Coolhaus

Coolhaus is a brand of ice cream I always want to like more than I actually do.  Some of the pint and scoop shop flavors sound downright incredible.

Ok, sure, their "Midnight Munchies" (chocolate peanut butter ice cream with chocolate-covered pretzels and peanut butter cups) sounds good, but could easily come from Ben & Jerry's.  That isn't what I'm talking about.  Same with "Sundae Funday" (Tahitian Vanilla Bean ice cream, ‘haus-made chocolate hazelnut swirl, salted & roasted almonds).  And with "Bananas Foster" (banana ice cream with butter-y rum dulce de lece reduction swirl).

But "Street Cart Churro Dough" (brown butter ice cream with cinnamon sugar churro dough and chocolate chip swirl) is a step up in uniqueness.  Um, and what about "Milkshake & Fries" (salted Tahitian Vanilla Bean ice cream with shoestring french fries and milk chocolate malt balls).  Yes, it might be a horrible disaster, but, given that I love dunking fries in milkshakes, I *have* to try this.  As a brunch lover, I also can't get past "Buttered French Toast" (buttered brown sugar ice cream with pecan pralines, cakey toast pieces and maple swirl).

But ... the flavors I have tried, in person at their scoop shop, in a pint from a grocery store, and as a ice cream sandwich novelty item, haven't quite delivered.

Scoop Shops

When I was visiting Pasadena, I walked by the Coolhaus stand at a time I wasn't going to get ice cream (I had just eaten a huge dinner and dessert), but I saw the flavors, and couldn't not stop to try.  I felt a bit guilty going to ask for a sample even though I knew I wasn't going to purchase ice cream but ... how do you not try this insanity?

Fried Chicken & Maple Waffle?!

"Brown butter maple ice cream with maple candied chicken skins and caramelized waffles!"

Yes, this is why I went in, even if I knew I couldn't really eat an ice cream then.  Candied chicken skins?  WAFFLES?!  Brown butter!  ZOMG, yes.

I was given a real metal spoon with a generous portion.  Excellent.  I hate it when samples are so small that you don't get all the components!  But still, even with the multi-bite portion, I didn't really find candied chicken skins or caramelized waffles.  There was texture, sweetness, and some maple flavor overall, but, nothing tasted like chicken (not sure that is a bad thing, actually), and I was looking forward to something waffle-like.

So ... sweet kinda maple flavored ice cream with unidentifiable texture bits?  Far less exciting than I expected.  I guess I didn't need to worry about wanting it ...

**+.

Ice Cream Pints

The next time I saw Coolhaus was when I was ordering groceries online (COVID!), and there was a sale (ooh!), on Coolhaus brand.  Even though I hadn't been impressed with the one sample I tried, the flavors were just too good to pass up.  And, hey, sale!

Street Cart Churro Dough.

Yup, the first flavor I went out and purchased: churro inspired!

I was pretty excited to try out this flavor.  Brown butter!  Cinnamon sugar churro dough!  I could care less about the chocolate chip swirl, and wished it wasn't there to be honest (makes it not evening appropriate for me), but, everything else sounded my style.  That said, reviews weren't strong ...

But it was on sale (25% off!), so I took the gamble.

Street Cart Churro Dough: Top.

"Brown butter ice cream with cinnamon sugar churro dough and chocolate chip swirl."

I was a little disappointed when I opened it.  I knew the churro elements would be hiding, but the "chocolate chip swirl" I pictured more like Ben & Jerry's style where it is, uh, a swirl, and the ice cream itself is brown butter.  This looked pretty clearly like, um, chocolate fleck ice cream?

I tasted it, and ... was underwhelmed.  I tasted *no* brown butter.  Just, kinda standard, average tasting sweet ice cream base.  It wasn't very creamy nor premium tasting.  It just ... was.

I assumed I needed to let it get meltier, which is how I always enjoy my ice cream anyway. 

So I did, and, well, it didn't get any better really.  The chocolate chip was *not* a swirl, they were not "chips", and it was just flecked with chocolate bits throughout, all of which were too small to taste.  Major meh.  "Brown butter" and "chocolate chip swirl" were strikeouts.

But this flavor was about churros right?

Street Cart Churro Dough: Inside.

I finally found the "churro".  I knew it would be "cinnamon sugar churro dough", and not fully cooked chunks of churro, but it still ... um ... let me down.

The bits were basically like cookie dough.  Perhaps a bit more firm?  They ... tasted nothing like a churro.  No cinnamon.  And since dough, not baked, they weren't crispy or anything.  They were fine chunks of dough, but churro they were not.

And thus, I understood why this pint has pretty universal negative reviews.  Everyone said it didn't taste like churros, but, I was amazed by just how non-churro it was!

What it was, was a mediocre pint of chocolate fleck ice cream with some bits of sweet dough.  No brown butter, no chocolate "chips", and no churro inspiration.  Flavor aside, it also just wasn't particularly good ice cream.  I understand why it was on sale ....

**.

Ice Cream Sandwiches

Coolhaus also makes ice cream sandwiches.  Amazing ice cream sandwiches.

They come in a ton of tempting varieties: stuffed with brown butter and candied bacon ice cream, double chocolate with peanut butter ice cream, birthday cake (sprinkle sugar cookie with cupcake frosting flavored ice cream), etc, along wit crowd pleasers like cookie dough or classic chocolate chip cookies stuffed with vanilla ice cream.

Ice Cream Sandwich.

Each sandwich comes individually wrapped in a hefty package.

You know you are in trouble when the label even tells you that something is two servings, yet it is clearly intended as a single portion.  How would you even have half an ice cream sandwich?  Cut it in half and then wrap up the other half and re-freeze?  Go open faced with one cookie and half the ice cream?  No, no one does that.

Instead, you dive in to the huge thing, and ignore the 500+ calorie nutrition label.

Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Sammie.

So I dove in.  This was a beast!

It was immediately clear why listed as so many calories/servings.  It is two very large cookies in their own right, stuffed full of ice cream.  This is no wimpy ice cream sandwich.  You could imagine a single one of these cookies as a satisfying enough dessert.  And two?  Yeah, two of these cookies was really a lot.  The portion of ice cream was certainly >1 scoop.  Put it all together?  Yeah, its a massive treat.

And, a good one.  Chances are, even if you *intend* to only have that half portion they recommend, I assure you, it won't happen.

Cookies & Cream Ice Cream Sammie: Cross Section.

"Double Chocolate + Cookies & Cream".

The "Cookies & Cream" version is made from double chocolate cookies, stuffed with cookies & cream ice cream.

Breaking it down.

The cookies were rich, chocolately, fudgy cookies, almost brownie-like in nature, loaded with chocolate chips.  They were soft cookies, just like I like, and the texture, and additional chocolate, from the chips was awesome.  Great cookies on their own actually, and it was quite welcome to see quality cookies used in a ice cream sammie.  I don't generally rave about cookies, but these are quite memorable.

The ice cream too was good - perfectly creamy, solid cookies & cream flavors.

Put it all together? Chocolately ice cream and cookie goodness.  I don't have much negative to say about these.

I've had many of these (I got an entire box full, and decided, uh, not to share).  I enjoy them every single time.

****.