Bebe Zito - Romeo E Julieta

Romeo E Julieta - Cream Cheese Custard and Fresh Guava Ripple. Finished with a beautiful Ritz cracker and guava sauce.

I return to Bebe Zito in Minneapolis for the first time in a while.  I have not been avoiding them, but they do not always update their pint freezer case.  I think they like to focus on manually adding toppings to their ice cream creations and that always translated to a pre-packed pint -- so they don't always make a pint-version of their limited-batch flavors.  Anyhow, last time I was there, I found several new flavors of pints in their freezer case so I scooped them up.  Today's flavor is called Romeo E Julieta (instagram link here).  It features a cream cheese custard base with a ripple of guava and is topped with Ritz crackers.  They gave me a little container of Ritz crackers to add to the ice cream when I ate it -- I guess the crackers would get soggy if they mixed them into the pints themselves.  This sounds fun.  Guava is a relatively unusual ingredient, although I have had it once before in a Pineapple Rum & Guava Jam flavor from McConnell's a couple of years ago.  Let's check out today's flavor.

Removing the lid, the cream cheese base has an off-white color to it and I see a few dollops of guava jam right away on top.  Instead of digging right in, I transfer the ice cream to a bowl, so that I can add some of the Ritz Crackers into the mix (see pictures below).  Digging in, the crackers add a nice crumbly-crunchy salty mix to each spoonful.  The cream cheese custard is very dense and thick and the guava jam adds some very delicious tropical fruit flavor.  Yum.

This is a fun and delicious fruit and crackers combination from Bebe Zito and the dense cream cheese base holds it all together quite well.  The guava has a delicious tropical flavor and the smattering of crushed crackers adds a nice touch of saltiness to the mix.  They might not always give you the crackers when you buy the pint -- it would still be good without it -- but it is a nice touch.  If you like guava, check this out the next time you are at Bebe Zito.