HoneyCreme USA

I'm alive! I've just got a new job is all - and as with all my jobs, it saps a lot of my writing energy, since it is based around...writing on a computer. It's cool, exciting work, but it doesn't necessarily leave a lot of desire to write in my leisure time.

Also, while San Francisco is a nice place to live in a lot of ways, you may be surprised to hear they just don't have the limited editions like middle America has. The new Blueberry Pie Oreos taunt me, the Fruity Crisp Oreos are laughing my face...and instead I'm cruising through the snack aisle faced with $8 chocolate bars and more plain Ghirardelli squares than I can shake a stick at.

They also have traditional & regional things that I just don't feel like anyone would be that interested in hearing about, like Mother's brand taffy sandwich cookies. Number one, they sound kind of gross to me. Number two, if you won't be able to find it or even order it online, do you really want to hear about it? ...Then again, today's review won't be easy to find for anyone outside of Singapore, China, or San Francisco...so....well, this one is unique enough to make up for that.

HoneyCreme is a chain from either Korea or Taiwan (really difficult to find specifics on this in English) specializing in 'Korean style' soft serve ice cream & honey based toppings. I've heard a bit about how massive soft serve is in Korea, it's apparently having a real moment throughout the Asia Pacific region. I've always been a fan of soft serve, see my review of Twirl & Dip, one of my first in San Francisco, for proof.

What I wasn't sure about, however, was how Korean style may differ from plain ol' American soft serve. I know that 'milk' as a flavor is utilized way more in Asian countries, so I expected it to perhaps be along those lines.

Well, I wasn't wrong - but it's so much more delicious than just ice milk!

Consider the richness of whole milk or cream, the sort of buttery sweet flavor that accompanies them. Now, top it with clear & warming honey. It's really an awesome sensation. So rich, with very little 'vanilla' to speak of, but you'll be surprised by how flavorful it is just being rich milk.

The toppings include: honey swirl, honeycomb, chocolate beans, salted dark chocolate sauce, cotton candy, affogato, mixed grains, and popcorn. Mixed grains is a powder, can't say what exactly it is, but I think it may be misu, a Korean mix of grains that is used to make a sweet & nutritious drink. Makes me think of malt powder, but I really have no clue as I've never tried it.

As you can see I ordered mine with the honey swirl topping, and I'd definitely recommend it. The dark chocolate sauce also looked good, but unless you're going for a photo opportunity I'd probably pass on the honeycomb (literally a chunk of honeycomb, no sauce accompaniment) and even, sadly, the cotton candy topped version. It's a cool idea, and it looks amazing, but I think it would be hard to actually eat and would contribute little to the soft serve.

There was a bit of seating in the cafe, just a long bench by the window but it could probably sit maybe 6 people max?

I think I paid a little over $4.00 for this, and it's not a bad deal really. It's a fair sized portion and a high quality soft serve, and if you're in San Francisco you've got to be used to these prices by now, right?

Graeter's Cheese Crown Ice Cream

I'm visiting family in Indiana right now, so I thought - hey, now's my time to try out things that really only exist in the Midwest. There is lots of cool stuff about San Francisco, things you can get there that are really difficult to find most elsewhere in the United States...but some things I know I'll be missing. Like a lot of chains - I know it's not all that cool but I wish I could, if I so chose, go to a Red Lobster or something. In San Francisco, they just don't have 'em. Nor do they have Graeter's ice cream parlors - a very small Midwestern chain that must've just recently expanded to Indiana, as I'd never heard of them before.

They had a special flavor this month based off of a cheese danish pastry that they refer to as a Cheese Crown. Apparently in the Kentucky & Ohio region they have bakeries, but in Indiana it's just ice cream...for now. Graeter's also sells lots of their premium chip varieties in grocery stores across the nation, so keep your eyes peeled for this flavor at shops near you. (no, I'm not sponsored by Graeter's ;) )

The mix-ins for this flavor include cinnamon sugar pastry pieces & fondant icing flakes. As you can see, there are plenty of both - as I went further into the pint, the amount only seemed to increase. Very generous!

The ice cream itself seems to be a cream cheese base with a hint of fresh, sweet lemon. It's very reminiscent of cheesecake, and is thick & rich rather than icy & sweet. You can really feel the quality of the ice cream itself - it's not just good because of the bits, like a lot of other ice cream parlor flavors out there in the world.

The icing flakes had a very creamy, smooth texture and were truly thin slivers. The flavor was very sweet, it was really similar to the light frosting that tops danishes & cinnamon rolls. The pastry was soft, and had a taste very similar to graham crackers - or perhaps more specifically, Cinnamon Teddy Grahams.

It was a great flavor, very well put together (cinnamon sugar & cream cheese is hard to go wrong with) and high quality, smooth ice cream.

Magnum Stolen Kiss, Tarte Aux Pommes

There are five new Magnums on the UK ice cream scene, and they all look nice, sure, if not a little bit forward.

I say that because all of them are named after styles of kisses, for some reason.

First Kiss, the first one, is Creme Brulee inspired, with custard ice cream and caramel sauce & pieces, covered in milk chocolate. I'm not reviewing that one.

Loving Kiss is 'cream' ice cream, red fruit sauce with bits of cranberry and meringue, covered in dark chocolate. Not reviewing that ever because I don't like any of the bits, and I have my suspicions about 'cream' flavored ice cream.

Passionate Kiss is Tiramisu style, mascarpone flavored ice cream, coffee sauce with chunks of chocolate and sponge covered in milk chocolate. This one sounds very nice, but things are starting to get a bit saucy with these names. I guess tiramisu is a romantic dessert, what with the ladyfingers and the booze.

Flirty Kiss sounds excellent. Chocolate ice cream, chocolate sauce, and chocolate brownie pieces slathered in milk chocolate. Since I've been eating less badly (you might've noticed less blog posts! a symptom of trying to curb sweets) I've been really craving chocolate, so this sounds delicious.

What I'm reviewing today though, is Stolen Kiss, which seems like the clear winner for least likely flavor, and potentially nicest. Tarte aux pommes inspired, which is Fancy for apple pie. So it is vanilla ice cream, apple sauce, nutmeg pastry pieces, and covered in white chocolate dusted with cinnamon. So cinnamon flavored white chocolate.

I understand that these come in a mini-pack as well, but I got the full-size bar from a Tesco freezer. They only had Stolen Kiss, though. Do they do a mini-pack of all 5? It would be a shame if they didn't.

The box was nice, kept the ice cream safer than your standard plastic-y wrap, but it was a bit silly that the only thing that kept it closed was a Magnum sticker at the front. It worked, but I couldn't help but wonder if a lot of them would get busted open in transport.

Pretty attention grabbing color scheme as well, but I almost walked right past it because I thought it was just a mint Magnum in a box. I guess it came between apples and 'red' fruits, who would be able to use a red color sceme. Red fruits must've won.

 Maybe the brown should've been white, though? Since it is white chocolate-and it would further differentiate it from the mint Magnum.

I ate this on the train, haha. It was pretty difficult to take a picture, but I think this shows pretty well the flecked white chocolate, a peak of a pastry piece or two, and in between the ice cream and the white chocolate, the apple sauce. Don't let that description fool you though, it isn't apple sauce, it is like apple pie filling...or for those of you who don't know about pie filling in cans, imagine simmering down apples with sugar and liquid. There are bits of actual apple, but it is mostly a thick sauce type thing flavored like apples. It tastes like the innards of apple pie.

 The white chocolate was decently spiced with cinnamon, and since it is so sweet naturally it is really a perfect balance. I really like the white chocolate Magnum uses, it is very creamy and buttery- this just adds some sweet spice to it.

The pastry pieces were spicy, soft, crumbly, and plentiful. The ice cream was the good stuff, really premium for an ice cream bar which is kind of Magnum's thing, I suppose!

All in all, it tasted like apple pie a la mode. If you like the sound of that, you have to get one of these. Forget all about the Ben & Jerry's version, it's is nowhere near as nice as this. The Ben & Jerry's tasted mostly like vanilla ice cream, with a bitsy amount of mix-ins, where as this one tastes like apple pie with a big scoop of ice cream.

Just a matter of balance, and I think the Magnum bar is a lot more interesting and a much better interpretation of apple pie. I want to try the rest of these for sure.

Cornetto Enigma Popcorn

I'm taking a break from posting up the ol' American treats to bring on a review buttressed by yesterday's decent weather...an ice cream treat! As you know, I've previously bemoaned the lack of interesting ice cream in the UK, but I always give the freezer aisle a look-see, just in case. Considering the latest Ben & Jerry's blondie and peanut butter based tubs, the Magnum Yoghurt Fresh, and this cone, things might just be looking up for the UK's non-standard ice cream selection.

What cone do I mean, you ask? Don't be silly, it's right there in the title--the Cornetto Enigma Popcorn. Cornetto describes it as, 'An ice cream for the 7th art. With the suspense of a popcorn flavored ice cream and a smooth salted caramel center. And just like in the best Western films, it is covered in black & white chocolate and ice cream with a final intense action of small crunchy rice balls.'

That is the dumbest description of an ice cream flavor I have ever read. I can deduce that the "7th art" is probably referring to film, and I guess they use three adjectives that could potentially be describing a movie: "suspense", Western", and "action"...and people traditionally eat popcorn at a movie theatre so... Cornetto has finally cut out the middle man of brand tie-ins, no longer chained to a specific film, they're cross-promoting movies in general! Good for them. Or really stupid. I'm torn.

Anyway, I wouldn't really care if the description was just a looping WAV file of dogs barking and babies crying...nothing can stop me from eating popcorn flavored ice cream, especially if that ice cream has a salted caramel center. It's like the good people at the Cornetto flavor division knew how upset I was by the cookie Enigma (a hardly mysterious or intriguing choice that just tasted like vanilla, anyway) and tried to make it up to me with my preferred ratio of salt, fat, and sugar.

However, to make sure that other people would try it, they threw some decorative crunchy rice bits on top--a known attractant of children and people who hate their teeth and love flavorless grinding. They didn't skimp on the rice bits, probably because they are just puffed rice, so if that is nice for you than you'll be happy to find them all the way down the cone. The puffed rice was quite buttery tasting, it reminded me exactly of those popcorn flavored Jelly Bellies. Let's face facts folks, popcorn flavor pretty much means butter and salt flavor, and these rice puffs tasted just like fake butter and salt.

The ice cream was impressively flavored. My husband had his first, and warned me that it just tasted like vanilla, but he's totally wrong, it tastes like salty vanilla. What it reminded me of most was kettle corn, which is popcorn that has been coated in sugar more than it has been doused in butter or salt--you can still taste those two things when you eat kettle corn, but it is mostly sweet and a bit more delicate. It was great, and I'd happily buy a carton of it, provided it had a few mix-ins. I'd suggest Sour Patch Kids, Junior Mints, or Snowcaps...the top three mix-ins for actual popcorn, of course.

The salted caramel sauce was also pretty thoroughly distributed, and tasted like a pretty basic salted caramel--less sweet than regular caramel, but not terribly salty. Although, this was already a pretty decent popcorn flavored ice cream being made by a household name brand, I refuse to look this gift horse in the mouth by complaining too much about the sauce. It was all awesome, it made a great treat for the slightly warm day we had yesterday, and I will happily be eating more for as long as they're available. Massive kudos to Cornetto, and if you ever release another risky Enigma, I'll be more than happy to provide adequate description.