Homemade Brand Peppermint Stick Ice Cream

So the PR firm for Ohio based Homemade Brand Ice Cream didn't just send over the amazing Santa's Cookies flavor, they also sent over their other festive flavor....

Homemade Brand Peppermint Stick Ice Cream

peppermint ice cream loaded with red and green peppermint candies

Homemade Brand Santa's Cookies Ice Cream

Ok, technically Nick has already reviewed this one, but it was five years ago. In fact, he did all of our Homemade Brand (and UDF) reviews back then. Well, Homemade Brand's PR company contacted me and offered to send over some free holiday samples, so now it's finally my turn to say "wow this stuff makes a great first impression".

Homemade Brand Santa's Cookies Ice Cream

Sugar cookie ice cream with cookie pieces and icing swirls

United Dairy Farmers Peppermint Stick Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

[By Nick] Along with their Santa’s Cookies ice cream, Homemade Brand sent along a free sample of their limited edition Peppermint Stick Chocolate Chip flavor from their United Dairy Farmers line. I was informed that their UDF products have more air whipped into them leading to them not being quite as dense as their regular line. Looking at the grams per serving, this one contains 68 grams per serving. That’s on par with stuff from Friendly’s, Turkey Hill and Edy’s Grand line of ice cream.

Since there’s no official description to be found, I’m just going to use my brilliant mind (aka commonsense) and say this one is going to be Peppermint Stick Ice Cream with Chocolate Chips throughout. So let’s see if my prediction holds true.

Homemade Brand Santa's Cookies Ice Cream

[By Nick]
T’was the night before Christmas and heard all through the house,

was young Nicholas’ stomach rumbling, he needed ice cream in his mouth.

Nicholas went to satisfy that noisy hunger

but choosing a flavor was turning into a blunder.

No simple vanilla or chocolate would do, those flavors are so bogus.

Thankfully Nicholas was a good boy this year and the elves at Homemade Brand took notice.

See, the elves have been busy throughout the year

creating a flavor they knew would bring cheer.

It’s a well-known fact that Santa loves a good cookie,

but when it comes to ice cream, he’s also no rookie.

So the head elf said “Why don't we combine the two?

            Sugar cookie ice cream is well overdue!”

As the midnight hour grew near,

a bright red package did magically appear.

Homemade Brand Butter Pecan Ice Cream

[By Nick] Last but hopefully not least from Homemade Brand is their Butter Pecan ice cream. Now I’m not going to lie, this was easily the flavor I was most excited about trying when I received my free shipment.

Homemade describes this as butter roasted pecans that have been mixed into their brown sugar ice cream. I know what you’re about to say “but Nick, you always complain when companies deviate from the norm when it comes to Butter Pecan ice cream” and my friend, you would be right. However, there are exceptions to the rule and this is one of them. I mean, come on, how often do you see brown sugar ice cream? Now I still dislike it when companies call something Butter Pecan because they include those but if this one tastes half as good as I think it will, I’ll have no qualms with the folks over at Homemade Brand.

Homemade Brand Cherry Cordial Ice Cream Review

[by Nick] Hey there On Second Scoopers! (I need to come up with a better name for you guys) I got you all a Valentine’s gift. Wait, what do you mean Valentine’s Day already happened? Are you sure it’s in  February every year? Well then, this is awkward. It’s the thought that counts right? I know the title gave it away but my gift to you is actually a gift from Homemade Brand seeing as they sent me this with all of the other products I’ve reviewed of theirs. Did I just admit to re-gifting something to you for Valentine’s Day? No wonder why I’m single… Forget what I said and let’s just move onto the ice cream.

According to Homemade Brand’s website, Cherry Cordial is their signature flavor. We all know I love cherries but when I think of cherry cordials, I think of those cheap chocolate covered cherries that taste as if a cherry drowned in sugar and was buried in “chocolate”.

Homemade Brand Cookies N' Cream Ice Cream

[By Nick] With the limited edition flavors out of the way, we can finally take a look at Homemade Brand’s normal rotation. Besides Vanilla and Chocolate, nothing is more commonplace in an ice cream company’s line up than Cookies N’ Cream so I’m glad Homemade sent me a pint of their version to try. Now where most companies fail when it comes to cookies n’ cream ice cream is the cookies component. They tend to lean towards using generic “chocolate sandwich cookies” instead of real deal Oreos.

Homemade Brand doesn’t mess around and prominently displays that their ice cream is made with genuine Oreo cookies. According to their websites’ description, they use whole Oreo cookies and mix them into their Madagascar vanilla ice cream. I’m not sure if that means they actually just throw whole cookies in or break them up beforehand but hey I guess that’s the whole point of reviewing products. As for the base, I’m happy to see them using a vanilla bean base over the homemade vanilla ice cream I tried earlier. Something about vanilla bean ice cream is just more appealing to me.

Homemade Brand Sea Salt Caramel Ice Cream Review

[By Nick] Along with their Limited Edition Pumpkin Pie ice cream, Homemade Brand also sent over a container of their Limited Edition Sea Salt Caramel. Looking over their website, Homemade Brand currently has 10 limited edition flavors. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s pretty impressive. Hey folks over at Homemade, if you ever need to add another limited edition flavor, I’m totally willing to collaborate on something with you! The world needs a white chocolate cookies and cream ice cream. Okay, enough sidetracking let’s talk about the ice cream.

I feel like everyone has jumped on the sea salt caramel bandwagon. It’s the flavor equivalent of the greek yogurt trend. Still it’s an amazing combination so I’m in no way complaining about the saturation in the freezer aisle. Homemade Brand’s version utilizes sweet cream ice cream with sea salt caramel swirls as well as chocolate covered caramel truffles. I haven’t had sweet cream ice cream in a while, so this is a welcomed change of pace.

Homemade Brand Pumpkin Pie Ice Cream Review

[By Nick] The holidays might be over but that doesn't mean it's too late for some pumpkin pie ice cream, especially if you consider the fact that January 23rd is National Pie Day. In the complimentary shipment from Homemade Brand, they included a container of their limited edition Pumpkin Pie ice cream. Now I really like pumpkin pie as long as there is no disgusting crust. So many pies have been ruined by that disgusting wrapping of flour. When I was little, I would just eat the filling and leave the soulless crust behind.

Homemade Brand’s version is made up of pumpkin pie ice cream with pie crust pieces and a whipped topping swirl. Now I’m going to try to put my bias against pie crust aside for this review but I doubt that’ll be fully possible. Also, am I the only one who thinks "whipped topping swirl" sounds funny? I mean it’s swirled in so it’s not exactly topping anymore. Then again, it’s not made out of cream so I guess they couldn’t have called it whipped cream either. Eh technicalities aside, I’m ready for some pie!

Homemade Brand Vanilla Ice Cream Review

[By Nick] I was going through our review requests a few weeks ago when I noticed an influx of posts for Homemade Brand Ice Cream (yes, we do actually look at the requests so keep them coming!). Having never heard of them before, I decided to do a little research. According to their website,  the United Dairy Farmers began making ice cream in 1939. However, it wasn't until 1982 however that they started selling their newly formulated premium ice cream under the Homemade Brand Ice Cream name. 

Homemade Brand is based out of Cincinnati, OH and mentions that they’re the Number 1 selling ice cream in Cinci. Why is that so important you ask? Well friends, Graeter’s, who has a very positive track record on this blog, is also based out of Cinci. Now looking around at their flavors, I see Homemade Brand as more of a Ben & Jerry’s type company while Graeter’s is more along the lines of a Haagen-Dazs.

With homemade based out of Cinci and with me living in the middle of nowhere, no stores around me carry this brand. After sending an email inquiring asking if they were willing to send over some samples to be reviewed, I got a response back from one of the nicest PR people that I’ve ever met. Emma, who I know is reading this right now because she’s a big fan of the blog, was more than accommodating and was willing to send over some samples for me to try (Thanks again Emma!).

Actually before we start I want to mention a few things that also came in the delivered package. The first thing I got was this pretty awesome laminated pierce of paper with every employee’s signature on it. Now if that doesn't show a close knit company than I don’t know what does.