The Penguin Surprise

When we read this month's custard calendar at the beginning of the month, we were pretty excited to see what holiday surprise custards were in store. I started poking around on the website last night to see if I could find any hints, and found this article on holiday shakes. Would those be in addition to a fun set of holiday custards or in place of them? We'd have to wait and see.

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When you go to look at the custard calendar now, all it gives you is a list of holiday shakes, which are part of a "custard calendar takeover." Well, that's too bad. We were hoping for fun custards to celebrate the season, and instead of a changing lineup of new custards, there are 3 shakes on the lineup for 7 weeks. Kind of disappointing. Is this type of simplification what happens when the company becomes publicly traded?

I'm not a huge shake person, and I don't really go for whipped cream, so I don't see myself getting one of these shakes. I'd really rather have the sugar cookie frozen custard with the red and green sprinkles just as a custard... which is basically the old Christmas cookie custard flavor that we really enjoyed. I wonder if you can still get that in non-shake form. Otherwise, no custard for me for 7 weeks, which is probably better for my waistline. A likes shakes, and chocolate peppermint and Christmas cookie are the types of flavors he would enjoy, but he's not feeling super compelled to go there and get one.

Oh well. Feeling a little misled by the original calendar which promised "unwrapping new holiday flavors" for the custard calendar, not a single holiday set of shakes. Maybe we'll head over, maybe we won't, but the "surprise" is now unveiled. At least this season's penguin ornament is pretty cute.

November 2015 Custard Calendar

The custard calendar for this month was different from any other month we'd seen before. Instead of laying out a whole month of flavors, the last couple of weeks were reserved for some adorable penguins proclaiming new holiday flavors that were being unwrapped. That seems pretty exciting (even if it's a reminder of just how close the holidays already are). I started talking about the return of Christmas cookie or our favorite chocolate hazelnut, but then A reminded me that it said new flavors. Really curious about what those will be. Hopefully they'll be as good as our favorites.

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Anyway, since the last day of Shackenstein came and went while we were still on our way home from London, there were only 2 flavors to ponder on the calendar this month. The first one, this week's flavor, salted maple, is new to us, but other than maple ginger, we haven't ranked any other maple-containing flavor higher than a 5 or a 5.5 so who knows if we would like this one. The other flavor, next week's flavor, grandma's apple pie, has been on the calendar for the past two years in November, but we've missed it every time. We were always interested in trying it, so maybe third time will be the time we finally get it. Can't wait to see what new flavors the penguins bring!

October 2015 Custard Calendar

How is it already October?! The weather has finally gotten a little bit cooler, and fall is in the air, but this year is definitely going by way too quickly.

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The new custard calendar is up though, full of fall and Halloween flavors. The weeks and our past ratings:

Week 1 (October 1-4) - pumpkin pie (an inflated 8.75/10)
Week 2 (October 5-11) - salted buttery caramel (new to us - although it has been on the calendar a lot this year, we haven't gotten around to trying it yet)
Week 3 (October 12-18) - oatmeal creme pie (6.25/10)
Week 4 (October 19-25) - candied apple (new to us - although it has turned up on the October calendar the past couple of years, we haven't gotten around to trying it yet)
Week 5 (October 26-31) - Shackenstein (8/10)

Maybe this month we'll finally try salted buttery caramel or candied apple...

September 2015 Custard Calendar

When we were in Chicago last week, temperatures were in the 60s and it felt like autumn. The new September custard calendar is definitely looking towards fall with pumpkin pie in the lineup, and pretty soon pumpkin spice will be everywhere. It feels too soon, especially since it's still like 90 degrees outside here in NYC, but time always seems like it's going by too quickly.

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Anyway, here's this month's custard calendar:

Week 1 (Sept 1-6) - banana pudding (new to us)
Week 2 (Sept 7-13) - peanut butter and jelly (4.5/10)
Week 3 (Sept 14-20) - red velvet (6.75/10)
Week 4 (Sept 21-27) - mint chocolate fudge (new to us, but we liked mint chocolate chip)
Week 5 (Sept 28-30) - pumpkin pie (an inflated 8.75/10)

I'm not sure whether we'll be stopping by for custard this month, but if we do, maybe it'll be for mint chocolate fudge or pumpkin pie. Let's see if we remember the right dates for those!

Blueberry Lemon Curd

Last week's custard at Shake Shack was blueberry lemon curd. This was the one we were most excited about trying this month, and we finally remembered to get it on the last day of its run when we were down in Battery Park City.

A's thoughts:

I enjoyed this flavor quite a bit. I could definitely taste the lemon curd, and the milder blueberry flavor managed to hold its own against the stronger, tart flavor of the lemon. The texture was also an interesting combination of the grittier blended blueberries and the smoothness and creaminess of the custard and lemon curd.

M's thoughts:

I was really excited for this custard since Shake Shack's blueberry coffee cake custard is one of my all-time favorites. This one was good, but that one is still better in my opinion. The first spoonful of this custard had a good mix of blueberry and lemon flavors. As I kept eating it, the blueberry got a bit milder, and most of the flavor was a general citrus flavor with a bit of sweetness. It was fine and I liked it, but I'm not sure if I need to get it again.

Blueberry Lemon Curd

A's rating: 7/10

M's rating: 7/10

July 2015 Custard Calendar

Hello July! (How is this year going by this quickly?!) New custard calendar is up!

We did okay with the June set of custards, but it's still been a challenge trying to adjust to this weekly schedule (instead of a custard of the day schedule). Before, if you forgot and missed a custard, or if you were away or busy for a week, no big deal, just get it next week. Under the new system, we seem to be missing out on a lot of custards. We did manage to get the Stumptown coffee cardamom, but we mixed up the dates on cherry streusel and missed it (our fault), and then just ran out of time in a busy week for strawberry almond. We kind of miss the old days.

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Anyway, here's the line-up for this month, full of bold summery fruit flavors:

Week 1 (July 1-5) - caramelized peach (6.25/10)

Week 2 (July 6-12) - blueberry lemon curd (new to us)

Week 3 (July 13-19) - malted chocolate cheesecake (new to us)

Week 4 (July 20-26) - raspberry fromage blanc (8/10 - assuming it's the same as fromage blanc raspberry swirl)

Week 5 (July 27-31) - salted buttery caramel (new to us)

Pretty excited about blueberry lemon curd! Hopefully we won't mess up the dates on that one like we did for cherry streusel....

Stumptown Coffee Cardamom

The first Shake Shack custard for June was Stumptown coffee cardamom. We were both curious to see what this would be like, but had a feeling this would be more of A's type of custard than M's (remember coffee and donuts?).

M's thoughts:

I'm one of those rare people who doesn't drink coffee. It puts me to sleep. (Yes, seriously, it does.) I've never particularly liked the taste of coffee either, as I've learned from trying regular coffee, flavored coffee, coffee candy, and coffee ice cream over the years, which is probably a good thing because of the whole sleep-inducing thing. Anyway, I did want to try this custard to see how the cardamom flavor would mix with the coffee. I didn't really taste that much cardamom, and found the coffee flavor a bit overwhelming. Maybe that's because I don't drink coffee so my taste buds aren't accustomed to the flavor, but I found it really strong. I could still taste coffee on my tongue over 10 minutes later. Needless to say, I didn't love this one, but I think if you like coffee more than me, you might think differently. It wasn't bad. Just not my thing.

A's thoughts:

I love Stumptown coffee. Every roast I've ever had from them was so rich and flavorful so I was really intrigued by this flavor. My only concern was that, with coffee, I tend to drink it black. I don't like muddling the flavor of coffee with milk/cream and sugar. When I tried this, I liked the initial coffee flavor, but it was too muddled by the sweetness added to make the custard more palatable. The cardamom seeds came out here and there, but overall they were fairly forgettable. I ended up being really disappointed because the custard lost a lot of the beauty and bold flavor of the coffee that was used to make this. I think I'll just drink my Stumptown moving forward.

Stumptown Coffee Cardamom

A's rating: 5/10

M's rating: 6/10

June 2015 Custard Calendar

Hello June! Hello summer! We're pretty excited about this month's custard calendar, full of summer fruit flavors, like cherry and strawberry and peach. Hopefully we'll be able to try a few new custards this month. We had every intention of going last month for cookies n' chocolatey cream, but we didn't make it since we had just returned from our Savannah road trip on the last day of the custard and were really not in the mood to trek out for custard.

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Here's this month's calendar:

Week 1 (June 1-7) - Stumptown coffee cardamom (new to us)
Week 2 (June 8-14) - cherry streusel (new to us)
Week 3 (June 15-21) - mud pie (7.25/10)
Week 4 (June 22-28) - strawberry almond (new to us)
Week 5 (June 29-30) - caramelized peach (6.25/10)

All 3 flavors that are new to us sound pretty intriguing. I'm most interested in the cherry streusel since I love streusel and am hoping they are going to mix some in, and A is most interested in cherry streusel, as well as the coffee flavor.  We're looking forward to trying them!

May 2015 Custard Calendar

The year has just been flying by, and somehow it's already May. Winter weather lasted for so long that it hardly seems like it's already the fifth month of the year. The flavors in the May custard calendar are up, but nothing about them is really yelling "spring" to us either. Happily though, there is one flavor this month that we're pretty excited about trying - cookies n' chocolatey cream - because we love cookies and cream ice cream.

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Here's the full May lineup of custards:

Week 1 (May 1-3) - oatmeal creme pie (6.25/10)
Week 2 (May 4-10) - red velvet (6.75/10)
Week 3 (May 11-17) - cookies n' chocolatey cream (new to us)
Week 4 (May 18-24) - caramel walnut cake (new to us, didn't get it last year)
Week 5 (May 25-31) - strawberry cheesecake (7/10)

Other than cookies and chocolatey cream, we might not stop in for the other custards, but we're hoping that one will be good!

April 2015 Custard Calendar

We hadn't posted anything yet this month, not even our usual custard calendar post, which means the first week of the custard calendar is already over! Maybe we were distracted by spring finally arriving. Maybe it's because we weren't that enthusiastic about the month's calendar. Maybe we were just tired. Who knows, but here's the calendar.

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The April line-up is:

Week 1 (April 1-5) - malted marshmallow peanut butter (did not try)
Week 2 (April 6-12) - buttery brown sugar (new to us)
Week 3 (April 13-19) - pineapple upside down (new to us (but not SS))
Week 4 (April 20-26) - caramel pretzel (7.5/10)
Week 5 (April 27-30) - oatmeal creme pie (6.25/10)

We may not head over for any custard this month (unless we decide to go for pineapple upside down, but we didn't love pineapple brown sugar), but hopefully May will have some great flavors!

Mast Brothers Chocolate Mint

We've never had Mast Brothers chocolate before, but we've heard of them and we know they're based out of Brooklyn. (They've also been in the news lately because other chocolatiers seem to think they're too hipster and the chocolate isn't that great, but we don't really have an opinion on that.) We were interested to see how this custard would match up with other chocolate mint custards and ice creams we'd had before, so we definitely wanted to try it.

M's thoughts:

This custard had the pretty tough task of following up on chocolate hazelnut and for me, it didn't really come close. One of the reasons why chocolate hazelnut is my favorite Shake Shack custard flavor is because it's such a rich, vibrant, and deep flavor, and no matter how much I eat it, I still want more. That is admittedly a high bar to reach, but I just didn't like this one that much. The chocolate flavor tasted pretty natural, on the bitter side like real chocolate is, but the mint part wasn't really that minty. Although I'm glad we tried it, I don't need to get it again.

A's thoughts:

I was excited about this flavor since chocolate and mint go very well together, and Shake Shack has always seemed to do well with chocolate-based flavors. In the end, this was really disappointing. The chocolate was very muted, especially in comparison to the chocolate hazelnut that was there the previous week. It was more "pure" chocolate so it had a slightly bitter taste to it, but the mint was nearly nonexistent so it didn't do anything to temper the bitterness. I don't know if that's what the Mast Brothers chocolate is supposed to taste like, but it makes me not want to get a bar. I wouldn't get this again if it was offered unless they made note of a reformulated taste.

Mast Brothers Chocolate Mint

A's rating: 5/10

M's rating: 6/10

Gianduja's Back

March is here, which normally means spring is (finally) on the way, but it's been snowing all day. The new custard calendar's up and as soon as we saw it, we got very excited. Our absolute favorite Shake Shack custard - chocolate hazelnut / gianduja - is back!

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Week 1 of the custard (ending today) is the rest of coconut tres leche. We never did make it last week to try it, due to a combination of illness and the frigid, unending cold, and considering it's snowing all day today, we're not going to get there, despite our best intentions. Oh well.

The rest of the March calendar is:

Week 2 (March 2-8) - salted buttery caramel (new to us) - This was the first flavor of the new year, but we never got around to trying it. We didn't particularly like the salted caramel flavor when we tried it a few years ago though.

Week 3 (March 9-15) - chocolate hazelnut (10/10) - Did we already mention that this was our favorite Shake Shack custard ever? Should we say it for the hundredth time? The only bad part about the new system is that we can't get a gianduja fix once a week now and it's all concentrated into one week.

Week 4 (March 16-22) - Mast Brothers chocolate mint (new to us) - We generally like chocolate mint flavors and we're excited to try this. Maybe it'll mix in bits of the chocolate bar?

Week 5 (March 23-29) - golden sponge cake (8/10) - We're assuming this is the same as the golden sponge creme cake that we tried and liked back in September. We would get this again.

Week 6 (March 30-31) - malted marshmallow peanut butter (new to us) - We've had malted marshmallow milk chocolate before and thought it was just okay, but maybe the peanut butter flavor goes better with the malted marshmallow than the chocolate did?

Can't wait for chocolate hazelnut!

February 2015 Custard Calendar

Happy February! First of all, congratulations to Shake Shack on their IPO. Second, time for a new custard calendar. It was so cold during January that we couldn't drag ourselves out from under our cozy blankets to go get some ice cold custard. Peanut butter banana sounded interesting, but wasn't compelling enough for low wind chills, and although we love s'mores custard, it was just so cold and snowy. Hopefully in February we'll do better.

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The custard calendar for February didn't go up online until this morning, so the last day of s'mores week (I guess that's Week 0 since Shake Shack on Facebook is calling this current week Week 1) is already gone. But the schedule for the rest of the weeks is:

Week 1 - Big Easy banana caramel (new to us)
Week 2 - Boston cream pie (7/10)
Week 3 - salty chocolate peanut butter (8/10)
Week 4 - coconut tres leche (new to us)

We are really excited for coconut tres leche, and even if it's freezing cold that week (although hopefully it won't be), we're going to try to get that one, no matter what. Overall, this seems like a pretty strong custard month and we're excited!

January 2015 Custard Calendar

Happy new year! Like I usually do on the first of a month, I headed over to Shake Shack's website in the early morning hours to see if they posted the month's custard calendar already. (This time it was also to admire the ShackMeister burger that we can't wait to try.) To my surprise since it's New Year's, the calendar was up, and they've completely changed the format of the calendar!

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Instead of having a custard on a particular day every day that month, they've now split it up by week. We're not sure if we like that change, but we'll keep an open mind. On the one hand, it means that if you're always busy or not around on a certain day, you still get to try the flavor, which is nice. On the other, it means less flavors per month, and if you go on vacation for a particular week, you're out of luck on that flavor (unless there's a Shake Shack nearby). Also, if you like a certain flavor, you have to concentrate all your custard eating into that one week. I mean, we would love to eat gianduja every day for an entire week, but we would prefer to spread it out so we could get our gianduja treat weekly and have something to look forward to. Of course, that's provided chocolate hazelnut comes back someday...

Anyway, back to this month's calendar. Each flavor runs Monday to Sunday, except the first week, since it starts on a Thursday. (I'm curious about how they're going to deal with February, with that lone Sunday in "week 1" of the month.) Here's the line-up and our previous ratings:

Week 1 - salted buttery caramel (new to us, but we didn't love the salted caramel)
Week 2 - oatmeal creme pie (6.25/10)
Week 3 - peanut butter banana (new to us)
Week 4 - red velvet (6.75/10)
Week 5 - s'mores (8.75/10)

We're curious to try the peanut butter banana (the Elvis?) since it sounds like it could be good, and it's nice to see s'mores, one of our favorites, return. Here's to a year of good custard!

December 2014 Custard Calendar

Christmas cookie custard is back!

That was my first thought when I opened up the December custard calendar a couple of days ago, which I immediately relayed to A. That's always been one of our favorite Shack Shack custards and one which really puts us in the holiday spirit (although we're dreading the crowds we'll have to brave to get it), and we're glad to see it return.

It may seem kind of late to be posting about the custard calendar since December is almost half over, but we've been traveling with very little access to internet and the calendar wasn't up before we left. It's not our usual late and/or lazy blogging!

So, without further rambling, here's the December calendar with our scores and links to our previous reviews:

Monday - Christmas cookie (9/10)
Tuesday - gingerbread (5.75/10)
Wednesday - eggnog (tried but never reviewed - maybe we'll give it another try after I really liked the Layer Shake)
Thursday - chocolate pecan pie (not new but never tried)
Friday - jelly donut (8.75/10)
Saturday - candy cane crunch (tried but never reviewed - we think we liked it)
Sunday - sweet potato marshmallow (not new but never tried)

A lot of these are repeats of last year and other years, but it's a very "holiday" menu so that makes sense. So excited for Christmas cookie!

Maple Ginger

The first new custard that we've had in a while was today's maple ginger. We were intrigued by it, but it wasn't quite what we were expecting.

M's thoughts:

I'm not sure why, but I thought the "ginger" part of maple ginger meant ginger root, so I was surprised when A brought home the custard and it was covered with pieces of gingerbread cookies. The custard was pretty much what it sounded like - maple syrup flavored ice cream with gingerbread pieces. The match was okay, but some of the bigger, less crumbly pieces of gingerbread were really hard and cold in the custard, so a bit harder to eat. It was good, but I don't think I need to have it again.

A's thoughts:

So maple ginger, to me, meant a maple based custard with accents of ginger. I was envisioning that sweet maple flavor paired with the spice of the ginger. That's only sort of what we got. It was indeed a sweet maple custard, but the ginger came in the form gingerbread cookies. They don't quite have the same ginger spice that I was hoping for from actual ginger, but they tasted good. They also added a really intriguing crunch to the custard. I'd probably be happy getting it again since I do like the flavor profile.

Maple Ginger

A's rating: 8/10

M's rating: 7/10

November 2014 Custard Calendar

I can't believe it's November. That means Thanksgiving is almost here and I am totally not ready for that. Anyway, new month, new custard calendar. We never really got to Shake Shack last month to try any of the new (to us) flavors, but perhaps this month we will, especially if we're no longer feeling under the weather.

The custard calendar for this month (with our previous ratings) is:

Monday - chocolate cheesecake (new to us)
Tuesday - salted caramel (4.75/10)
Wednesday - pumpkin pie (8.75/10)
Thursday - maple ginger (new to us)
Friday - cinnamon cranberry almond (new to us)
Saturday - toffee pear (5.75/10)
Sunday - grandma's apple pie (new to us - missed it last year)

The ones that stand out to me are maple ginger and grandma's apple pie, which both sound a lot like fall and perfect for November. A is also really interested in trying the cinnamon cranberry almond. Let's see if we try some new custard treats this month!

October 2014 Custard Calendar

The October custard calendar is up and it's full of all the flavors you would expect to see for the height of fall (lots of cinnamon and caramel and nuts and pumpkin). There's a few flavors we haven't tried before (even though they are not completely new to SS) so hopefully we'll discover something great this month!

Here's the schedule (and our review scores):

Monday - cinnamon pear cobbler (new to us - never made it last year)
Tuesday - oatmeal creme pie (6.25/10)
Wednesday - peanut butter marshmallow swirl (new to us - never made it 2 years ago)
Thursday - candied apple (new to us - never made it last year)
Friday - shackenstein (8/10)
Saturday - caramel walnut cake (new to us)
Sunday - pumpkin pie (8.75/10 on an early curve)

To celebrate the holiday, we may stop in for some shackenstein on a Friday, but other than that, we're both really intrigued by the cinnamon pear cobbler and A is also interested in candied apple since he's never had one and it's a regional thing. Hoping we try something new that we love!

Golden Sponge Creme Cake

One of the more intriguing custards at Shake Shack lately has been the golden sponge creme cake. We weren't exactly sure what to expect, but the nice lady at Shake Shack gave us some samples before we ordered. We liked it enough to order a double cup!

M's thoughts:

My first thought on trying this custard was "cake batter." It wasn't exactly like Coldstone's cake batter ice cream but it had a lot of similarities. I really liked it. Through most of it, my thought was all about different types of cake batter. After a while, the flavor got a little less strong, but I think that's what happens once your tongue gets used to the flavor of most custards (not chocolate hazelnut). Overall though, I liked it, because I love cake batter ice cream.

A's thoughts:

The first tasting was good, but I could see that M liked this much more than I did. That being said, it was a tasty custard flavor. It really tastes like one of those Chinese sponge cakes with the creme in the middle. It's a very aptly named and flavored custard in my opinion. It's really tasty, but it's still not good enough to dethrone the top spots in our list. I would certainly be glad getting it again, though.

Golden Sponge Creme Cake

A's rating: 8/10

M's rating: 8/10

September 2014 Custard Calendar

New month, new custards. Although we're sad that there's no chocolate hazelnut this month (we could seriously eat that every day), there are some interesting flavors. Other than the PB&J, which may or may not be the same as the one we've had previously, none of the other flavors are new. But there are a few we didn't have a chance to try before, either because they ran out or we forgot until the month was over. Now's our chance!

Monday - salted caramel (4.75/10)
Tuesday - banana bread (6.75/10)
Wednesday - red velvet (6.75/10)
Thursday - peanut butter & Concord grape jelly (4.5/10 for the old PB&J - maybe this is better?)
Friday - chocolate mint fudge (never made it to try before)
Saturday - coffee & donuts (5.75/10 with the usual I-don't-drink-coffee disclaimer)
Sunday - golden sponge creme cake (never made it to try before)

We'll probably give the PB&J a try and also the other two "new" ones. A is most interested in PB&J to see if it's any different, and I'm most interested in the golden sponge creme cake. Maybe next month chocolate hazelnut can come back?