Review: Tipsy Scoop Kraken Ship Wrecked And Mozart Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cup Ice Cream Left Us Feeling Cold

There's nothing quite like a bowlful of ice cream — it's a sweet treat that delights kids and adults alike. For those adult ice cream lovers who are looking for a treat with an extra little kick to it, boozy ice cream is the natural solution. For those who have never heard of boozy ice cream before, it's exactly what it sounds like: ice cream that's infused with some sort of liquor, often vodka, rum, whiskey, or a flavored liqueur. The flavor and liquor combinations are virtually endless when it comes to boozy ice cream, and suffice to say that such an invention certainly makes the idea of an adult ice cream party a little more enticing.

While you can make your own boozy ice cream, there are plenty of companies out there that do the hard work for you so that you can just kick back with a pint and enjoy. One such company is Tipsy Scoop, a liquor-infused ice cream brand that boasts a wide variety of flavors, including Cake Batter Vodka Martini, Spiked Hazelnut Coffee, and Mango Margarita Sorbet. Tipsy Scoop recently rolled out two brand-new flavors — Kraken Ship Wrecked Ice Cream and Mozart Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cup — and I've sampled each one to determine if these new boozy ice creams are worth the hype or not.

Some recommendations are based on firsthand impressions of promotional materials and products provided by the manufacturer.

For those who aren't familiar with it, Kraken is a popular brand of spiced rum with a very distinctive, octopus-related bottle design. A kraken is also a sort of mythological sea monster, so all of this context helps explain both what liquor you'll find infused into the ice cream and why it's called "ship wrecked" to begin with. Kraken rum itself is known for its richly spiced flavor, with notes of molasses making it a pretty tasty and nuanced option as far as spiced rum goes. 

As for Kraken Ship Wrecked Ice Cream itself, Tipsy Scoop describes it as black cocoa flavored and featuring white chocolate chips and amaro cherries. So, essentially, this is an elevated chocolate ice cream with notes of white chocolate to contrast against the dark cocoa flavor of the ice cream itself and amaro cherries for a burst of brightness. And, of course, the ice cream promises spiced rum flavor thanks to the addition of Kraken, and the claim on the packaging is that each pint contains up to 5% alcohol by volume. There aren't any other nutrition facts listed on the pint or online, so I can't confirm the exact amount of calories, sugar, carbs, and so forth.

Whereas the Kraken flavor features a pretty common spiced rum brand, Tipsy Scoop's Mozart Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cup features Mozart chocolate liqueur, a brand that I'd personally never heard of before. According to Tipsy Scoop, the ice cream has a base flavor of Mozart Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Liqueur, and it features swirls of both peanut butter and peanut butter cups throughout. So, naturally, one might anticipate some more fall-forward flavors with this ice cream, with notes of pumpkin spice, chocolate, and peanut butter prevalent throughout.

As for the specifics about the liqueur, Mozart is a brand perhaps best known for its plain chocolate liqueurs (and variations like white chocolate, coconut, and strawberry), and the pumpkin spice kind features that hallmark chocolate base, but with added flavors like caramel, cinnamon, and clove. The Mozart Pumpkin Spice Chocolate Liqueur itself does not boast any nutty flavors, so the addition of peanut butter adds a unique flavor profile to an already somewhat busy ice cream. Like the Kraken flavor, there are no nutritional facts on the container, though it does also claim to have up to 5% ABV.

If you're interested in trying Kraken Ship Wrecked Ice Cream or Mozart Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cup (or any of Tipsy Scoop's flavors, for that matter), there are a few ways to go about locating a pint. First, Tipsy Scoop does offer shipping via Goldbelly, but because the shipment has to be extremely fast and packaged to keep the ice cream frozen, it's pretty pricey — we're talking $99.95 for a four-pack.

A more cost-effective option would be to seek out individual pints at a local retailer. Tipsy Scoop has a handy map of available retailers available, and while most stores are located in the northeastern U.S., there are options available across the country. While prices may vary depending on your location, when I prospectively looked at prices for pickup at a Brooklyn location, they were $15 per pint, $60 for certain four-packs, and $90 for certain six-packs.

The final option for sampling Tipsy Scoop without committing to an entire pint is by going to a Barlour, which is an ice cream storefront that specifically offers Tipsy Scoop. Again, prices will likely vary (as will availability of flavors), but based on the menu for a Washington D.C. Barlour location, a single scoop would be $9, and two scoops would be $11.

Right when I opened the Kraken Ship Wrecked Ice Cream, I definitely got a strong whiff of something boozy. Was it necessarily that of spiced rum? Perhaps not, but I did get a general alcohol note, which seemed promising to me that this ice cream was, in fact, boozy. Otherwise, the ice cream just smelled mostly like your average chocolate flavor, which is to be expected.

Upon tasting the ice cream, I definitely picked up on the booze right away, but again, I don't know if it really tasted like spiced rum specifically, or rum at all for that matter. It was more like tasting chocolate ice cream that had a sharp aftertaste of alcohol, but somehow the two flavors mellowed each other out and balanced quite nicely. Also, for those worried that the ice cream will taste too much like booze, that's definitely not the case. I didn't pick up on any unpleasant alcohol flavor, and I'd say the ice cream smelled more strongly of booze than tasted of it.

Something that left me pretty disappointed was the fact there really didn't seem to be a whole lot of white chocolate chunks or amaro cherries. In fact, in the entire scoop that I ended up eating, I only came across the smallest fleck of white chocolate, and simply no cherries to be found at all, not even a cherry flavor. This Kraken-infused ice cream definitely wasn't bad, but I was expecting something that was pretty complex in flavor — instead, it mostly just tasted like plain chocolate ice cream with a hint of unspecified booze.

Much like with the previous flavor, I could immediately tell that there was booze in Mozart Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cup by smell alone. Unlike the previous flavor, the booze shined through a little more clearly here — though I've never tasted Mozart brand specifically, I picked up on the essence of chocolate liqueur in this ice cream. Again, it was nothing super crazy or strong, but I appreciated that the liquor-infused aspect of this flavor was a little more on the nose.

As for the other flavors of this ice cream, I would mostly describe it as being busy. Between the creaminess, chocolate, pumpkin spice, peanut butter, and general liquor flavor, it felt like there was a touch too much going on in any given bite. Also, the aftertaste was slightly that of ... bubblegum ice cream? Or just a generally out-of-place flavor, and one that definitely struck me as a bit odd.

This pint does get some points because the mix-ins were actually prevalent throughout. I came across both adequate swirls of peanut butter and peanut butter cups, which definitely improved the experience but did make the overall taste of this ice cream to be peanut-forward, as opposed to chocolate or pumpkin spice.

Overall, I found these boozy ice cream flavors to be a little bit lacking all-around, so I wouldn't say that it's worth seeking out either of them. Kraken Ship Wrecked Ice Cream was lacking in mix-ins and flavor complexity, whereas Mozart Chocolate Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cup had a little too much going on. Though neither of the ice creams tasted bad, they just didn't leave a strong enough impression or really impress me in any way. Moreover, these are not cheap ice creams, nor are they the easiest to source, so I simply don't think it's worth going out of your way to try to find these flavors.

Another note about the ice creams is that they melted extremely fast — I mean within 2 minutes of being in the bowl fast. I'm assuming that this is just the nature of a booze-infused ice cream, but unless you're scarfing down your bowl at rapid speed, your boozy ice cream might quickly turn into a boozy milkshake.

Finally, unless you plan to eat an entire pint of this ice cream in one sitting, you're not really going to feel the effect of the alcohol (even then, it'd probably be a very minimal buzz since the ice cream is only about 5% ABV). Unless you really enjoy the added taste of alcohol to your sweet treat, then there's not really much of a point in enjoying liquor-infused ice cream over plain old ice cream (with a side of Kraken rum or Mozart chocolate liqueur, perhaps).