Lapperts - Date Casablanca

Date Casablanca - Medajool Date Ice Cream with a Date/Caramel Swirl

The third pint in my shipment from Lapperts is called Date Casablanca. What a fun name!  I have only had dates in ice cream one other time.  In that case, there were so many spices in the mix that the dates played only a textural role.  This looks like a much more date-centric flavor.  Lappert's specifies that medjool dates are used here.  The medjool date is a soft variety of date which originated in Morocco -- hence the 'Casablanca' part of the ice cream flavor name.

Opening the pint, the base ice cream is quite light in color.  The caramel swirl and a couple of the date mix-ins are visible right away.  The pint has a neatly hand-packed look to it.  Digging in, the base is thick, soft and creamy.  The date mix-ins are delicious.  The caramel coats the dates in a way that sometimes make them feel like they have a candy coating.  It almost reminds me of a chewier version of a praline pecan.  The base itself does not have a very strong flavor but seems like the perfect vehicle for these mix-ins.

I really liked this pint of ice cream.  It makes me wonder why dates are not a more commonly used in ice cream.  Maybe good dates are hard to find or maybe no one else has figured out how to do them as well as Lapperts has here?  Date lovers should have this, but it is quite good for those like myself who are not all that familiar with dates either.