Tillamook Salty Caramel Pretzel Ice Cream

[New for Dec 2024] More new Tillamook! Woohoo! I'm pretty sure that I'm going to continue to eat a lot of Tillamook ice cream in 2025. Let's scoop in to....

Tillamook Salty Caramel Pretzel Ice Cream

salted vanilla ice cream with chocolaty covered pretzel bits and a ribbon of salted caramel

That is slightly concerning.....

Ok, might be potential here...

I hope I didn't just accidentally scoop out all of the pretzels! I mean, technically it's not my fault that they were all clumped together like that. I thought I was grabbing 3 pretzel bits, not a dozen.

I'll be good and try the base ice cream first. I was afraid it might be too salty at 9% per serving, but it's fine. There's not much caramel flavor, but it still tastes good. 

Oooo, my first little pretzel bit (some are bigger, some are not). Wow, those are definitely salty. Let's try a bigger one.... hmmmmm. The bigger ones are about a half inch long and nice and crunchy. Ya know, it's nice to have an actual crunchy pretzel in an ice cream since so often they wind up disappointing.

Ok, these salty crunchy pretzels are definitely a #funfactor. Many of us give Tillamook flack for not always coming through with enough mix-ins, but props for doing pretzels right. I can't say that the flavor of the chocolate coating is standing out very much, but at least it keeps things fresh.

Actually, let me give more props for Tillamook making the pretzels salty rather than the ice cream salty. It's nice to have that salty pretzel contrast with the base ice cream because it's much more inline with eating actual pretzels with ice cream (or dipping pretzels in ice cream). In particular, the salt factor is strong enough to make you think of those huge pretzel sticks with their giant grains of salt on them.

Oh man, my bowl is empty but I want more.....   maybe just a smidge more? 

Yeah, I stole a little more. No pretzels this time, but I snagged a few small globs of caramel. The caramel is thicker than expected. It's got some salt to it, but its got thickness and flavor too like a real caramel [awwww, I just had a flashback to Spoonable and that made me a little sad]

Ok, so here's my advice. Don't go in to this expecting to be blown away by an explosion of any one flavor. Instead, get it for the overall experience (and saltiness). 

On Second Scoop: Well... the container is gone now and I'm regretting not buying a second one when I saw it at Shaw's the other day. This one definitely grew on me. I made a point not to eat a ton of it in a serving, but it's a nice flavor and I was really pleased that the pretzel bits didn't fade away in to obscurity. Another fun fact: I mixed it with the new apple crisp flavor and the pretzel flavor totally dominated the conversation, but give it a shot if you have both in the freezer.

Final Thought: Is it possible that Tillamook is listening to our mix-in complaints and trying harder to add more of them to every container? Long term Tillamook fans, feel free to give your perspective on this!

Verdict?  Nice
Buy Again?  Yes!