The kind folks at PhillySwirl sent me a box of Ice Cream Cupcakes to review.

Bite into a PhillySwirl Ice Cream Cupcake and it’s like a birthday cake and scoop of ice cream in each and every bite. At least that’s the way the PhillySwirl Ice Cream Cupcakes taste to me. They are simple- either chocolate or white cake topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream with sprinkles. And they are a tasty little treat.

I tried both the chocolate and white cake cupcakes. The chocolate is a rich almost devil’s food type cake; but it’s a little dense. The white cake is a much fluffier texture.

The ice cream in the cupcakes is pretty average and tastes like New York Vanilla. The whipped cream tastes like coolwhip.

But, the most ingenious part about these Ice Cream Cupcakes is the layer of chocolate fudge that separates the bottom layer of cake from the upper layer of ice cream. Not only does it taste delicious it also prevents the ice cream from getting into the cake layer and making it mushy!

I’ve only had an ice cream cupcake one other time in my life, and that was at Maggie Moo’s where the cupcakes were a little too sweet. PhillySwirl’s were better. If you’re specifically looking for an Ice Cream Cupcake for a birthday party, etc I would recommend these.

Tomorrow, watch for a contest where you can win a box of PhillySwirls shipped right to your door!

• Flavor: 4
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture; 4
• Originality: 5
• Overall: 4

I was in Chicago a few weeks ago visiting my grandparents, and we went to a wonderful French restaurant, Marche, for dinner one night. Several people got some sort of ice cream with or for their dessert and I tasted them all. My favorites were the chocolate-peanut butter and the mint chocolate chip. The chocolate peanut butter had swirls of rich peanut butter in it and the mint chocolate chip was very very crisp and refreshing with fresh mint. The plain chocolate was kind of bland and the butter pecan was decent. If you get a chance to visit Marche, try the chocolate peanut butter ice cream. You won’t regret it.

When it’s someone’s birthday you get them the kind of birthday cake they want. But, if they ever request an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins I recommend that you flat-out refuse. I don’t remember the last time I had such bad cake. The ice cream itself, which is rolled up into the cake was good, but the cake just made it not worth eating. We got a mini-roll cake with mint-chocolate-chip ice cream. The fudge covering the cake was the only thing worth salvaging.

• Flavor: 3
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture: 1
• Originality: 4
• Overall: 2.5
• Cost: $7.95

Wow.  That’s about all there is to say about pumpkin spice ice cream at Maggie Moos.  Generally, I’m not a huge fan of Maggie Moos.  They’re hit or miss and very overpriced.  But, Pumpkin Spice was amazing.  It was intensely spiced and the pumpkin flavor was present but not overwhelming.  And Graham crackers mixed in proved to be a great combination.  This is a seasonal flavor so go out and get some before it’s gone.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 5
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 4
• Overall: 5
• Cost: $5.05

Once again we were driving the car up 16th St and Georgia in Silver Spring. It’s an unwritten rule that when you’re driving past a really good ice cream store you must stop the car. And after my last experience at York Castle I knew that I had a really good ice cream shop. So, we stopped. And it was worth it. Why? Because it’s the holidays and York Castle Tropical Ice Cream has Egg Nog ice cream. Man is this stuff strong. It’s like frozen egg nog- but better. Again, they don’t make their ice cream super sweet. And they have the best cones. Seriously, I don’t know who makes their cones but they’re amazing. Next time you’re driving around the area, make sure you stop at at York Castle. In fact, even if you’re not headed that direction, it’s worth the trip. They only make their Egg Nog ice cream during this time of year. And with the weather we’ve been having you might as well bring egg nog ice cream with you when looking at lights. (It’s too warm for hot chocolate.)

• Flavor: 4.5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 4.5
• Originality: 5
• Cone: 5
• Overall: 4.5

Edy’s Dibs have been heavily marketed and there are often coupons in the Sunday paper. I didn’t want to buy a giant carton because I knew I would get addicted and eat them all in one sitting. Instead I found a small size at 7-11. The small size (4.5 oz) had about 20 pieces in it. There’s really nothing special about Dibs. There pretty much regular ice cream bars in bite size pieces. If you like ice cream bar coating, in this case Crunch bar, you’ll enjoy Dibs. I liked them, but I wouldn’t necessarily buy them again.

• Flavor: 3.5
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture: 3
• Originality: 4.5
• Overall: 3

One day, while browsing the ice cream books on Amazon.com I came across a book called East Coast Scoops. I’ll post a review of the book another day, but for today let me tell you about one of the ice cream shops in the Maryland section: York Castle Tropical Ice Cream.

York Castle Tropical Ice Cream is located in a small strip mall at the intersection of 16^th and Georgia. I’ve driven past the location many times, but would have never guessed an ice cream shop was there without the book. It is easy to miss so be sure to keep your eye out for it. They have exotic tropical flavors like soursop, lychee, and passion fruit. They are also known for the Guinness ice cream. I sampled both the soursop and Guinness before settling on a fall special: pumpkin. The soursop and Guinness were both very good tasting—the Guinness surprised me with how intensely flavored it actually was. But, the pumpkin… The pumpkin was delicious. It was a cool, crisp, fall day and no other flavor could have matched the weather more perfectly. The pumpkin ice cream was extremely spicy (as in spices like nutmeg and cinnamon, not hot peppers). It was also very strongly pumpkin flavored. I may have to try to find a recipe online and make some pumpkin or squash ice cream. According to “East Coast Scoops” Tropical Ice Cream uses as little sugar as possible in their ice cream. You wouldn’t have known by taste of the ice cream. It was very soft and smooth. A little fluffier and less dense. York Castle also carries Jamaican jerk chicken and sodas, which I was too full to try after my ice cream. But, I can definitely say that I will be going back to have a full meal—chicken and ice cream very soon.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 4.5
• Originality: 4.5
• Cone: 4.5
• Overall: 4.5

Ice cream just doesn’t get any better than this.  I think Sebastian Joe’s Oreo Ice Cream may be the best ice cream I’ve ever had.  Just a few weeks ago I was comparing the Oreo ice cream at Sundae School (on Cape Cod) to Sebastian Joe’s.  But, now that I’ve had Sebastian Joe’s again, I really should go back and change my review.  Nothing can be compared to this ice cream.  It’s is so intensely Oreo with an amazingly smooth, but at the same time almost chewy texture.  I don’t know what else to say in this ice cream review.  If you are ever in Minnesota you must go to Sebastian Joe’s, get a scoop of Oreo ice cream, and walk around Lake Harriet.  There’s nothing more enjoyable in the world.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 5
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 3.5
• Overall: 5
• Cost: around $4.50 for a pint; $2.35 for a scoop

As we just got back from a week long vacation in Cape Cod, I’m not completely caught up on my previous posts; but I promise to get them up in the next day or two.

Today’s ice cream is another Ben and Jerry’s flavor.  I feel the need to buy it when it’s on sale (which it almost always is these days).  Also, I feel less guilty about throwing away half a pint than I do about tossing a half a gallon of ice cream into the trash.  There’s just something inherently wrong with throwing away that much ice cream.  But, I don’t have much choice.  I can’t eat it all and my freezer is so filled with ice cream that I don’t have room for anything else.  Why don’t they make smaller sizes of Edy’s and Breyer’s and other brands that only come in half gallon sizes?  I wonder if those companies have small sample sizes that I can convince them to send me…   I’ll have to look into that.

Back to today’s flavor: Oatmeal Cookie Chunk by Ben and Jerry’s.  It says on the carton that it’s “by popular demand”.  I’m not sure if they mean “back by popular demand” or what they mean.  I know they carry it in their shops, but I haven’t seen it in a carton before.  It’s really good.  I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t this.  The ice cream in cinnamon (which I have had a lot of lately at Circle Bistro and The Dairy Godmother).  There are chocolate chunks and pieces of oatmeal cookie in the ice cream.  (I probably didn’t need to mention the chocolate chunks, since as I have previously commented on Ben and Jerry’s obscene overuse use of chocolate chunks.)  The chunks of Oatmeal Cookie are soft and gooey.  And they are amazing.  When I recently had Oatmeal Cookie at The Dairy Godmother, their cookies were crispy, something Ben and Jerry’s probably couldn’t pull off since the ice cream has to be stored so long.  I really enjoy the gooeyness of the cookies.  This ice cream was an excellent surprise and I would highly recommend it to anyone who is looking for an interesting, but tasty flavor.  As usual, I have a gripe with Safeway and the ice cream; the texture was terrible!  When will Safeway properly store their ice cream so it doesn’t melt and refreeze into an icy mess?!

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 2 (not to be blamed on the ice cream itself)
• Originality: 4
• Overall: 5
• Cost: $3.00 on special at Safeway

I recently purchased a book called “East Coast Scoops.”   It lists all of the “best” ice cream shops on the East Coast and one of the places listed is Sundae School.  Because of the book’s outstanding recommendation I made a point to find this shop.  And it was well worth the visit.

I chose Oreo Crunch, in part because I was in the mood for Oreo and in part because I think Oreo ice cream is a good way to judge a shop.  It’s difficult to make good Oreo ice cream and I can only think of one place/brand that carries Oreo or cookies and cream ice cream that’s worth eating.  That place is called Sebastian Joe’s and it’s in Minneapolis (when I go to MN in a few weeks I will officially review the ice cream for this site).

Let me say that Sundae School’s Oreo Crunch rivals Sebastian Joe’s.  It is amazing.  It is extremely Oreo flavored, with lots of chunks of Oreo swirled throughout.  Also, the ice cream base isn’t plain vanilla (like many cookies and cream ice creams) but it is Oreo flavored.  It is smooth and rich and the cone was excellent.  If you are ever on Cape Cod be sure to go to Sundae School.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 3.5
• Cone: 4.5
• Overall: 5
• Cost: 2.70

On the way out of Provincetown today we made a stop at Turner’s Candy and Ice Cream.  I ordered the White Pistachio and thoroughly enjoyed it.  It is more vanilla flavored than other pistachio ice creams I’ve tasted and has many chunks of pistachio.  I was especially impressed with the smoothness of the ice cream.  Turner’s wasn’t quite as good as the other shops in Provincetown, but it was still much better than most store bought ice cream.

• Flavor: 4.5
• Flavor Intensity: 3.5
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 3.5
• Cone: 4
• Overall: 4.5
• Cost: $3.25

Last night when I was looking for ice cream I passed up Lewis Brothers because we were trying to meet up with some people and the Lewis Brothers’ line was way too long.  Tonight the line was just as long, but I had time to wait.  I ordered White Russian.  It has a strong Kahlua flavor and is incredibly smooth.  The cone is one of the best I’ve tasted since starting this reviewing process.  I just can’t get over the number of quality ice cream shops on Cape Cod.  At this rate all of the shops are going to get outstanding ratings.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 4
• Cone: 5
• Overall: 5
• Cost: 3.25

Twisted Sisters serves a variety of food including pretzels and pizza.  I was too full from dinner to try anything but ice cream, although it all looked wonderful.  Feeling indecisive about which ice cream to try I asked the server what she recommended.  Without pause she said “Almond Joy.”  So I went with her advice.  I know not all people like Almond Joys, bur for those who do this is an awesome treat.  Twisted Sisters’ Almond Joy ice cream tastes just like an Almond Joy.  Chocolatey, almondy, coconuty, not one flavor overwhelms the others.  Truly remarkable.  I may have to look up some recipes to try to make something like this at home.

• Flavor: 5
• Flavor Intensity: 4.5
• Texture: 5
• Originality: 4
• Cone: 4
• Overall: 5
• Cost: $3.50

I ate with my aunt and cousin tonight at Circle Bistro in the Washington Circle Hotel.  The food was incredible as was the dessert.  My dessert came with cinnamon ice cream on the side.  Wow, was this ice cream intensely sweet and cinnamony.  I think it had a few cinnamon crunchy things in it too.  I have a feeling that any of the ice creams at Circle Bistro would be equally as good.

• Flavor: 4.5
• Flavor Intensity: 5
• Texture: 4
• Originality: 3.5
• Overall: 4.5
• Cost: $7

I love Drumsticks, Sundae Cones, whatever you want to call them.  So, I couldn’t believe my luck when I found Edy’s Sundae Cone ice cream at Shoppers.  Unfortunately, Sundae Cone wasn’t all I thought it would be.  There just weren’t enough chunks of nuts, chocolate, cone—all the things that make a Drumstick so good.  It wasn’t terrible, but it was in no way a substitute for a Drumstick / Sundae Cone.

• Flavor: 3.5
• Flavor Intensity: 3
• Texture: 3.5
• Originality: 4.5
• Overall: 3.5
• Cost: $4.29 at Shoppers