Not All Moose Tracks Are Alike - Ice Cream Review

Not all Moose Tracks are alike. I speak not of large indentations in the ground created by antlered creatures in Canada. No, the moose tracks of which I speak can be found in the freezer aisle at your local grocery store. That's right, moose tracks ice cream, a delectable union of Moose Tracks fudge, peanut butter cups, and either chocolate or vanilla ice cream. For many years, I have misjudged moose tracks ice cream as nothing more than another unfocused sludge-fest of chocolate ice cream and brownie pellets. I'd sooner have my chocolate in its purest form or chooses a flavor with a little more panache - say, peach, cookies and cream, or peppermint. Just saying the name "moose tracks" conjures an image of muddy imprints, a swirl of sediment and runoff. Thankfully, I was set straight on a trip to the grocery last week. "Trust me, you'll like it," my peanut-butter-loving friend assured me. And so we tried two different versions of Moose Tracks ice cream: Turkey Hill and Meijer.

First, the Turkey Hill version. I have grown up drinking Turkey Hill egg nog at family gatherings in Pennsylvania, but had not been aware of Turkey Hill's migration ("imported from Lancaster County!") west until stumbling upon cartons of TH ice cream at the local Kroger. Usually priced close to $5 for a carton, TH was on sale for the remarkable value of $1.99. Without flinching, I open the freezer door. Like so many other brands, Turkey Hill has embraced the creamy-but- light ice cream concept. At 6 grams of fat and 130 calories for a single half-cup serving, which, as we know, is never enough, this ice cream doesn't quite qualify as light, in my mind. Still, a bargain is a bargain. The chocolate ice cream base was rich and creamy, and studded with chocolate-covered peanuts because this was, in fact, the Chocolate Nutty Moose Tracks flavor, a notch above the original. The Moose Tracks fudge rippled throughout the ice cream was divine - deep, rich, intense - and a nice contrast to the milder base. Add in a generous portion of mini peanut butter cups, and I began to wonder why I'd overlooked this flavor of ice cream for so long. Sludge-fest it is not.

A day later, my friend and I had reached a point where we had about a quarter of a container left. Thus, we needed another carton to feed a group of four the following night. This time, we visited Meijer, which does not stock Turkey Hill. Meijer ice cream was on sale for $2.50, so we gambled on the generic brand. It's pretty tough to make bad ice cream, right? The Meijer Chocolate Moose Tracks Light Ice Cream features Denali fudge and comparable nutritional information, clocking in at about 130 calories per serving. Although certainly edible, the Meijer version was a bit of a letdown after the savoring the Turkey Hill. The lighter color of the Meijer version made us skeptical of its flavor intensity before we even tasted it. Sure enough, the ice cream base and fudge ripple were markedly less flavorful than that of the Turkey Hill. But we ate it anyway.

Bottom line? Ice cream is rarely bad. But when a premium brand has been slashed to just $1.99 per box, you buy it. Now.