Last July when the news hit the cheese world that Kraft had teamed with New York’s Van Leeuwen Creamery to create Mac n Cheese Ice Cream, I laughed and dismissed it as a “stunt” to break the internet click world. As it turned out, the stunt did indeed capture the ice cream world and when released, the mac n cheese flavor sold out in one hour… and I forgot about it… until…
Last week I was in Wal-Mart (yes, I do shop at Wal-Mart – why would I pay $5 for Fairlife milk that is $3.50 at Wal-Mart?) and came across several limited edition Van Leeuwen ice creams including the Kraft Mac n Cheese. I grabbed a pint ($4.99 each) and also bought pints of three other flavors: Grey Poupon with Salted Pretzels, Espresso Fior de Latte Chip and Summer Peach Crisp.
Van Leeuwen began in NYC as an ice cream truck to bring “good” ice cream to the streets of the city. That was 2008. Now they have “scoop shops” all over the city and have expanded across country.
The Man and I sampled all four flavors and we both preferred the two “traditional” flavors. Here are my thoughts on all four:
The ice cream is amazingly creamy, It is made in the French-style which means lots of eggs. The basic ingredients in each are cream, milk, cane sugar and eggs.
Kraft Mac n Cheese: First, there is no “mac” in the ice cream, which makes sense. The ice cream is basically vanilla ice cream with Kraft cheese powder added. It tastes exactly like that: vanilla ice cream with cheese powder added. We’ll finish the pint but I won’t buy it again. It’s a stunt that doesn’t work for me. I won’t include The Man’s thoughts…
Grey Poupon with Salted Pretzels: Again, it’s vanilla ice cream with mustard mixed in. The pretzels don’t stand-up to the cream and were soggy. Again, not my cup of ice cream. I do however enjoy saltiness in ice cream.
Espresso Fior de Latte Chip: Now we’re talking ice cream. Creamy, lots of flavor with bits of chocolate and coffee beans. Cold-brewed coffee gives it the espresso flavor. This was The Man’s favorite.
Summer Peach Crisp: This was my favorite. As a Georgia Girl, I love most anything with peaches and Summer Peach Crisp delivers. Reminiscent of fresh peach cobbler. The “crisp” comes from oats and buckwheat flour.
These ice creams are available in pints and exclusive presently at wal-Mart throughout North America.
In addition to being a member of the Internationale Guilde des Fromagers (Jura and Garde) and an American Cheese Society Certified Cheese Professional, I am a Certified ServSafe Food Production Manager. I am available for cheese events, cheese program development, cheese training, food safety training and 3rd party food safety auditing. See my About Me and Resume pages for more details or call me at 360 921 9908 to discuss availability.
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