Round 1 Results - Right Bracket
Results from the four first round matches on the right side!
The results for the right side of the bracket are in! Post match commentary from me (Heath) and friend of the blog, Young Whan. Let’s get into it!
Heath: So how are you feeling about the tournament so far?
Young Whan: I'm loving it. I'm six for eight on my bracket.
Heath: Woah, you have a bracket! That's a pretty good pick rate!
Young Whan: It is pretty good. But I mean, one of them I already knew!
Heath: Six for eight is still pretty good! With a March Madness bracket people almost never do that well. Anyway, let's jump into this!
Matchup: Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter vs. Baskin & Robbins Pralines & Cream
Judges: The I-L Family
Verdict: Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter
“Our family tried both flavors two nights in a row, the first night with princess cake, and the second night on their own. Unsurprisingly, Pralines and Cream was simply too sweet compared to the seduction of chocolate and frozen peanut butter. Frozen peanut butter is an exceptional delicacy itself.
Haagen Dazs is the winner.”
Post Match Commentary:
Heath: So I was kind of expecting this result, despite the fact I have a lot of nostalgia and kind of an emotional connection to Baskin & Robbins. Pralines and Cream was never really my flavor, but I really like Baskin and Robbins and I went there a lot growing up. It was sort of like the ice cream trifecta of my childhood was Baskin & Robbins, Carvel, and Friendly’s
Young Whan: I was just going to say Friendly’s!
Heath: Yeah, Friendly’s! So I had some kind of, I don't know, I guess I felt some sort of way that it would be nice if Baskin & Robbins won, but I did not expect it to win, and it did not win. And the only thing I would add is that when I purchased the pints, you could feel how much weightier the Haagen-Dazs pint felt compared to the Baskin & Robbins. One of the knocks on mass market corporate ice cream like Bryer’s is that they whip a lot of air into the cream, and that seemed to be the case here.
Young Whan: Maybe we should just weigh the pints and then we'll know who's going to win. Just based on the density of the ice cream! Not to go down a rabbit hole, but I had this other thought of like, what if we actually looked at the sugar level of each of these ice creams? Because it seems like the parents are outnumbering the children in a lot of these judging families, and so maybe the less sugary ice creams are at an advantage in this particular competition with the judging.
Heath: I think you’re right.
Young Whan: But it was funny to read some of the other commentary because I was like noticing how in these three person households with like two parents and then one child, the child was just getting outvoted! And actually, it almost happened in our judging too, because my son was the lone dissenter. He was going for the sorbet, which is like super sweet. But then eventually, I don't know, he got convinced by the two of us talking about how overly sweet the sorbet was, he like eventually changed his vote. Sorry to do that to him, but you know.
Heath: I love it!
Young Whan: But yeah, Baskin & Robbins has good childhood memories, I would get the banana split sometimes with my family and we love’d that. But Haagen-Dazs, it seemed kind of slept on on by this group of families because I think this is the only Haagen-Dazs entry, And they just make really good ice cream for a big company. Their ice cream is just amazing. And the chocolate peanut butter combination is like a favorite of mine so I was kind of like, “it's going to win.”
Heath: I agree. They make really good ice cream. They’re probably the best of the big national brands, along with Ben and Jerry's. Haagen-Dazs ice cream is just really high quality. It's well made and the ingredients are simple; no preservatives or additives. It's pretty simple stuff but tastes amazing.
One last thing I want to acknowledge is that they taste tested two nights in a row, which I appreciated. They took it very seriously! My family didn’t do that!
Young Whan: Yes. I read another one where they switched the order, which is what we did too. It was like we wanted to make sure we weren’t biased because we tried one first and then the other. So then the next night we we ate them in the reverse order.
Matchup: Miharu's Qahwa, Coffee + Cardamom vs. Humphrey Slocombe Vietnamese Coffee
Judges: The C-M Family
Verdict: Miharu's Qahwa, Coffee + Cardamom
Our pick was Miharu. The coffee flavor was more intense. I found the texture of the ice cream a little stiffer--close to being icy, but R said he liked its creaminess.
Though Slocombe looked more like coffee in color (Miharu was white) it had a weaker flavor. R thought it was a little salty and a bit too rich. I thought it was creamier than Miharu.
We also found that when we tasted both ice creams one after the other, the second ice cream's flavor didn't come through. Maybe our taste buds were frozen for a while? So we switched the order when we tasted the second night. Miharu still came out on top.
Post Match Commentary:
Heath: All right, so let's jump to this next one. This was the Miharu's Coffee + Cardamom versus Humphrey Slocombe Vietnamese Coffee. This felt similar to yesterday’s Jeni’s-Salt & Straw / Duke-North Carolina matchup analogy. This felt like, I don't know, Arizona versus Kentucky, two heavyweights, or two heavy hitters if you will. What were your thoughts?
Young Whan: Well, you know, I've had this Vietnamese coffee flavor, so I was aware of it was aware of it. And I remember having a reaction that it was too sweet for me, in part because I also just find Vietnamese coffee in general too sweet. I'm somebody who drinks coffee black, and likes dark chocolate, so for me, I was not expecting Vietnamese coffee to advance because I thought it'd be too sweet. And I'll be honest, I've never even heard of Miharu until you told me about it. The cardamom, I was a little bit on the fence about like whether that would be a good combination with the coffee, so I'm curious about that. What did you think?
Heath: I wasn't sure because I haven't tried either of these. I'm not a coffee drinker, mainly because I don't want the caffeine. But I really like the flavor of coffee and I like coffee ice cream. So this one, to my mind, was a toss up because it’s two high end ice cream makers. I again appreciated the fact that the judges took this seriously in terms of like their approach to taste testing. They tested it two nights in a row, switched up the order to really make sure that their pick was true.
I guess I should also add that I sometimes find Humphrey Slocombe pretentious and annoying. Like the whole secret breakfast flavor thing. It's so focused on adults. I like ice cream places that really like cater to kids because I feel like ice cream, at the end of the day, is for kids, and as adults, when we're eating ice cream, we're just feeding our inner child in a way. I don’t want to trash Humphrey Slocombe, but I’m kinda glad Miharu is advancing.
Young Whan: You know, props to the organizer of this tournament for really thinking carefully about the matchups.
Heath (laughs): Yeah, I wanted to put the two coffees against each other because it just felt like if we're having two coffees, they should go against each other in the first round.
Matchup: Ben & Jerry's Phish Food vs. Fenton's Toasted Almond
Judges: The M-C Family (my family!)
Verdict: Fenton’s Toasted Almond
We chose Toasted Almond over Phish Food, 2 to 1. The almond flavor was the biggest reason why: it’s very tasty. We also liked the small pieces of chopped almond that were mixed in throughout. It had a nice texture, but the flavor is what really made it stand out.
The Phish food was very good, but had too many chunks of chocolate, and the marshmallow flavor of the marshmallow swirl didn’t come through enough. Our son voted for Phish Food, but he was outvoted!
Post Match Commentary:
Heath: All right. So this was my family's judgment. I witnessed it in person! I was not allowed to vote because as the commissioner, I’m trying not to tip the scales. But this result surprised me because as I’ve said on the blog before, Fenton's doesn't have the best ice cream. I feel like the place is very overrated beyond the experience of visiting. But I have to say, I probably would have voted in the same way as my wife and daughter, who voted for toasted almond. It's really quite delicious. And it's sweet, but really delicious. And while the Phish Food was good, it felt a bit too busy, with too much going on. So I kind of concurred with my family's judgment here.
Young Whan (laughing): But you kept a straight face the whole time?
Heath: Yeah, I didn't say what I was going to vote for! But overall, this was kind of like an upset in my mind. What were your thoughts?
Young Whan: In my bracket, I voted Phish Food forward..
Heath: Uh-oh, bracket buster!
Young Whan: Yeah. But you know, my experience with Fenton’s is always like it’s fun in person but the ice cream itself is underwhelming. I find it too sweet and too cream forward. It's a really overly creamy, sweet ice cream. And I generally don't like that particular combination. So I was surprised to see Fenton's beat out the good old Ben & Jerry's there, especially such a classic. But it’s good because the next time I go to Fenton's, I'll just order toasted almond. It's got a reputation now.
Heath: Yeah, the black and tan sundae (with Toasted Almond) is a huge favorite for my wife and her entire family.
Matchup: Mitchell’s Macapuno Ice Cream vs. Talenti Alphonso Mango Sorbet
Judges: The K-K Family
Verdict: Mitchell’s Macapuno Ice Cream
The three adults in the house voted for macapuno, while the two kids voted for the mango sorbet. While both had good flavor, the macapuno had a better texture (creamy with coconut chunks) while the sorbet had a slight aftertaste.
Post Match Commentary:
Heath: Alright, last one. This was supposed to be Mitchell's Buko, but I couldn't find it at Piedmont Grocer. They usually carry it, but they were all out when I went. But Buko is Young Coconut, and Macapuno is regular coconut, so it feels like an adequate substitute. And it was up against Talenti’s Alfonso Mango sorbet, making this a tropical head to head! Anyway, what are your thoughts on this?
Young Whan: I'll tell you that we had a qualifying competition in our household to decide on our pint entry, and we had a Talenti fruit flavored gelato in that competition that was quite good! But sorbets just generally have to add a lot of sugar to make up for the lack of cream, which make them really sweet. And a lot of sorbets are just like a single flavor, like single fruit flavor mango or whatever. So they tend to be very sweet but lacking complexity because there's no cream to balance things out. So I was not surprised Macapuno won. And it’s Mitchell's, which you know, they've got such a good reputation.
Heath: Yeah, it's interesting that the kids are liking the sorbets because of the sugariness, which you need in sorbets to make them scoopable. But you're right, it ends up becoming a bit one note. You often don't see sorbets with a lot of mix-ins. Which I think, like I was saying yesterday with Adrian, kind of puts it at a disadvantage to ice cream, which you can do more with it, I think, because of the creaminess and the the mix-ins and different flavors going on in there.
Young Whan: Exactly.
Heath: So I wasn't surprised either. I mean, I kind of wanted a sorbet to do well just because. But I kind of feel like Mitchell’s deserved to win because their ice cream is fantastic. I really like their ice cream. Every time I go there, I have a good experience. I also like that Mitchell's is like this old school American ice cream shop that has tons of Asian and Mexican flavors like ube, lychee, avocado, mango, green tea, mexican chocolate, etc. alongside traditional American flavors. And they’ve been doing that for years, which isn’t surprising, given that they’re located in San Francisco. But coming from the East Coast, the first time I ever went to Mitchell's, I was like, oh, this is cool. They have like more than just like chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, pistachio, etc.
Young Whan: Yeah, and the original Mitchell's the one in Excelsior, right? That's a very heavy Filipino community there so it’s also nice to see something be responsive to to the local community.
Heath: All right. Well, that is our post-match commentary. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts Young Whan. I appreciate it. Any parting thoughts you want to add?
Young Whan: This was fun! I'm just curious if you've got one you're rooting for, or are you just trying to stay objective?
Heath: I'm not necessarily rooting for anyone, but I think my favorites right now are the Makapuno and the Salted, Malted Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. I have a trip planned to Salt & Straw this weekend with the fam to buy some more pints How about you? What's your favorite? Obviously, you're riding with your pint choice!
Young Whan: Well yes, you know where my chips are! I will say I don't think that Fenton's has a chance. I don’t think Straus Mint Chip will advance either. The Tillamook, maybe that’s dark horse. But I’d like to see Ben and Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs in the final. You know, knock out all these fancy brands, and their $12 pints you know, and just two $6 pints in the final!
Heath: Love it! Thanks Young Whan!