Jeni's - Brambleberry Crisp

Brambleberry Crisp - Vanilla Ice Cream with Brambleberry Jam and an Oat Streusel

  
I have been getting requests for reviews of pints of Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream for quite a while but I  haven't been able to find any pints at the grocery stores that I frequent.  After another request last week, I checked online for where in San Diego to get it.  It turns out the only place near me that carries Jeni's is Whole Foods.  I don't usually find myself at Whole Foods.  First, they don't sell Diet Coke there and second, I associate Whole Foods with things such as hummus and organic rutabaga -- not tasty desserts.  Anyways, off I went to the Whole Foods this past weekend and I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw in the freezer case.  A whole row of Jeni's ice cream flavors as well as some Coolhaus flavors I hadn't seen before and a couple of Three Twins flavors as well.  Whole Foods is now in my rotation of places to check for ice cream.

Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream was founded in Columbus, Ohio by Jeni Britton Bauer in 2002.  She focuses on creative flavor combinations using high quality ingredients.  Just the type of thing that makes for interesting reviews.  What appears to set her apart from other ice cream makers is her choice of thickening agent.  Many brands use either egg yolks or guar gum to give their ice cream the right consistency -- thick without being icy.  Jeni's uses tapioca.  I like tapioca, so that sounds intriguing.  

The first Jeni's flavor I am trying is Brambleberry Crisp.  "Bramble" is a vague term usually associated with blackberries, raspberries or other cane berries.  Here, Jeni's specifically uses a jam make with blackberries and blackcurrants.  The crisp means that oat streusel has been mixed in to give the sensation that you are having a slice of berry pie with vanilla ice cream.

On to the ice cream!  Opening the pint took a bit of effort because the jam had formed a bond with the lid.  The vanilla base is visible with golden colored oat specks visible.  If you look really close you can see vanilla bean specks as well.  The swirl of jam is thick and off to one side of the pint.  The vanilla & streusel base was delicious.  I didn't taste the tapioca but it did its job of keeping the ice cream both thick and soft at the same time.  I briefly wondered if the ice cream would even melt if I left it out on the counter but I ate it fast enough anyways.  The jam was tasty, not too tart and not too sweet.  The fact that the jam was isolated to a swirl on the side was worried me at first after the mixing issues that I encountered in a similar Steve's flavor, but it was very easy to get a little bit of jam into every spoonful.

A very successful pint.  One of the best pints I've had in terms of quality and combinations of flavors.  A word of warning, though: Jeni's is not cheap.  This pint was ten dollars at Whole Foods.  In the past, I'd occasionally get double-takes from cashiers while they rang up eight dollar pints of McConnell's -- Jeni's is even more than that.  Once you get past the sticker shock, though, it is very good ice cream.  I will be looking forward to reviewing more Jeni's flavors in the future.