Monday, March 4, 2024

Marco-brand grocery store pints


The tagline of Marco brand ice cream is "Culinary flavors. Global traditions." And with their roster of favors, they certainly live up to it: Turkish Mocha, Aztec Chocolate, Green Tea & White Chocolate, Moroccan Honey Nut, Dulce de Leche & Cookies, Vanilla Chai...and, uh, Peanut Butter Caramel. I bought five of the flavors to sample and review. Here they are listed from favorite to least favorite:


Dulce de Leche & Cookies - Most would-be dulce de leche ice creams merely taste like a sickly sweet caramel. This one tastes like the real thing. And no matter how much I ate in one sitting, it never was cloying. The churro-inspired cookie mix-in is okay, but honestly, even though it isn't dominant, this would have been better without it. The ice cream base is just that good.


Vanilla Chai - I will never turn away a cardamom ice cream and this one is no exception. That said, rare as they are, I've had other chai ice creams that pack more of a punch. Still, to see a good-not-amazing chai ice cream in the grocery store as a win.


Peanut Butter Caramel - The caramel in this is runny and excellent. The peanut butter base isn't stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth, which is a good thing. All in all a decent flavor; it's just peanut butter forward isn't my usual area of interest in desserts.


Aztec Chocolate - Chocolate ice cream rarely tastes like its namesake and is often disappointing because of it. This ice cream continues the long line of disappointing chocolate ice creams. Sure, the spice is there and it certainly is a dark brown (almost black) color, but chocolate it ain't.


Moroccan Honey Nut - This is one of the most interesting and original ice cream flavors I've eaten. Walking the border of savory and sweet, it makes use of a ras el hanout spice mixture. Try as I might, I could not tell you what all of the flavor notes here were. If it were just a hint more creamy and sweet, maybe I would have liked it.

No comments: