Steve's - Mexican Chili Chocolate

Mexican Chili Chocolate - Chocolate Ice Cream laced with Cinnamon and Cayenne with Guajillo Chocolate Pieces

We're back to the Steve's brand with their Mexican Chili Chocolate flavor.  I must admit that I'm both intrigued and intimidated by this flavor.  I love Mexican food -- especially spicy Mexican food -- and I like chocolate, but I'm not sure if I' don't often think of the two of them going together.  I do like the idea of trying new flavors though and this is combination I've encountered in any of the previous reviews.

Opening the pint, I see the chocolate base with a slightly ligher brown color than expected.  Digging in, the cinnamon accent to the chocolate hit me right away but otherwise it was just really good chocolate.  Some of the other brands don't worry about the chocolate quality in their chocolate base and when they want extra chocolate flavor they add chocolate mix-ins.  Not here, though, as this is a very good chocolate base.   The chocolate pieces were pea-sized and occasionally dispersed through the pint adding extra dense chocolate flavor.  The cayenne and guajillo chili flavoring was not as potent as I expected.  In each spoonful, it did not distract from the excellent chocolate flavor that I described above but it was something that built up slowly as I was eating the pint.  It was a flavor that near the end of the pint stayed lingering on my teeth in between spoonfuls -- not a complaint, I rather enjoyed that sensation.  I have a couple of theories as to why it wasn't as spicy as I expected.  First, I tend to like my spicy food mucho caliente and perhaps a name brand chose not to be so bold in a pre-packaged pint.  Second, if you want to relieve your mouth of spice, you would have something cold and milky, so the ice cream base does act as a natural buffer for added spicy ingredients.

I did enjoy this pint, though.  It's a very tasty chocolate!  I've had a lot of different chocolate ice creams in the past year, so that's saying something.   I would recommend this flavor if you like chocolate but are interested in a slightly spicy twist on your usual favorite.