Much of the ice cream sold in stores today is full of chemicals and unnecessary fillers. Some of them aren’t even called ice cream, rather “frozen dairy dessert”. To bring back the integrity of ice cream and its full potential, Phin and Phebes Ice Cream is making it their mission to produce the best quality ice cream without sacrificing any flavor or creaminess.
How it All Started
Nearly seven years ago, Phin and Phebes started making ice cream in their kitchen. It was just something to do on cold and snowy Brooklyn days. Their little "hobby" turned into something more when they fell in love with the creative process of making ice cream. While still working their day jobs, they spent the rest of their hours at home, churning out ice cream flavors by the dozens.
During the next few months in 2010, they tested out flavor after flavor in order to find the best possible combinations. When they finally had a solid set of flavors, most of which are still sold today, they made their first public debut at the Brooklyn Lyceum Fair. The public fell in love with the product, and it only seemed fitting for the two women to pursue the business.
In January of 2011, they quit their day jobs. They attended Penn State University's "Ice Cream University" to get a better look at both what makes a good ice cream, as well as the industry. At that moment, they started working on their business plan. Their goal is to make high quality ice cream using only top notch ingredients.
Since then, they have been expanding their business. No matter how big it gets, the owners promise to never sacrifice the ingredients. Quality always trumps quantity. P&P uses ingredients which are organic and GMO free whenever possible. They don't use corn syrup in any of their flavors, and they focus on having pronouncable ingredients. Even the dairy they use comes from a local farm only 20 miles down the road from the factory.
With their bold mission and amazing-sounding flavors, I was curious to eat some of it.
The Taste Test
The company was super kind and sent me some of their most popular flavors to try out. Every flavor I tried was better than the one before. They all had a unique quality, which definietly made them stand out from the typical ice cream normally sold in stores.
Cookie Butter Blondie
Flavor Description: This was the flavor that sounded the best, and it wound up actually being the best. The cookie butter base was super creamy and flavorful. My one wish would be more blondie pieces. The pieces of the blondie that I did get were worthy of an A+. It was definetly a sweet base, but a sweet tooth like me craves that kind of stuff.
Number of Spoons: 9/10
Peanut Butter Mallow Crispe
Flavor Description: As any peanut butter lover knows, peanut butter with anything such as chocolate, salty crackers, and marshmallow is amazing. This flavor combines all of those amazing flavors and makes some serious magic. Despite the actual base being sweet cream, rather than peanut butter, the peanut butter was able to stand out.
Number of Spoons: 9/10
The Full Minty
Flavor Description: Unlike typical mint ice cream, this has a mellow green tint. I was happy to see that because it just proves you don't need extra fillers and artificial colors to have a good quality product. The mint cookies were chopped up in small pieces, which gave the ice cream a nice texture. Once in awhile, you'd be able to strike gold and come across a huge piece of cookie.
Number of Spoons: 8/10
Vanilla Cinnamon
Flavor Description: For anyone who loves to drink the milk after eating a bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch, I'd highly recommend this flavor. While it is one of the more simple flavors they carry, the complexity of the high quality vanilla and Vietnamese cinnamon pair perfectly together.
Number of Spoons: 8/10
Banana Whama
Flavor Description: Banana Laffy Taffy fans, rejoice! Banana Whama is everything you could ever want. Because Phin and Phebes uses high quality, all-natural ingredients, one of the main components of the ice cream is banana purée. The use of the real bananas gives a great flavor. While I have never had Magnolia Bakery's banana pudding, I'd expect it to taste something like this. I'm definietly getting picky here, but I wasn't able to find many pieces of the home-baked vanilla wafers which was quite disappointing.
Number of Spoons: 7/10
Vietnamese Iced Coffee
Flavor Description: I'll admit it that I really don't like coffee. Not even in ice cream form. However, I had a few of my friends try it out and they said it was the best coffee ice cream they'd ever tried. They said the coffee flavor was strong, and it wasn't over-sweetened. But even with that, the subtle hints of chicory and cardamom were able to come through.
Number of Spoons: 10/10
Where to Get Your Own
Wanna get your hands on some? The ice cream is sold in stores across the nation, including Walmart, Whole Foods, and Sam's Club. To see if they sell it near you, check out the full list on their website. If not, you can buy it on goldbely.com and have it shipped (for free) to your door. There are plenty more flavors to try out including Coconut Key Lime, Ginger Snap Cookie, and Toasted Green Tea. You're sure to be satisfied.