Pumphouse Creamery - Fresh Rhubarb

Fresh Rhubarb - Vanilla Ice Cream with Fresh Rhubarb

Spring is here and that means that Rhubarb Ice Cream has returned to the Pumphouse Creamery in Minneapolis.  Their flavor page says this is their best-selling seasonal flavor.  When local papers write up the ice cream choices in town, they almost always mention the rhubarb when they mention Pumphouse Creamery.  I tried to get it last year, but I was too late -- it is only available from April until mid-June.  I got myself a pint this year and I'm excited to check it out.

Opening the pint, I see big chunks of rhubarb right away immersed in a bright white vanilla base.  Very generous with the rhubarb!  Digging in, the rhubarb is delicious!  Sometimes rhubarb can be very sour -- which is why it is often used as a supporting ingredient (balanced with something like strawberry or cinnamon).  The rhubarb here is still quite tangy -- it is rhubarb after all -- but not so much that it makes your lips pucker.  The vanilla base provides a great balance to the mix-in, creating a pie-a-la-mode feel to the pint.

This is an excellent pint of ice cream.  Rhubarb has such a strong and sour natural flavor that it is quite unusual to see it as the only flavor in an ice cream.  This implementation hits it out of the park, though.  The rhubarb is sweetened up into a pie-filling-like mix-in that goes great with the vanilla base.  It is only available for a couple of months a year, so check it out.