Jeni's - Pumpkin 5-Spice

Pumpkin 5-Spice - Pumpkin Ice Cream with Ginger, Fennel, Cinnamon, Star Anise and White Pepper

We move on to the second pint in my holiday shipment from the Columbus-based Jeni's brand.  The first pint was a Thanksgiving side-dish (sweet potatoes & torched marshmallows), so for the second pint I'll proceed to the traditional Thanksgiving dessert:  Pumpkin 5-Spice (pie).  I like pumpkin pie and pumpkin spice in general.  This is the second flavor this fall which has contained five-spice powder, an Asian cuisine spice mix. We have a family pumpkin bread recipe which is heavy on the spices, so I look forward to a spicy implementation of pumpkin spice.  Here the five spices are ginger, star anise, fennel, cinnamon and white pepper.

Opening the pint, the ice cream has the expected pumpkin-orange coloring.  Digging in, I taste the pumpkin and quite a bit of spice as well. It is a soft and subtle blend of spices.  It is not at all hot, but it is certainly a lot more flavorful than a slice of pumpkin pie.  It is delicious.  There are no mix-ins, but the spices keep it interesting.

This is a well-done pint of pumpkin ice cream.  It is a simple homogeneous flavor, but the spice blend is a nice twist from the ordinary pumpkin implementation.  Nothing too intense, but Jeni's knows how to blend and balance their flavors well.