I don’t normally buy Tillamook ice cream. It’s just too damn expensive at $6-$8 a carton. However, the cartons were BOGO at Kroger making it a no brainer good deal and another reason to review ice cream!
Below you’ll find my honest review of this ice cream. Keep in mind I have no connection to Tillamook and I purchased this ice cream from my own money.
Tillamook Caramel Swirl Ice Cream Review
Let me get right to the point. The taste of this ice cream is quite amazing.
Its base is Tillamook’s Old-Fashioned Vanilla which you can buy on its own if you prefer no caramel. The base is rich, smooth and super creamy with a pleasant balanced vanilla flavor. It tastes real and homemade with the use of cream milk sugar and egg yolks as its primary ingredients.
The creaminess of this ice cream lasts in the mouth up until it is swallowed. This is unlike many inferior vanilla ice creams that have just a bit of creaminess to them that fades due to the lower quality of ingredients and/or the use of less milkfat.
Overall, the vanilla base is exactly what I crave from a store-bought vanilla ice cream. It has a perfect balance of creaminess, sweetness, and vanilla flavor that tastes authentic.
This is a simple ice cream with swirls of caramel being the only mix-in. The quality of the caramel matches the vanilla ice cream base. It’s not the best caramel I’ve consumed but its certainly top-notch for an ice cream caramel.
The caramel is smooth, buttery, and properly sweetened. It’s much better than the caramel you get in something like a Snickers or the cheap Hershey’s caramel syrup made with high-fructose corn syrup. The caramel tastes closer to a candy shop or homemade variety made with real ingredients like butter, heavy cream, and sugar.
I have two complaints about this ice cream that could seemingly be easy for Tillamook to fix.
First, I wish the caramel swirls were more even distributed inside the ice cream base. I had some large scoops that were just vanilla ice cream, particularly at the top of the carton. You can actually see zero caramel in the image above. Most of the caramel was located toward the bottom of the carton in the one I purchased.
My second complaint is that there was a small air pocket in the center which should have been filled with ice cream. This brand of ice cream is generally not cheap and we suspect many consumers appreciate cartons to be completely filled without voids of space inside.
Tillamook needs to do a better job of getting these smaller details correct. However, its difficult to complain about them when the quality of the overall product is just so good.
Rating
I give Tillamook Caramel Swirl ice cream 9.6 out if 10 stars. I’m super cheap and I would uncharacteristically consider purchasing this at full price on occasion.
Simply put, Tillamook got this one right with the use of high-quality but simple ingredients. Its an ice cream you wouldn’t feel embarrassed about pulling out for guests to serve alongside pie or to eat on its own.
Even with its minor flaws discussed above, I would recommend this ice cream to anyone who likes the flavor combination of vanilla and caramel. It’s certainly one of the best ice cream flavors with caramel you’re going to get at the grocery.
Tell us what you think of this ice cream in the comments section found below!
