Quarterfinal Results
Results from all four of the Elite 8 matchups!
The results for quarterfinals are in! Post match commentary for this round comes to you courtesy of me (Heath) and friend of the blog, Pristine. Make sure to read the whole thing, especially the end, where we discuss next year’s tournament!
Let’s get into it!
Heath: so the first thing I want to say before we get into it is that running this ice cream tournament is way easier than managing a bunch of wise-ass teenagers.
Pristine: I mean, you're doing this with so much joy that of course you will go above and beyond.
Heath: (laughing): I know. It definitely feels that way, but when I think about it, that makes me kinda sad.
Pristine: No, I love telling everybody about you. I’m like, “yeah, remember my coworker Heath? Now that he’s not teaching, he has so much time and energy on his hands that he’s running an ice cream tournament.” And you're not the first example. I have my friend, Allie, when she stopped being a teacher, watching her unbridled organizational prowess and energy and facilitation skills, and like all this energy that teachers have when they stop teaching…it's both amazing and hilarious.
Heath: I feel that way! I didn’t want to rub it in or anything, but as a fellow teacher, I thought you would appreciate it.
Pristine: And this isn't even your day job! But to be fair, you're also asking people if you can deliver them ice cream so of course there is joy.
Heath: I know, it's a pretty easy ask, something guaranteed to get good responses. Okay, let’s start going through these!
Matchup: Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter vs. Miharu Qahwa Coffee + Cardamom
Judges: K & S
Verdict: Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter
Miahru, Qahwa Coffee + Cardamom: We were skeptical at first by the pale color of the ice cream but the coffee flavor came thru nicely with a lovely cardamom finish at the end. The texture was soft and almost fluffy. S described it as aromatic and creamy. I felt like it would be great as a dirty chai affogato.
Häagen Dazs, Chocolate Peanut Butter: Very dense but satisfying texture. The chocolate was creamy and the peanut butter swirls complimented the chocolate well. We also liked the texture of the peanut butter in contrast to the smooth chocolate. I found it to be very comforting and nostalgic.
The vote:
K: I'm surprised to say the winner for me is Häagen Dazs. It just gave such a solid dependable ice cream eating experience. Strong on flavor, texture, and nostalgia points. Miharu was a cool store with very unique flavors, and the coffee cardamom was excellent, but Häagen Dazs won the match up for me.
S: Definitely Cardamom Coffee. Really loved the texture, wonderfully creamy and spicy and the perfect amount of coffee flavor. Mouthfeel was fantastic. Cool how the coffee and cardamom had distinct flavors.
Since it was a tie, we decided with a coin toss. The coin toss winner:
HÄAGEN DAZS!!!
Post Match Commentary:
Pristine: I have a little bit of a background on this one, because this was the coin flip one right?
Heath: Yes, exactly. This is the coin flip one with your entry, the Miharu!
Pristine: So my first reaction is that people need to either force the decision and/or get an odd number of people when voting! (Laughing) But let me read the rest of this.
Okay, I think my overall reaction to this is that it's a hard comparison. Because I think categorically, these two ice creams are so different. It’s sort of like, if I could only eat one ice cream for the rest of my life versus what’s an ice cream that’s going to be a super fun and novel experience. It’s like nostalgia with Haagen Dazs versus adventure with the Miharu. And so in that way, I think the coin toss makes sense.
In the end, I think it depends on the mood you're in that day. I love both of these flavors. I love chocolate ice cream, and chocolate with peanut butter. And I love the Coffee Cardamom, which is why we put it in as our entry. But you might not necessarily want the Miharu every day. It's amazing and has a very distinct and powerful flavor, but you kind of have to be in the mood for it.
Heath: You raise a good point about getting the third person to weigh in as the tiebreaker. I do agree with that. But at the same time, I’m the one that suggested the coin flip when these judges contacted me and said they had a tie!
I think I would say that I really like this decision because I feel it adds some drama and controversy to the tournament! I mean, obviously, this is just like a random ice cream tournament I'm running, and I'm taking it way too seriously. But yeah, I'm like, I want some controversy and drama!
Pristine: Like when it's over time or when there’s was a penalty kick.
Heath: Yes, exactly! It’s like penalty kicks or a controversial foul call. Some people might now be questioning whether or not Haagen-Dazs really should really have gone on to the next round.
Pristine: The cards are stacked! The ref is being paid off!
Heath: Yeah, the whole thing might be biased and therefore feels a bit controversial, which I actually like, because it speaks to the subjective nature of this whole thing. As you know, the inspiration for this is The Tournament of Books, and one of their main things is that fiction book awards are completely subjective: you can't really say one novel is better than the other. So they embrace the subjectivity and instead create a space for discussion and community, which I’m hoping this does. All of which to say, I like that this was a tie and that they did the coin toss to figure out the winner. I feel bad for Miharu, because it kind of feels like maybe it got robbed, but congratulations to Haagen-Dazs!
Matchup: Fenton’s Toasted Almond vs. Mitchell’s Macapuno
Judges: The S-B Family
Verdict: Mitchell’s Macapuno
The winner for our family (in-laws included!) was Mitchell’s Macapuno with a custard-like coconut flesh in the cream. Fenton’s Toasted Almond was a great match up, and it was a close call, but the Coco-nutty flavor of the Macapuno won out!
Post Match Commentary:
Heath: Okay, so Fenton's Toasted Almond versus Mitchell's Macapuno, also known as coconut. You know, it’s funny, when I first texted the family asking which ice cream had won, they texted back: “COCONUT.” I found the all caps response to be delightful!
Anyway, this result doesn’t totally surprise me, because I probably would have chosen the same way. Even though Toasted Almond has renewed my interest in eating Fenton's ice cream and has lessened my thinking that Fenton's ice cream isn't all that good—because the Toasted Almond really is delicious, I had a little the other night and it was just really good—Mitchell’s just seemed like the inevitable winner here. As I already mentioned last week, Mitchell's is probably my favorite ice cream place in the Bay Area, so I felt like it had to win.
So in that sense, I'm kind of happy about the result in this one because Mitchell’s ice cream just seems better than Fenton’s to me. In my mind as least. But I feel like I'm hating on Fenton’s again, even though the Toasted Almond is really good, so I’ll stop there. What are your thoughts?
Pristine: I've never had either flavor. I agree with you about Fenton's, but I'm curious about their toasted almond. Is it very marzipan-y?
Heath: Yes, but in a really nice way. Not overpowering or too sugary.
Pristine: Okay. I should say I love coconut ice cream when it's done well. Like if it's done really well. But I think this is a good matchup because both flavors have the danger of getting too perfume-y. Like for both Coconut and Almond, if you go too artificial, it becomes like bad artificial—overly marzipan-y, really perfume-y, or too artificially coconut. It can be like you’re tasting sunblock.
But a very good natural ice cream with fresh, young coconut is incredible. I've had some really, really, really good coconut ice cream in the past. I haven't had this one, but I do like coconut ice cream, so this one as the winner makes sense. The only other thing is I would say is that almond, more so than coconut, is kind of like cilantro. Some people feel really strongly about marzipan, and don’t like it. I think that makes coconut is a little bit more “for the people.”
Heath: Your point about these flavors tasting like sunblock is such a good descriptor! I think that's a really good observation about how both of these flavors can go.
I should also note that the original flavor that was entered into the Tournament was Mitchell's Buko, which is “young coconut.” But for whatever reason, when I went to Piedmont Grocery during the first round, I couldn't find it. I could only find Macapuno. Even though I'd been there a week earlier to scope it out—as you can see, I’m putting a lot of time into this—and they had it in stock at that time. So I was all, “I'll just come back next week and get it.” And then I go back to get it and they’re all out of Buko. They seemingly had everything else in stock Avocado, Lychee, Macapuno. And I'm like, where's the Buko? I certainly wasn’t driving to San Francisco1, so I sort of made an executive decision and the flavor is now Macapuno. By the way, the Buko is back in stock at Piedmont Grocery as of this past weekend, but now we have to stick with the Macapuno.
Pristine: I'd be curious how Buko and Macapuno are different because Buko is Filipino coconut. I'm curious what the differences are. I'm assuming Macapuno is more like Hawaiian coconut. Either way, I need to go try Mitchell’s!
Matchup: Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia vs. Tillamook Mudslide
Judges: The K-L Family
Verdict: Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia
“Cherry Garcia wins!
This was a unanimous choice in our household, although the vote was initially split 3:1. The Cherry Garcia had much better textural contrast: the cherries were like little surprises inside the ice cream, while the ice cream was creamy and airy, and the chocolate chips were nice and snappy. The one person who voted for Tillamook Mudslide at first quickly changed their mind when they bit into the chocolate, which was soft, grainy, and too sweet for their taste. It's hard in this family to go against chocolate, yet we all did. Shockingly, this was our first time trying Cherry Garcia despite being frequent Ben & Jerry's buyers. First but not last!”
Post Match Commentary:
Heath: Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia versus Tillamook Mudslide. What are your thoughts?
Pristine: I think it's an interesting assessment where it was three to one and then the bits were what decided things. If you're going to put little bits in your ice cream, they have to be good bits. Chocolate ice cream can always be good, but if you're going to throw bad things in it. But wait, am I correct to say you've never had Cherry Garcia?
Heath: Yeah, I don't know how I've missed it. I think in my mind, and this is connected to childhood, my idea of cherries was maraschino cherries. I don't know how that happened, maybe because I didn’t eat fresh cherries growing up? The only time I ever saw cherries were maraschino cherries on banana splits. And based on that, I think I reached the conclusion, well, that thing's kind of overly sweet and a little bit gross. Therefore, I don't like cherry as flavor. Which is probably why I’ve never tried Cherry Garcia.
Pristine: Well, Cherry Garcia definitely does not use maraschino cherries. That would be terrible. I think they use the kind of cherries that they'll use for really fancy Manhattans. They're really expensive, but they're like a much darker color, but they are still in syrup, but it's like much higher quality. There's no formaldehyde. It has a much more natural, much more interesting flavor.
As far as the Mudslide, I don't have a good reference point for it other than I love chocolate. I haven't tried it yet. I'm going to at some point.
Heath: Same. It's interesting that the judges got down to such a level of detail about like what's the deciding issue was here. Like you mentioned, the chocolate bits that are mixed in to the Mudslide aren't very good compared to the Cherry Garcia, which it sounds like did have good chocolate mix-ins.
Pristine: I'm curious. It says soft, grainy and too sweet. I'm wondering if that was like the brownie bits because I can't imagine any bit of actual chocolate being soft.
Heath: Yeah, I don't know. Maybe there’s some brownie? I looked this up the last time during post-match commentary and I forgot. Let’s look it up again…just for our own edification. It says, “ribbon of rich fudge and chocolatey chips.”
Pristine: Fudge. Hmmmm.
Heath: I guess we'll have to try it and see how it tastes. Any other thoughts?
Pristine: No, not really. This one seemed like a tough comparison as well, going all the way down to the mix-ins.
Matchup: Straus Mint Chip vs. Salt & Straw Salted, Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough
Judges: P & E
Verdict: Straus Mint Chip
Full transparency: E and I are quite partial to mint chip ice cream—it’s a go to flavor in our household, so that is relevant experimental data. HOWEVER, we do think our judgement stands.
Salt & Straw Pros:
Ice cream itself was creamier/had a smoother texture
We was impressed with the softness of the cookie dough mix ins, usually when you have chunks of things in ice cream they can get really hard - this was not the case it scooped like the ice cream itself
The chocolate chips were the correct size (small), for easier integration/chewing
Salt & Straw Cons:
Felt surprisingly one note for a flavor with so many words in its name 🤣 Everything kinda melded together rather than contrasting/making each other more interesting, it felt kinda boring
E wasn’t a fan of the malt flavor or the chocolate sauce (I thought it could be more chocolatey)
E also thought it could be saltier (for salted malt to be in the name)
Mint Pros
So refreshing, simple yet delicious
More interesting/fun flavor, the ice cream contrasted the dark chocolate chips in a complementary way
Felt like it accomplished more with its simplicity.
Mint Cons:
E thought it could be mintier while I thought the level of mintiness was fine.
Post Match Commentary:
Heath: So the last one…and this was yours and E’s judgment, so I'll let you lead off.
Pristine: Well, I'm curious for you, what is the max word count you think an ice cream flavor name should have?
Heath: (Laughing): When it first got it entered, I did notice that. I was like, that's a long name for an ice cream. Even if you take away the Salt & Straw, it's still salted, malted chocolate chip cookie dough.
Pristine: Exactly. I wasn't even counting salt and straw.
Heath: It does feel like a lot of words. But it is descriptive of what they're trying to do! But this was your matchup so you should share your thoughts.
Pristine: Let's see, do I have anything extra to add to this? I think I was surprised, but also not. I haven't been to Salt & Straw that many times. But if I'm remembering correctly, think I feel this way about a lot of their ice creams. It’s kind of like, oh, I'm so excited, or this seems like it's going to be really promising. And I think there have been some flavors where I'm like, yeah, that was great. I think they do like a strawberry balsamic one that is very good. But I think somewhere I'm like, whoa, yeah, there's too much of this and I feel like I'm going to get sick of it. Which is how I felt about the salted malted chocolate chip cookie dough.
It’s really rich it all kind of tasted the same even thought there were a lot of things in it. On the plus side, the ice cream itself is very creamy they were able to achieve a mix of different textures. I think they did a really good job with texture. The soft cookie dough that didn't get hard. The teeny tiny chocolate chips. The chocolatey sauce. There's a lot of things going on.
And then I literally put the mint chip in my mouth for one second and I was like, yeah, I’m done. From the moment it touched my mouth, I was like, this is over, this one wins.
Heath: So I haven’t had the Straus Min Chip (yet!), so I’m wondering: does it have a natural mint flavor or is it kind of artificially mint? Most mint chips have an artificial mint flavor versus a natural mint. By artificial, I mean mint extract. I love making fresh mint ice cream and…it just hits a little different than ice cream flavored with mint extract.
Pristine: You're talking about like spearmint?
Heath: Yeah
Pristine: Hmm, I want to read the ingredients now. It wasn’t super overwhelming and it didn't feel too minty or anything like that. My partner thought it could be mintier, but I thought it was perfect. Refreshing but not assaulting.
Heath: Okay. I was just curious. In terms of Salt & Straw, I was there this weekend. I went with the whole fam and we sampled quite a bit of their offerings. It was generally excellent. I agree they have great texture. The quality of their ice cream itself is superb. My daughter got a strawberry sherbet made with coconut water that was really tasty and really interesting. And my wife got one with coffee and nuts that was also quite good. Same with my order, which was Chocolate Brownie.
But after sampling the Salted, Malted Cookie Dough, I see your point. I think it’s very very good. But it’s also very rich and has a lot going on. I could see it coming across as so sweet and so full of classic dessert flavors that maybe all the individual get overwhelmed and dissolve into a sweet, creamy, gooeyness. Again, I really enjoyed it. We bought a couple of pints of it in case it went all the way to the finals (which I was predicting), but maybe it’s all just a bit too much? Now that it’s lost, I guess me and the fam will have to enjoy all those pints we bought!
Heath: Okay, I’ve kept you on this call long enough! Let’s wrap up it.
Pristine: Yes, but before we do, I wanted to ask: are you planning on doing the tournament again next year? And if so, are you planning on modifying based on what you're learning this time? Because it's like, are we continuing with like the sports bracket route? In which case, it's binary, right? And there are going to be moments like the Haagen Dazs Miharu that are subjective or random and it’s funny.
But what about more categories? Like, there are winners for specific categories of things. Like most nostalgic flavor. Or flavor I would eat every single day for the rest of my life. Or most adventurous flavor. Or seasonal flavors. So I'm curious what you’re thinking.
Heath: (laughing), Well, the answer to the first question is 100% yes, there will be another tournament next year. I think that's a definite at this point, not only because it's been fun, but a number of people have already been talking about next year like it’s a done deal. They're like, “Oh, when you do this next year...” Even if I didn't want to do it, it's almost like I would have to now that I've unleashed this. People seem to really be enjoying it.
Pristine: People be getting jerseys next year!
Heath: (laughing): Totally. So yes to question one!
As far as question two, I hadn't even thought about that, but that's a great point. It doesn't have to be a bracket style matchup. Again, my whole reference point for this is the Tournament of Books, which I really love. It’s also kind of easy to just give people pints and have them do a taste taste.
But I like the idea of something different. Like different chocolates, different fruit flavors, or the most adventurous, like you said, or the one I’d be the most willing to eat every day. Maybe everyone tries the same few flavors and votes.
It does feel like a little bit like head to head match ups can make things unfair because certain ice creams have such distinct flavors.
Pristine: Exactly. But at the same time, it is fun having your own weird March Madness. And it’s much simpler too.
Heath: Yeah, the bracket style makes it much easier. But I like your ideas. So I'm going to keep that in mind when this happens again next year!
Anyway, Pristine, thank you for doing the post-match commentary! This was super fun and I really appreciate it!
Pristine: No problem! Thanks for including me!
Though funnily enough, I packed the whole family into the car this past Sunday and drove to Mitchells and Salt & Straw in SF to eat some ice cream and pick up some pints.
Before tournament scoop off, I imagined it was an anonymous taste test—without any knowledge of the ice cream makes or flavor names. Those factors have added delightful dimensions to the judging and commentary. But it also makes me wonder about bias since food can be so heavily marketed.