Four Flavors of Turkey Hill Ice Cream

July is National Ice Cream Month, Sisters and Brothers, and if you've been reading the first two Saturdays were full of ice cream. Today is no exception and we're going to look at a family favorite in my house: Turkey Hill Dairy.  I only saw them a few years ago in my area grocery stores and we tried them at that time because they were lower priced, had a lower fat variety, and I had a coupon.  Well, the good folks there wanted to help us celebrate the month here on The Chocolate Cult so they sent us four freebie coupons and I picked out four varieties including our favorite plus others we hadn't tried before.

Let's start with the simplest chocolate flavor: Chocolate but it is subtitled Philadelphia Style Ice Cream and this is part of their All Natural Recipe line of ice cream.  This has a lighter color than other flavors we like from Turkey Hill Dairy but it has a creamy cocoa scent even though it is cold; a good sign because common complaint about ice cream is that it dulls the chocolate's scent and flavor.  The taste is very creamy and of course cold while the chocolate is very cocoay meaning that it has the bitter undertones that I expect from cocoa but not from milk chocolate.  In fact, this is much what I'd expect from a cold hot chocolate and that is pretty neat to eat.  The bitterness lingers just like you expect from darker chocolate too so all around this is a winner though being full fat and sugared ice cream you need to eat it less often or less of it.

One of the flavors we got is a limited edition one called Lady Liberty Mint in honor of the Statue of Liberty. As you can see this is very green but mint is pretty green if you've ever used the real deal in your own cooking.  The scent isn't very strong for either mint or chocolate as you can see there are cookie pieces mixed into the ice cream much as in the variety we'll look at.  When I take a big whiff I get more cool than fragrance.  These cookie pieces are very crunchy and remain crunchy even when I let the ice cream melt a bit.  The mint was strong though not as strong as I thought it might be, it had a cooling sensation but oddly this felt less cold than the other varieties we tried.  When I let the ice cream melt first, I got more cocoa from the cookie though their flavor held up much better than I thought they might.  Oh, don't worry mint lovers, there is definitely mint here but the cocoa was able to hold it's own as well making me pleasantly surprised.

After these two unusual treats for our house, we turned to an old favorite that I promise to look at with objective eyes: Extreme Cookies & Cream.  You can get it in the premium or light variety but we almost always go with light ice or no sugar added.  If the chocolate is as good why add more calories. Of course that isn't an excuse to eat it all in one sitting, share with a few friends or make it last several nights.The chocolate ice cream has a cocoa flavor as well as a creaminess that I have grown to associate with this brand.  The cookie pieces are a bit crunchy at first but not very crunchy after that.  The ribbons of chocolate taste differently from either the ice cream or the cookies so that's really three distinct chocolate flavors and some textual variety you get in one container.

Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks is a flavor we haven't tried before so when I saw it at our local Kroger, I had to give it a try.  Moose Tracks refers to the type of fudge so you'll find this name in many different brands of ice cream.  In this case, this variety is part of the Light Recipe line from Turkey Hill Dairy.  If you are allergic to peanuts STAY AWAY from this particular variety because it has chocolate covered peanuts and peanut oil.  No tree nuts though which as you may recall is a serious food allergy in my family, Sisters and Brothers.  My hubby got a bit carried way with the amount as you can see in the photo but I hope you can see this a chocolate ice cream with big ribbons of fudge in it, fudge that melts like a candy bar might when I touched it with one finger.  There is a cocoa scent and a fudge scent with an underline of peanut that is very, very weak only because it is covered with the fudge.  Once I bite into such a peanut, a very intense but not sweet peanut flavor flooded my mouth but it did not overcome the fudge itself.  The fudge too can be a bit crunchy if you bite but I found the flavor more intense if I just put it in my mouth and let it melt.  Overall a good combination of two chocolate flavors, the coldness of the ice cream, an innate creaminess, and the peanuts crunch and earthy quality.  This goes on our list of "ice cream to have again" in my family.

In terms of chocolate, my personal opinions about these four flavors are that they should ranked from most to least chocolaty as follows:
     Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks
     Extreme Cookies & Cream
     Chocolate
     Lady Liberty Mint

There you go, Sisters and Brothers, chocolate ice cream from Turkey Hill Dairy.   They make other products, too, but I hope this selection gave you enough information to go try them yourself.  The chocolate is very good in each and that is difficult to do with ice cream.   So for less money and a lot of variety on top of their good chocolate content, Turkey Hill is a worthy Sacrament for us all in The Chocolate Cult.

While it isn't for Turkey Hill, please remember to enter our GIVEAWAY this month if you are qualified to do so.  Winner will be announced at the end of the month.