Humphry Slocumbe - Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee

Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee - Coffee Ice Cream made with Chicory and Condensed Milk

The second pint in my recent shipment from the San Francisco-based Humphry Slocombe brand is called Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee.  This is one of their original flavors.  What makes a coffee Vietnamese?  Vietnamese coffee usually contains sweetened condensed milk.  It reminds me a bit of Thai Iced Tea.  A quick check of the ingredient list tells me that the pint also contains chicory -- a 'coffee substitute' which became popular in New Orleans coffee.  I have written more about coffee, chicory and New Orleans in a previous review.  The 'Blue Bottle' part of the flavor name appears to come from a Bay Area coffee company which probably supplies the coffee used. This pint looks interesting, let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the base ice cream has a creamy tan color.  Digging in, the coffee flavor is very interesting and distinctive.  I can definitely tell there is sweetened condensed milk in there.  I am not enough of a coffee expert to know if the interesting and distinctive part of the flavor is the chicory, but it would not surprise me.  The flavor is surprisingly subtle at first.  This is not one of those coffee ice cream which hits you with dark-roasted coffee bean flavor right away.  That said, the flavor actually improves as I continue eating.  The sweetened condensed milk is never too sweet and I am left wanting more at the end of the pint.

This is a solid and interesting pint of ice cream.  As with the previous Humphry Sclocumbe flavor, it is a bit more subtle than I was expecting, but the flavor balance is very well done.  I am curious to know what fans of the Vietnamese beverage think of this flavor.