Jeni's - Brandied Banana Brûlée

Brandied Banana Brûlée - Banana Custard with Small-Batch Brandy, Caramel Sauce, and Burnt Sugar Candies

Today we move to the next pint in my Black Friday shipment from Jeni's Ice Cream.  The first two pints were holiday flavors (here and here), the rest of my shipment are not holiday flavors because I have reviewed the rest of this year's holiday selection in previous years (here, here and here).  That's OK, though because it gives me a chance to try more of Jeni's standard flavors which are usually quite good.  Today's flavor is called Brandied Banana Brûlée.  They describe this as "if Bananas Foster and Crème Brûlée had a baby" and a "top shelf, white tablecloth, silver spoon ice cream".  I like banana and I like interesting flavor combinations, so this sounds fun.

My jaw drops as I remove the lid.  There is a lot of caramel and candy right away on the top of the pint!  The banana base behind it is very light in color.  Digging in, this caramel is quite delicious.  There is occasionally candy piece embedded in the caramel.  These candy pieces due taste like the crunchy layer on top of a crème brûlée!  Underneath this caramel layer is the brandy-banana base which is also delicious!  The banana flavor is quite good as is the brandy and somehow they managed to include both without one of them overpowering the other.  As I ate further down into the pint, the caramel layers got noticeably thinner as I ate my way down the pint.  That is likely a flaw mix-in swirling process but it did remind me of crème brûlée which has all the crunchy stuff on top.  It wasn't too extreme though, there was still some caramel in the bottom half.  And it did let me savor the excellent brandy-banana base more too.

This is an excellent pint of ice cream.  Blending Bananas Foster and Creme Brûlée is a great idea and this is very well done.  Jeni's does a great job of blending in the flavor of boozy ingredients without it becoming too boozy (or too soft).  Bananas Fosters lovers will like this for sure.