Saturday, August 13, 2022

Hood New England Creamery Ice Cream
Martha's Vineyard Black Raspberry


[Relaunched in 2022] What have we seen in the ice cream aisle year after year for too many years? Packages either get smaller, or quality goes down. Well, Hood is going to try to do something different. Yes, their New England Creamery lineup is shrinking from 1.5 Qts to a single lone quart size BUT the quality is going up! How's that for unexpected? Now Hood has always been a budget brand in my mind, but they have some fierce loyalty here in New England plus their NEC lineup has always had limited edition moments of fun (see some reviews here

Hood New England Creamery Martha's Vineyard Black Raspberry Ice Cream
black raspberry ice cream with raspberry swirl & chocolate flavored chips

opening shot...

That's pretty busy!

Now before we get too far, let me get technical for a moment. Unfortunately the 13 new flavors don't line up well with the reviews I've already done, but I am able to compare the nutrition stats of the old cape cod fudge to the new one. According to my math, the new one packs 33% more calories and is 36% heavier per scoop. That's respectable right?

So I'm thinking about two things when I eat this. One, the texture. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I like that they've made this a denser and more premium product. I complain too much about the death of mainstream ice cream to knock a company for actually trying to bring it back a bit. That said, you can definitely tell that there are stabilizers in here as opposed to the texture you would find in a simpler, all natural product lineup.

Two, I'm not sure how I feel about the swirl. No, that's not true. I feel bad about not liking the swirl is much more accurate. It just doesn't jive for me.... well, I guess in one sense, the swirl does have a certain flavor balance with the chocolate chips, so that's good.

Hmmm, I guess I could smoosh it all up to see if that changes anything. Ok, that definitely didn't hurt to do that. Even though it doesn't click with me, I do have to give props to Hood for going for a flavorful ice cream....whoa, just had a flavorful flashback to Graeter's black raspberry flavor. At least I think it's Graeter's I'm thinking about.

Last thought: aftertaste is a little strong, I think it's the swirl.

On Second Scoop: So this isn't a bad ice cream, and I respect Hood for bucking the trend, but I certainly don't love it. I think it's the added swirl that throws me off the most. Give me a chocolate cookie swirl, and I'd be singing this flavor's praises for it's flavor burst and uniqueness. Instead, I fall back to my love of classic flavors (aka the swirl overcomplicates this classic flavor). I hope plenty of people enjoy this one, but I don't foresee personally buying this particular flavor again (though I will try to get some of the other flavors up on the blog)

Verdict?  flavorful
Buy Again?  not for me

click for nutrition facts and ingredients


2 comments:

  1. Finally found New England Creamery in our area. Have been looking since seeing first commercial. Bought the Maine Blueberry. So very creamy and flavorful! Lives up to the hype!

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  2. The black raspberry is fabulous! So creamy and the chocolate chips are so chocolatey 😋 I’m addicted.

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