Coolhaus "Louis Ba-Kahn" Ice Cream Sandwich

[By Nick] If you recall, I mentioned grabbing a couple of Coolhaus ice cream sandwiches along with the two pints from the Niskayuna Co-op that I already reviewed. I couldn't decide which one to review first but when it doubt, go with the bacon one.

Coolhaus "Louis Ba-Kahn" Ice Cream Sandwich

Chocolate Chip Cookie + Brown Butter Candied Bacon Ice Cream

Yes, you read that right.  There is in fact bacon inside of this ice cream sandwich. Actually, it's a brown butter bacon ice cream. While I do like bacon, I'm not in the group that thinks bacon is beyond awesome and should be in everything. That said, I did drool a bit just from the description.

Removing it from its package, it looks like your typical ice cream sandwich**. Well except that it's a lot heftier. This sandwich is actually considered two servings but I could easily demolish it in one sitting as it's tinnier than a Chewy Louie / Biggy Iggy sandwich. It kind of actually looks like Klondike's Mrs. Fields ice cream sandwich on steroids. The smell is a different story. This sandwich has a strong bacon, as Steve from Foodjunk would say, nose grope to it. Not in an artificial way either. It smells like bacon that was just put in the oven. (if you don't bake you're bacon, you're doing it all wrong). All that's missing is the sizzle.

Cutting it in half, you can see the bacon inside of the ice cream as well as just how soft the cookies are. Biting in, the taste matches the smell. The ice cream is porky, bacon-y deliciousness. There's notes of brown sugar but this is bacon first and foremost.

Honestly, I wasn't sure how I felt about this on my first bite. Do I really want such a strong bacon presence in ice cream? The answer is yes, yes I do. I could probably eat a pint of this ice cream alone given the opportunity. Maybe add some sort of maple swirl to it and I'd have no problem taking down a quart.

That said, what's an ice cream sandwich if the wafer component isn't good? There's nothing to worry about here though. These cookies are top notch in all categories. They are your traditional chocolate chip cookies with what might be a bit more brown sugar added to support the flavor of the ice cream. They do tend to get drowned out by the ice cream and I can't really notice the chocolate chips outside of a change in texture here and there. I have no problem with this though.

Speaking of texture, I'm about to use a controversial term to describe them. These cookies are moist. Yes, I know not many people like that term but I think gooey would be an understatement. For being frozen, I would never think a cookie could be so soft and chewy straight from a freezer. The folks at Coolhaus must have some sort of cookie black magic up their sleeves.

I was a little apprehensive about the whole concept of this sandwich. Before I knew it though, the whole sandwich was gone and all I wanted was more. My only complaint would be the price tag since they're traditionally $5 a piece. I think 2/$7 would be a perfect price for them. That said, this might be my new favorite ice cream sandwich of all time. I'd actually be willing to grab this at $5 without question since there's no other real competition for this flavor on the market. All I know is I need to try the other sandwich in my freezer asap and get to trying out the rest of their sandwiches that I can get my hands on.

**Note: Oh and don't ask me about the discoloring of the one side of the cookie. I'm just going to chalk that up from being in a freezer since they werent effected at all in terms of quality.

Verdict?  Highly recommend to anyone who likes pork products to give this one a shot
Buy Again?  In a heart beat