McGuire’s Irish Mint ice cream is made with mint ice cream, streaks of fudge, and dark chocolate mint cups. It’s sold in 1.5 quart (48 oz.) or 3 gallon bulk size.
Guernsey, the maker of this flavor, is based out of Michigan. The ice cream is commonly found around the Detroit area where the manufacturer is based. However, you may have difficultly finding it outside of Michigan.
Below you’ll find my review of this ice cream. If you try this ice cream and want to share your opinion about it, please leave a comment at the end of this article. I just ask that you be honest whether it is good or bad. I will not judge you even if your opinion differs from mine!
The Review
Let’s get right to the point, this ice cream is delicious and loaded with flavor. When I took my first bite, I realized that this ice cream was going to be a new favorite of mine for a mint variety of ice cream.
The ice cream base has a strong mint flavor. You might get the idea that it is overpowering like an old school mint candy that your grandma might of pulled out from her purse back in the day. It’s nothing like that so don’t let me lead you down the wrong path.
Rather, the mint ice cream does an excellent job at balancing out the heavy chocolate and fudge components. Guernsey does it right in letting the base be the star of this ice cream with the mix-ins being excellent complimentary additions.
The base is a hard style of ice cream. It’s the kind that will break a cone when you fill it if you’re not careful. While it can be a pain to scoop, its texture is desirable in era where many ice creams are almost like soft serve when you scoop them. The ice cream provides a delightful and smooth mouthfeel that makes you feel like you are eating something real or homemade.
Now, let’s talk about the fudge!
Michigan is famous for its fudge and Guernsey just happens to use a Michigan classic fudge called Moose Tracks. Yeah, it’s in a lot of ice creams, even outside of Guernsey’s flavors, but it’s rich, thick, and delicious. It’s hard to complain about it, particularly when any possible minor imperfects are masked by the mint flavor.
The dark chocolate mini mint cups are also a tasty addition to this ice cream. They are sort like York peppermint patties in cup form. Their mint flavor is difficult to pick up inside the flavorful ice cream base but the cups certainly add a desirable textural element with a pleasant dark chocolate taste.
While all seems rosy so far, there are a couple of things that I don’t like about this ice cream. My main gripe is about its ingredients.
It has several ingredients in it that I would prefer not to eat such as carrageenan, vegetable oils, preservatives, and artificial dyes. You should comb through the ingredients if you are strict about what you eat because there may be something in this ice cream that you don’t like or would prefer to avoid. You can reference the ingredients in the image at the end of this article.
Another thing I should mention is that the fudge and mint cups weren’t consistently spread throughout the ice cream. For example, I had some scoops that were primarily fudge and other scoops that were mostly just the ice cream base. This isn’t a deal breaker for buying this ice cream but it’s a bit annoying not have the mix-ins somewhat evenly distributed.
The Rating
I give Guernsey McGuire’s Irish Mint ice cream 8.4 out of 10 stars. This is a solid mint flavored ice cream packed with flavor. The addition of dark chocolate mint cups and fudge swirls take it to a new level from your standard mint chocolate chip.
There are some undesirable aspects about the ingredients used and distribution of the mix-ins. However, these issues can be overlooked when you put its amazing flavor in focus. It’s simply a damn good mint flavor ice cream that you should try if you can find it near you.
I paid full price for this ice cream at $5.99 for the carton picture above. I’d be willing to pay that price again on occasion. However, it’s currently on sale at the same store for $4.49 per carton. At that price, it’s a no brainer good value given the quality of the ice cream.
Disclosure: I have no connection to Guernsey and they did not influence the rating of this ice cream in any manner.
