Happy National Ice Cream Month! Or more specifically, happy week-of National Ice Cream Day! As has become a mini tradition on this site, the week of the day that celebrates one of the finest culinary delights of all time will be fully dedicated to nothing but ice cream. I realize over the last year there have been many weeks where I only posted about ice cream, but that was an accident and more reflects what I was eating than what we should be celebrating. To kick off the festivities we’re digging into a new flavor from Tillamook – one of the most underrated fine dairy churners on the West Coast now in many grocery stores including Target. Sea Salt & Honeycomb Toffee combines a honey custard with crunchy pieces of crunchy honeycomb toffee and a touch of sea salt.

Wow, the placement of the word “sea salt” at the top of the name is very fitting as this custard has far from “a touch” of sea salt – it is SALTY and it is great. This is probably the most aggressively salted base I’ve had from a mainstream grocery company and the simple inclusion of the mineral compliments the honey for a combination that is truly elegant. The sweet honey notes still get a chance to shine and when combined with the immaculately smooth and rich texture make for a true sweet and salty dream.

The only issue with the base is that salted creams and honey creams both tend to temper rather quickly, and the heavy handed use of both makes for a scoop that begins to melt almost immediately after leaving the freezer.

The pieces of honeycomb toffee actually taste and feel like straight up honeycomb to me, and bleed a little bit like mini ribbons of caramel into the base. Caramelized and crunchy with a sugary snap the toffee brings even more sweet and salty to the party with a textural pop that adds some welcome depth to the super smooth custard. The little ribbons even create a touch of the contrast a true caramel swirl would add and make for an even more enjoyable and sweet experience.

This is a very simple flavor that works incredibly well from the use of high quality ingredients. Tillamook know how to churn out a killer base, and top notch quality dairy and heavy use of egg yolks makes for an elevated pint that will please anyone who likes a little (or a lot) of salt with their sweet.
Rating: 8.5/10

Found at: Target ($3.99)