Thursday, April 6, 2017

Vice Cream Toffee Wife Ice Cream


[New for 2017] So last year, I did two reviews of Massachusetts based startup Vice Cream. Both pints I grabbed were from their first production run, and as they mentioned on one of my posts, this early run needed a little tweaking for consistency's sake. Well, it's 2017, their distribution is expanding, and they have two new flavors out. One is "Minted" and the other is...

Vice Cream Toffee Wife Ice Cream
peanut butter ice cream, chopped toffee bars,
peanut butter dough and toffee ripple

I see mix-ins and swirl at the top which is a good sign! I take a few bites, and to be honest, it's a little weird. I've never had peanut butter and toffee together and in this particular instance there is a certain lingering something with every bite. At the moment it basically taste like the toffee has a little kick to it, the kind of kick that doesn't necessarily jive with the peanut butter base.

The peanut butter dough is about the size of a pea and fairly plentiful on this first serving. It seems like I usually have at least one on my spoon, but it's really texture they are adding, not flavor.

I haven't gotten any big toffee chunks on my first go around, for now it's just been tiny bits of a toffee bar. I'm thinking the chocolate seperated from the toffee so we are left with chocolate shards and liquid puddles of toffee candy insides.

I try the swirl by itself and it doesn't have the kick I expected based on my early bites. It definitely has a pretty good amount of flavor though that flavor is hard to describe. It's definitely not some sweet caramel that has been called toffee. It's not even that sweet. It's more about complexity and maybe some texture that needs more examining later on.

I also tried the base by itself and it's not nearly as strong as you would expect. The pb flavor is actually fairly flat and mute. That's probably why the toffee is having a fairly easy time preventing peanut butter from being the #1 flavor on your spoon.

On Second Scoop: On the one hand, I feel like people will appreciate the bit of peanut brittle vibe that this pint is giving off. On the other hand, I'm not really sure I like it. It just doesn't come across quite right to me. It's hard to describe but try this out. You know how people hate the new Ben & Jerry's toffee? I'm afraid that might happen here. My only other notes are that the pb dough lessened up while the swirl became more plentiful. That doesn't really bother me as much as the lack of  chocolate which might have helped balance things out and given me more of a candy bar vibe.

Verdict?  different
Buy Again?  probably not


8 comments:

  1. Recently bought their Afternoon Delight & Breakfast in Bed flavors when I saw them in Big Y. Must have been new arrivals, shelf was full & no price tag ($7 a pint tho. Yikes!). I thought afternoon delight was kinda meh, would've liked more cookie dough than truffles. Breakfast in Bed was pretty good. Neither had consistency issues.

    On a side note, we were wondering about Talenti's ghost #44? Turns out it is indeed basically Peach Butter Biscuit, except now with cinnamon (and dare I say less "butter"). "Cinnamon Peach Biscuit". I liked the original incarnation better

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  2. Very interesting review of a very interesting-sounding ice cream. When I think of peanut butter and toffee, I think of a butterfinger or 5th Ave bar. Is there any of that going on?

    Also, I'm really sorry, but could I please ask you for some advice on transporting ice cream? If you were buying ice cream from a store that was, say, about 45-60 min away, how would you get it home before it melted? Do you think a cooler with a big frozen block of ice would do it? I'd really appreciate any suggestions!

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  3. I think you mean 'pea' and not 'pee', kinda created a bad mental image for me :p

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  4. @aol: yeah, down south got #44 quicker than we did and I noted it on the new product guide. Stop&Shop has a tag out for it now, so just waiting for them to stock it.

    As for vice cream, $7 is a bit much, $6 is the max, i'd really rather see $5 though. Gotta keep in mind they are young though, Talenti was way more expensive when it first came out (though arguably tastier too). They did have a consistency issue in their first big production run last year, but that was last year, my pint this year seemed fairly reasonable.


    @Nick: yeah, i would call it peanut brittle as opposed to butterfinger. maybe you could convince yourself of it, but it didn't pop in to my mind.

    I am fortunate to have styrofoam containers left over from ice cream shipments, but a cooler will work just fine. the secret is to buy according to the size container. I have gone the ice route which works fine, I've used snow in the winter, but in general sometimes I will just buy cheap frozen vegetables to pack the empty space. so pack it tight is my point. I've even used my lunch bag with like two pints of ice cream and two bags of dollar corn, zip it up, makes the ride ok. does that make sense?

    @Bagels: SORRY! It has been fixed!

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  5. That does make sense, thank you for the advice! Pack tight, minimize empty space. I'm ready to try it...ha I feel like I'm way more nervous about this than I should be.

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  6. @Nick: HA! I'm definitely more at ease with it then I used to be :)

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  7. I just purchased this today with another flavor. I'm not too pleased with it either. The swirl is too much and not enough peanut dough. They may have to rethink this flavor over. Maybe toffe bits with the cookie pieces with peanut butter ice cream as the base and chocolate swirl.

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  8. This flavor tastes like cardboard. It's not good. I love peanut butter and toffee, don't buy it.

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