Saturday, October 27, 2018

Bart's Peanut Butter Paradise Ice Cream


Over the summer, local company Bart's Ice Cream upgraded their packaging. The old packaging was fine (local, quaint) but there was no differentiation between flavors. Now unfortunately my local Roche Bros. grocery store only stocks their more basic/tame flavors (including the one I tried awhile ago), but on Monday I finally found something new! The only downside is that it's carrying a limited edition sticker label rather than showing off one of their flavor logos.

Bart's Peanut Butter Paradise Ice Cream
peanut butter ice cream, chocolate chunks, fudge brownies & peanut butter swirl

Looks fairly tempting but somewhat tame to start but then...

I discover the brownies and swirl and chocolate chips just below the surface. Now this picture probably makes you think that I fell instantly in love, but to honest, I did not. It's not that it's bad, it's that it strikes me as more of a sorbet than an ice cream. The texture reminds me very much of the Talenti pb sorbetto from last year. I just have trouble clicking with that drier, sorbet-like texture. Now, it may be that the top of the pint was a little extra dry from freezerburn, as it did get a smidge better as I went down, but for now, it's too dry.

In fact, can I go a step further? I couldnt' help but think that I kept tasting a hint of coffee. It must have been from however they roasted/toasted/made their peanut butter. Random question: is there a peanut butter coffee flavor out there? and if not, who's interested? Anyway, it's not super strong, but I couldn't shake that perception.

My plan for the second scoop is definitely to let it temper more to see what happens. I got a few bites that had a bunch of various components on the spoon and I felt that those were the best bites. I do love the combination of peanut butter and chocolate oh so very much, but at the moment this is 85-90% peanut butter dominance with a small side of chocolate.

On Second Scoop: Boy does this stuff take forever to temper. I left it out for what felt like a good 20 minutes and it was still fairly solid. First, a question: did they borrow the core technology from Ben & Jerry's to make this? I had a bit of the core by itself and it's flavorful and a little bit salty. Second, I did have more fun by filling the somewhat softer texture with more chips and brownie bits. Yeah, the brownie bits stay pretty small and infrequent, but they are there for sure (and no point will you be overwhelmed with brownie flavor).  So yeah, second scoop went better but I'm certainly still not in love. Fine to try once but I don't currently foresee a repurchase.

Verdict?  interesting
Buy Again?  probably not


2 comments:

  1. Hey I love peanut butter and coffee so I'd go for that combo! Actually hazelnute is a type of nut, and it's always seen in coffee. Actually it could not be more strange than the coffee combo I had this weekend. My kids love Sweet Frog so yesterday we were in one in Yorktown, VA. If you're familiar with Sweet Frog froyo, then you know they always pair two flavors that you can have swirled together in a cup. Normally the flavors complement each other. Like you may see peanut butter and chocolate side-by-side or coconut and mango side by side. Well this weekend I saw pumpkin pie and cold brew coffee gelato side by side. I thought that was an interesting pairing. What I further did not understand was that they had graham cracker in another machine. The pumpkin pie and graham cracker combo would have seemed like a no-brainer. Anyways their cold brew gelato is excellent! I am definitely a coffee ice cream fan. I even treat my coffee like hot cocoa sometimes because I will put marshmallows on top and let them melt into a foam (especially if I don't have a fancy latte machine at home). It tastes really good. How about a coffee flavor with a marshmallow swirl? Hmmm yum!

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  2. @Anne...my guess is that they were going for a Pumpkin Spiced Latte vibe, with those two combos.

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