Minneapolis, so we obviously went to ice cream. We only had time to check out one shop, and also wanted to go out to dinner, so we decided on Milkjam and it's companion restaurant World Street Kitchen. In honor of Women's History Month, Milkjam temporarily renamed all of their flavors after amazing women (I'll put the full list of honorees at the end of the post).  I got Gloria Steinem ( molasses with salted peanut brittle ) and Beyonce ( Caramelized goat, cow, and condensed milks ).  Note, the 'Beyonce' is normally 'Milkjam,' the shop's signature flavor. HOLY GLORIA, MOTHER OF FEMINISM, the Gloria Steinem was amazing. I want to cry right now just thinking about it. I just love nut brittle so much, and this was a nearly perfect brittle ice cream. I feel so, so sorry for you if you don't live in Minneapolis and can't try this flavor. I would more ac...

Grand Ole Creamery is a creamery in St. Paul, famously visited by President Obama in 2014.  In addition to serving up delicious scoops at their shop, they also sell pints at grocery stores throughout the Twin Cities.  I don't typically buy scoops shop ice cream outside of scoop shops, but, frustrated with the lack of seasonal flavors, I decided to pick up a pint of Grand Ole Creamery Cookie Monster. Lizzy has had her go at an ice cream that improves upon the standard cookies and cream with  Til the Cows Come Home Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?  and now it's my turn.  Cookie Monster from Grand Ole Creamery is  Butter pecan ice cream with crushed cookies and chocolate chip cookie dough. I was quite surprised when I opened the pint and the ice cream was BLUE! Nothing in the description hints at the coloring, but I suppose if you name a flavor 'Cookie Monster' you had better dye it blue.  This is quite possibly the most perfect cooki...

In celebration of the recent  ice cream run  which started at Sonny's Cafe, I picked up a pint of Sonny's Gingerroot Sorbet.  Ginger is one of my favorite flavors of all times, but I don't often see it translated into ice cream or sorbet.  If it is, it is often mixed in with another flavor rather than the star of the show.  Needless to say, I was very excited by this flavor but also a bit worried that it wouldn't live up to my expectations.  I needn't have worried because after only a single bite I decided this was one of my favorite sorbets of all time.  I mean SHUT THE FRONT DOOR, this flavor is unbelievable. Everything about this concoction was total perfection.  The texture was not at all icy, but also wasn't creamy; which would have been inappropriate for a ginger flavor.  It felt hydrating and refreshing, and enhanced the flavor rather than distracting from it.  There was also a really nice bubbly sensation that made even the...

Runner's World recently ranked  Minneapolis as the 7th best running city in the nation, and I would venture to guess that it would rank pretty highly on a list of best ice cream cities as well.  What's better than combining these two things and some great friends on a beautiful late-summer day? Nothing, that's what! Beautiful day, wonderful humans! Lizzy and I organized an ice cream run  in late May where we ran about 5 miles and visited 4 ice cream shops in Uptown and south Minneapolis and it was a huge success! The general consesus was that we should do another one before the summer was over. (Sadly, Lizzy couldn't make it up from Iowa City for the weekend as her classes have already started - lame.)  This time we ran 4 miles and visited 3 ice cream shops -  Sonny's Ice Cream , Ben and Jerry's, and Tin Fish - on or near Lake Calhoun - one of the best running spots in one of the best running cities in the country! And we had, if I do say so myself, one...

I've had my eye on local brand  JonnyPops  (All-natural frozen smoothies on a stick) for a long time, but never got around to picking up a box for several reasons. I don't eat a ton of ice cream treats (which I realize is something I really need to remedy), and the normal price of JonnyPops seemed a bit steep for only three popsicles. On a recent trip to the grocery store these were FINALLY on sale for ~$3.50 for a box of 3 bars, so I snagged a box of Coffee Chocolate & Cream pops.  All of their other flavors are fruit flavors.  There's not a product description, so to speak, but I'll go ahead and give you the ingredient list: Cold pressed coffee, heavy cream, cane sugar, dark chocolate, guar gum, salt. Not much going on there, but in a good way. Mmmmmmmm, creeeeeeaaaaaammmmm. These popsicles were really good. Like really good.  Good enough that I'm now convinced to try their other, fruity flavors. Cold brewing coffee (rather than traditional ...

It has been a hot minute since the last time I went to Izzy's! All the new ice creams at the beginning of the year have kept me glued to the grocery store ice cream aisles, but with the official start of summer hopefully I'll be visiting more ice cream shops. Last Saturday I decided to go to the Stone Arch Bridge Festival after dance on Saturday afternoon.  Izzy's is about halfway between my dance studio and the Stone Arch Bridge so obviously I stopped in. Looking at the list of available flavors, I saw Fig Tart and immediately knew I needed to have it.  The only decision left was what to get as my Izzy scoop.  I had it narrowed down to Vanilla, Lemon Buttermilk, and Salted Caramel.  I ultimately chose Salted Caramel, though the decision was a tough one. Fig Tart is described as Fig ice cream with organic Black Mission Figs, orange zest and graham cracker crunch. So I've never had a real fig.  The closest I've come is a Fig Newton.  This ice...

I've been a terrible ice cream blogger.  I finally got out to  Milkjam Creamery , the new and hip Minneapolis ice cream spot 5 MONTHS after it opened.  Whoops.  I was out to dinner with (approximately) my office-mates in the neighborhood, and we decided to stop by Milkjam after dinner. Before even seeing the flavors on offer that night, I decided I would get Milkjam's signature flavor, Milkjam.  This flavor is Caramelized goat, cow, and condensed milks. Apparently Milk Jam is a real thing and is either a different name for or a variant of dulce de leche. I asked the scoopers what sauce they would recommend, because Milkjam has an absolutely baller selection of  sauces .  The scoopers suggested salted caramel, and I was a liiiiiiiitle  disappointed they didn't suggest something more adventurous like Szechuan Berry or Spicy Honey, but I shouldn't have doubted them, the Salted Caramel went perfectly with the Milkjam ice cream. ...

I've reviewed Yogurt Lab flavors before, but it's high time I reviewed the chain using Lizzy's patented 8-step fro-yo review process. If you don't live in Minneapolis or haven't read my previous reviews of this fro-yo chain, Yogurt Lab is a chain of science-themed frozen yogurt shops in Minneapolis.  They list their flavors periodic table-style.  It's super cute! I'll just dive right in with the 8 questions we at the Big Muddy use to assess a frozen yogurt shop. 1) The variety of flavors: is there a good selection? Yogurt Lab has a ton of flavors  in rotation.  There were 8 to 10 flavors at the downtown location today, and there were a good mix of fruity, chocolatey, and 'other' (think caramel, cookies and cream, etc ...) flavors.  A little something for everyone. 2) The flavor of my choices. Today I chose lime frozen yogurt.  I had grand visions of making a lime pie themed dessert, but you'll see later why that kind of failed.  Thi...

Pumphouse Creamery is a local ice cream scoop shop in Minneapolis.  It's a bit far away from where I live, so it's a bit hard to pop over for a scoop of ice cream.  Also, they only retail their ice cream in quarts not pints, so it's a bit of an investment to pick up a container.  I finally caved and bought a pint of Mint Chocolate Chunk.  This is such a classic flavor and super appropriate for winter.  I thought I couldn't go wrong.  That was not the case. I got this ice cream home, cracked it open, and was accosted by a whiff of my arch nemesis, mint extract.  Mint extract is not actually that bad, and can be really good if done well.  It imparts a more spicy, refreshing mint flavor than fresh mint.  The astringency can work really well, but that was not the case here.  It was too minty and overpowered the rest of the flavors.  Also, the mintiness never let up.  It was just mint, mint, mint all over the place! The text...

I have to credit my friend Alex with introducing me to a brand of Minneapolis ice cream I was not familiar with (ice cream blogger fail!), and also being my partner in crime/fellow ice cream adventurer last Tuesday.  Froz Broz is a craft ice cream maker who manufactures their ice cream at  City Food Studio  (aside: this place is such a cool idea, go read about it!). Froz Broz sells their ice cream on Tuesdays from 5-8pm and Saturday 9am-1pm at City Food Studio at 3722 Chicago Avenue S. Before heading over to City Food Studios to pick up a couple pints I did some snooping around the Froz Broz  flavor list.  Let me tell you, these are my kinds of flavors. The more out there it is, the more excited I am to try it.  Just look at their flavor list to see what I mean. Excitement building! Alex and I made it out to City Food Studio last Tuesday, and I picked up a pint of Toasted Grits with Maple Syrup and a pint of Black Sea Salt Malt.  I have a review ...

This was another of the three pints I picked up a couple weeks ago from the Seward Coop.  I picked this one up because Cantaloupe Lime is not a very common flavor.  Also lime sorbet is one of the most awesome flavors of sorbet. Sonny's Ice Cream (and sorbet!) is made here in Minneapolis at  Crema Cafe .  Supposedly their ice cream is pretty good.  I'll have to make it a point to go check it out one day. This sorbet was a bit disappointing.  If you are calling something cantaloupe lime the predominant flavor should be cantaloupe.  Unfortunately the cantaloupe flavor took a major back seat to the lime in this pint.  This didn't make it taste bad; as I said, lime sorbet is awesome, it's just not what I was expecting.  The cantaloupe served to mellow out the lime flavor making it not too acidic or harsh.  Maybe if it had been called lime (cantaloupe) sorbet I would have been happier. The color was quite pleasing.  It was ...

Several weekends ago Minneapolis got a taste of Indian summer.  It was a warm, delightful 80 degrees all weekend, perhaps the last weekend of the year where it is possible to walk to the ice cream shop and laze in the grass as you lick the desultory drips of ice cream that run slowly down your cone. To celebrate, I invited a bunch of math people to go to Izzy’s and we had a fairly good turn out, about 15 people. I saw that they had pumpkin, a seasonal flavor, so I immediately knew I had to get that.  Also, they had an intriguing people’s choice flavor award winner, Irish Moxie.  You can never go wrong with an Izzy’s people’s choice winner.  Normally at Izzy’s I get a single scoop, and was planning to get a single scoop of one of the aforementioned flavors with the other as an Izzy scoop, but I could not, for the life of me, decide which flavor I wanted more of.  The only solution was to get a double scoop with an Izzy scoop of cinnamon.  If there ...

I also ate Izzy's Ice Cream! I went to Izzy's for the first time in the week following finals.  This was a good week for ice cream; I went to Sebastian Joe's and Izzy's for the first time. When looking at the flavors online before I went (because obviously I would do this) there were several I was really excited about including Cereal Milk and Hot Brown Sugar, so when I saw Hot Brown Sugar was available I knew that this flavor would be mine.  Immediately.  Because I was so excited about this flavor I failed to read anything about anything on their menu, so I didn't realize I would have to choose a flavor for my Izzy scoop.  I panicked and chose Vanilla. The Vanilla wasn't bad, but it wasn't an outstanding vanilla either.  I'm not too upset because I don't typically order vanilla at a scoop shop. Now on to the good stuff.  Er mah gerd the Hot Brown Sugar was the most amazing thing ever.  I want to eat this every day!  Here is the descriptio...

Madeline and I just went HAM with ice cream this week. Thursday we went to Izzy's Ice Cream. They are known for their crazy flavors. They have so many, including a cereal milk flavor which I need  to try. Unfortunately they didn't have that flavor the day we went. Izzy's is also known for their "Izzy scoop." Basically the Izzy scoop is a little baby scoop you can add to your ice cream for just a little bit more. I think this is a really cool concept. I always want to try as many flavors as possible but sometimes you don't want to eat enough ice cream to try a zillion flavors. We met my friend Bea there, who is from Minneapolis and just got back to the states after studying abroad, it was really nice to see her! This is Bea's cone. She got lemon buttermilk and salted caramel and loved them both! I sampled the Thai Iced Tea flavor they had as a "mystery flavor". Not really sure what they meant by mystery flavor but whatevs. The flavor is al...

Sorry I didn't take any pictures.  I get really nervous when I eat ice cream in a cone, because I would be devastated if my ice cream fell over.  I didn't want my ice cream to start melting during a photo shoot in the summer sun. I mentioned way back in my intro post that I was underwhelmed by  Sebastian Joe's  ice cream the first time I tried it.  I like that they offered unique/weird flavors like Roasted Garlic Almond Chip (which I had a sample of.  It was weird.  Not bad, but I wouldn't want more than a bite of it).  My first time there, I got two scoops in a waffle cone: one scoop of Cinnamon and one scoop of Mandarin Orange.  I probably should have gone with something chocolate-y, but  oranges with cinnamon  is one of my favorite summertime desserts.  I was underwhelmed.  I felt the cinnamon ice cream was way too creamy (like, ok, I know it's ice cream and this is a stupid thing to say), and needed a much stronger ...