Brooklyn-based ice creamery Van Leeuwen has risen to snack food cultural prominence over the past year with its novelty offerings mimicking Mac & cheese, pizza, and most recently, Grey Poupon mustard. It also does more “normal” seasonal flavors, like the spring variety we reviewed in April. It’s back for the summer with four new selections: Summer Peach Crisp, Campfire S’mores, Espresso Fior Di Latte Chip, and Honey Cornbread with Strawberry Jam.
Espresso Fior Di Latte Chip
Okay, so confession time: I didn’t know what “Fior di Latte” was. I ate this ice cream without checking, assuming it was just several words meaning “a kind of Italian coffee.” Much to my surprise, Fior di Latte is actually several words for “a kind of Italian cheese.” I’m glad I didn’t know that going in, or I’m afraid it may have negatively colored my opinion of this delightful ice cream. Going back with my newfound knowledge, though, yes, you can definitely pick up a salty swirl from the cheese. It blends perfectly with the strong coffee flavor, and the dark chocolate chips and graham pieces interspersed throughout make this the second best pick out of the bunch.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 310 calories, 19 grams of fat, 12 grams of saturated fat, 0.5 grams of trans fat, 85 milligrams of cholesterol, 160 milligrams of sodium, 31 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 25 grams of sugar (18 grams of added sugar), and 6 grams of protein.
Summer Peach Crisp
My first thought on this was, “oh, snap, where’s the peach?” What I didn’t yet know -— but what I subsequently learned here, and then again with the S’mores version -— is that sometimes your Van Leeuwen pint is like Roanoke Island: to get to the treasure, you’ve gotta dig deep. Once you get to the syrupy peach swirl, it’s great, but there’s far too little of it overall. The “gluten-free oat pieces” meant to approximate the crust of a crumble, however, are too abundant, and they detract from the experience. This is worth getting if it’s all you see at the store, but I wouldn’t go nuts trying to find it.
Rating: 8 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 300 calories, 16 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 95 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 36 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 29 grams of sugar (21 grams of added sugar), and 5 grams of protein.
Campfire S’mores
Though my overall favorite changes often, Rocky Road is always in my top five favorite ice cream flavors. Campfire S’mores -— which includes two key Rocky Road components -— is sinfully good. The marshmallow is inexplicably fluffy and chewy, and the rich fudge swirl defies all culinary scientific explanation by somehow remaining malleable and syrupy; this is not your grandfather’s frozen fudge ribbon. The ice cream itself purports to be “toasted marshmallow,” but it was indistinguishable from regular vanilla. Even still, this ice cream is Hall of Fame worthy, and it took considerable willpower to not down the container in a single sitting.
Rating: 10 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 310 calories, 16 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 100 milligrams of cholesterol, 150 milligrams of sodium, 38 grams of carbohydrates, 1 gram of fiber, 30 grams of sugar (20 grams of added sugar), and 5 grams of protein.
Honey Cornbread with Strawberry Jam
Look, I get that this was an attempt at adventurousness, but there’s a reason we don’t put cornbread in ice cream. The texture was gritty and off-putting and, well, very cornbread-y. Great with a Southern dinner, but maybe not in my frozen dessert. The strawberry jam was rich and strong, and while it could have potentially helped keep this tolerable, like the peach pint, there wasn’t enough of it. Of the four, this was the only one I was not compelled to save for later.
Rating: 5 out of 10
Nutrition Facts: (2/3 cup) 310 calories, 18 grams of fat, 10 grams of saturated fat, 0 grams of trans fat, 110 milligrams of cholesterol, 200 milligrams of sodium, 34 grams of carbohydrates, 0 grams of fiber, 31 grams of sugar (24 grams of added sugar), and 5 grams of protein.
Except for the Cornbread variety, I would repurchase all of these. Even the cheese one. In the case of the S’mores version, I may buy a whole pallet’s worth.
All pints were $4.98 and purchased at Walmart.
Hmm…I have not tried their fior de latte and its interesting that you say that there was a saltiness to it. Fior de latte is typically subtly sweet vs being salty.
I have a pint of the S’Mores in my freezer, but I haven’t been that impressed with the other flavors I’ve tried. I did try the Mac & Cheese, which looked tasted _exactly_ like Kraft Mac & Cheese sauce (it’s not hard, when all you have to do is mix in the powder). But it’s not a flavor that should ever come out of your freezer (I don’t think they make microwavable frozen dinners), and there was a mental residual taste that I’d get any time I thought about eating it for the next several days.
I also tried the blueberry flavor from the last batch, twice, and it’s honestly not that great. Kroger sells a pint under their Private Selection label that’s ten times better.
From this batch, I tried the cornbread flavor, and I liked it a lot better than any brownie flavor. Brownies in ice cream are sticky and gum up your teeth, and you have to pick them out. The cornbread was more like cookies or shortbread, which are a bit crunchy. Texturally, the cornbread wasn’t much different from the pie crust in the blueberry flavor.
Great review! Quick question: Why are the Latte Chip and the Summer Peach Crisp both 8s when they display such different levels of enthusiasm, and one is the “second best” when such ratings would tie it for second best ?
Melanie– great question. I may’ve mucked that up. The Peach should have been lower, you’re right. If we gave halves, I’d say like, 6.5 probably. But I’d round up to a 7. This occurred to me after I sent it out for publishing. Good catch.
I thought the Grey Poupon and Cornbread Strawberry Jam were the best flavors of all of them!!
Fior di Latte is a classic Italian gelato flavor that just means “milk.” (“Flower of Milk” literally.) Sweet cream flavor, basically — like if you took the vanilla out of vanilla ice cream. Seems like VL randomly slapped it on a totally different flavor combination. Thanks for the review!
This is the right take. Essentially, Fior di Latte gelato has to have *super* premium dairy because that is the champion flavor so you want the richness of it; the beauty is in its simplicity. This means it pairs really well with any kind of pastry — way better than vanilla ice cream on say a pie, because it adds to the richness rather than competing. I was wondering how their take would taste and it’s good, but not what you’d get from a real Italian pastry shop. I think they pack so many other flavors into this thing (Fior di Latte ice cream base is made with cold brew coffee, chocolate chips (cocoa beans being the dominant flavor), graham cookies (brown sugar, cinnamon, molasses, vanilla bean), and – indeed – salt; a little too much for my taste which is why it stood out for the reviewer) that anybody new to Fior di Latte isn’t getting anything close to a true representation of it. Like you said, slapped a name on it. Could’ve just named it Mocha Chip Cold Brew Ice Cream because that’s what it really is, and that’s really good, just not a Fior di Latte.
Tried the Campfire S’mores as I wanted to compare theirs to B&J’s. Well, VL lost out to B&J. Ice cream was good and as you mentioned not much of a marshmallow taste (roasted/toasted marshmallow would have been a stronger flavor choice what with the caramelizing that takes place when toasted – would have matched the flavor claim too), chocolate swirl was basically not much more than Hershey’s Special Dark syrup, nice addition of real marshmallows (I would have preferred marshmallow cream, but no worries) and What!?! – hardly any graham cracker bits. Ate the whole pint in one sitting and got possibly 4 spoonfuls with any of the graham cracker bits; the rest was just marshmallows, vanilla tasting ice cream and chocolate syrup. Another nit to pick – I was looking for a better chocolate to marshmallow flavor balance in EVERY spoonful – not every 2 spoonfuls. I’ve got another pint waiting in the wings so I’m hoping it was a batch fluke on the graham cracker bits and chocolate. If not, you don’t really have campfire s’mores ice cream, do you? Thanks for your review – at least I’m not alone on the base not tasting much more than vanilla!
Follow up on Campfire S’Mores: Well, I ate the 2nd pint recently and it was a bit different. This pint had more of the chocolate – still syrup consistency, but tasty all the same and a better balance of flavors. The downer: the 2nd pint had even less of the graham cracker bits. For the whole pint I had the bits in only 2 – maybe 3 – spoonfuls. It just ain’t s’mores without the graham cracker in a more even balance with the other 2 ingredients. Then the thought occurred (being moot now as this flavor was a limited edition) that maybe the fine folks at VL could have partnered with Nabisco and put some Teddy Grahams in the mix. For a 14oz pint – so called – about 5 or 6 full size Teddy Grahams would work perfectly and make this the truly great combo it should/could have been. I mean, they did partner with Kraft for the mac and cheese flavor. Maybe next time.
I loved the strawberry cornbread. Ate the entire pint in one sitting! Heartily disagree with the review published. And I passed on the ‘s’mores ice cream but after reading the review I’ll give it a try. I did not find the peach at all interesting.