Semifinal Results
From the Final Four to the Championship!
Here it is folks. The Final Four of the 1st Annual Tournament of Ice Cream! Post match commentary for this round comes to you courtesy of me (Heath) and friend of the blog, Andrew. Check out Andrew’s excellent Substack, The Hero’s Gurney!
Okay, time to reveal who’s going to the final round!
Heath: Andrew, have you enjoyed the tournament of ice cream?
Andrew: I have! Though I've never made ice cream before in my life. At the same time, I’m very into food and generally speaking, I like taste tests. Like I always read the blog or the article that's about like tasting a bunch of different varieties of the same like the same food stuff, whether it's like the best kind of vanilla ice cream or it's the best french fry or it's the best, like, tuna fish in a can. I will I will read that article.
Participating in the tournament and reading the write-ups, I am enjoying the process because so much of it seems to be just purely subjective. Like whatever your associations are with certain flavors. And some reviewers are really getting into the texture texture versus flavor versus the purity so there's all kinds of different metrics that are sometimes in conflict with one another, and I’ve enjoy reading about it.
Heath: Yeah. I think it's doing what I wanted it to do. I know it’s subjective, but it's been a fun excuse to get people eating and talking about ice cream.
I am surprised that you've never made ice cream because you are someone who's into food and you're a good cook! By the way, I need to get that pulled pork recipe from you because we have a pretty good recipe, but yours was better than our. It was seasoned so well.
Andrew: It's easy money. It's a really easy recipe. I’ll get it to you!
Heath: Excellent! Alright, onto the matchups!
Matchup: Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia vs. Straus Mint Chip
Judges: R & E
Verdict: Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia
After MUCH deliberation, we have chosen a winner. It is the most surprising thing that has happened to us all year, but it’s gotta be the Cherry Garcia!
The combination of mint, chocolate, and vanilla is hands down one of the best-balanced combinations I have ever experienced in a mint chocolate chip ice cream. The punch of vanilla is a delight.
However, the creamy texture and abundant chunks of mix-ins (in this case, cherries and chocolate) in the Ben and Jerry’s remain distinctly remarkable in the ice cream world. Ben and Jerry freaking know what they’re doing.
Post Match Commentary:
Andrew: Okay, I've had many a pint of Cherry Garcia. And I have had many a pint of Straus Mint Chip. And I can tell you right now, I never would have called it this way.
Heath: Say more!
Andrew: Because I believe Mint Chip is just inherently a superior flavor. And that's just my subjective tendency, right?
But I will also acknowledge that when you're in the mood for that like, textural sort of of intricacy, with like the ribbons, the crunch, and the like pop of a cherry in there…Ben and Jerry's does a great job. Their ice cream is really good and their flavor combinations are great. I have very fond memories of when we lived in LA and K moved back up here for work. I would often walk to the corner store for a pint, and when I did, Cherry Garcia was inevitably the pint I would go with. There is something nice about something that's so accessible in any like bodega in the country being the top dog in this tournament.
Heath: I really agree with that last point; it’s nice that Cherry Garcia, and Ben & Jerry's in general, is both so accessible and so good. When Baskin & Robbins got entered, I was like, okay, I have nostalgic memories, but I never buy pints of Baskin & Robbins. I just don’t do it. But I often buy Ben and Jerry's because it's such good quality. As the judges said, they do know what they are doing!
As far as the subjectivity, yeah, the folks who judged the round before this I think definitely would have gone with the Mint Chip. But I also liked how these judges acknowledged that this was a surprise even to them. That they didn’t think Cherry Garcia would win, but it was so good it won them over.
I’ve mentioned this a few times already, but it bears repeating: I still haven’t tried Cherry Garcia. I meant to pick some up today on the way home. But it just didn't happen because, you know, work, parenting, life, etc.
Andrew: I’ve had the Straus Mint Chip, and generally speaking, Straus ice creams are really good. I associate Straus with their milk brand, so I know that they’re one of the really good local dairies and know their stuff. But maybe there is a conversation here about expertise manufacturing, and like scaling up and like just sort of the big operation that Ben and Jerry's has to do. They really have it dialed in. I'm pretty fascinated by like corporate level food chemistry and like recipe design and manufacturing. I think that's kind of interesting to think about like just how much intellectual firepower goes into like the development of like a good ice cream at that lofty corporate level.
Heath: Agree. I've been really into like the Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream or the Milk and Cookies, and it always tastes exactly the same, and that’s a good thing. It’s impressive that they can do it at such scale.
Andrew: That makes me think of the cookie dough, I think Ben and Jerry's does have a cookie dough that I used to be partial to as well.
Heath: Yeah, that one's pretty good. I haven't had that in a while, but I know I really like it.
Andrew: The last think I want to mention is that I’m predisposed to be less friendly to mix-ins. I like ice cream where there’s nothing that gets in the way of the ice cream itself because there is less going on. And then the texture that you focus on is maybe the balance between a chip and the ice cream texture. And you can sort of decide how well is this ice cream made?
Heath: I think I tend to lean the same way. When Bad Walters opened up, I was skeptical because I'm not into maximalist mix ins. That place is good, but sometimes I just want a plain scoop of chocolate.
Andrew: Totally. Like I’ve gone to Salt & Straw before, but I felt like they maybe veered a little too into that like mix in something kind of edgy and off that like gets people like, “oh what is this? It's a balsamic strawberry!” Or “there are rye crumbs in this!”
Heath: (laughing) Exactly.
Andrew: Don't quote me on that rye one, but it was something kind of like that.
Heath: (laughing) I won’t. Okay, it’s Cherry Garcia onto the final round!
Matchup: Haagen Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter vs. Mitchell’s Macapuno
Judges: The I-L Family + S & B + B
Verdict: Mitchell’s Macapuno
It was a tough call. We had guest judges with us (neighbors S and B and their guest B who runs an ice cream review Instagram with her husband). This was our household’s second judging of chocolate peanut butter and we remembered the hearty flavors of chocolate and frozen peanut butter.
Coconut is not a common ice cream flavor. Judges remarked how it is often used as a kind of vegan ice cream substitute. Not this one though. Macapuno coconut is creamy and soft but also robust with mini coconut chunks. It was bright and refreshing, a good foil to the decadence of chocolate and peanut butter.
Coconut was the unanimous favorite. Chocolate and peanut butter hit those nostalgic taste notes, but this flavor opened the gates to new frontiers.
One thing of note: as foils, the two flavors worked really well together. It made us wonder if there is a future ice cream tournament with combined flavor contenders. Double scoops for the second annual event? Two IS a special number.
Post Match Commentary:
Heath: Mitchell’s Macapuno wins it. I think I would have decided this way too. Again, I haven't had this specific flavor of Haagen-Dazs, but I’ve had lots of Haagen-Dazs and I’ve had chocolate peanut butter ice cream, so I have a reference point, unlike Cherry Garcia, which I’m still struggling to imagine.
Putting that aside, I really do think Mitchell's overall and this specific flavor are really outstanding. I have a half gallon of it in the freezer, and I’ve been able to test it a few times over the past two weeks. It’s outstanding. So it makes sense to me that it won.
I did think it was interesting that they suggested double scoops for the next tournament. I'm like, that’s a cool idea, but how do I manage that? I put a lot of effort into this over the last couple of weeks, in the evenings and on weekends, and doing a tournament with double scoops, that just feels like a bridge too far for me. I like the suggestion though.
Andrew: Well, I think that that is a bridge too far. I think with double scoops, you would need people to go meet at ice cream parlors. And everyone would try the same double scoops. I think that would be fun.
As for me, I haven't had either of these flavors. I've had Mitchell’s before, but not Macapuno. And I have had Haagen-Dazs chocolate, but never chocolate peanut butter I had your chocolate peanut butter, which I liked a lot.
Heath: Thank you! I was disappointed at the texture though.
Andrew: Oh. Yeah, it was a bit fudgey. But the flavors were great. The flavors were perfect. But I think that's just the nature of the peanut butter. But then again, I don't know anything about making ice cream!
Anyway, this judgment makes me want to try the coconut, even though I don't like coconut pieces. It's just like a weird vestige of childhood where it's like, I like nuts, but I didn't like that dry coconut texture.
Heath: It can be a little tough to chew.
Andrew: Yeah. And so now any coconut texture, whether it's like pulp in coconut water or coconut flakes on something, it triggers my childhood, which is weird because I don't have a lot of pickiness otherwise with food. So I would try it. It sounds delicious. Coconut's a flavor that I've grown to like.
Heath: Yeah. It’s really good, but it does have those chunks of coconut in it. They aren't off-putting to me, but I know what you mean. Sometimes when I have coconut water with pulp in it, I find it unpleasant. I could see that being the case here too.
Andrew: Yeah, but if it's not a dried out, desiccated, flaky coconut taste, then maybe.
Heath: It's not dry. It's more chewy. You’ll just have to try it and see!
Heath: Speaking of trying out these flavors, let’s wrap this up by talking briefly about the rules for the final round.
Andrew: I'm excited for this final competition. I think this matchup is kind of perfect, right? You have a slightly esoteric flavor, a niche flavor, that's not going to appeal to everyone. It's really about that pure coconut flavor and that texture. And then you've got Cherry Garcia, which is the mass market big brand, sort of like the favorite that does have a lot of mix-ins.
So you have a local versus national, conglomerate versus small business, purity versus complexity. I think it'll be interesting to see who wins. It really depends on the judge!
Heath: Exactly! For the final round though, everyone is invited to judge! Over the next two weeks, I’m hoping that everyone who is interested will be able to try both ice creams and tell me which one is the winner. If we have multiple people across 12 to 13 different households voting, my hope is we'll have a little bit more of an objective winner. Or at the very least, a large judging sample size.
I’ll write a separate post about the finals and post it later this week.
Anyway, thank you Andrew for participating in the post-match commentary! I’m sad the tourney is coming to an end, but there’s always next year!