Three Twins - Dad's Cardamom

Dad's Cardamom - Cardamom Ice Cream

I have been sampling flavors from the Northern California-based Three Twins Ice Cream for a couple of years now.  One flavor on their website which has always intrigued me is called Dad's Cardamom.  It is basically a cardamom-flavored ice cream.  Not cardamom and tea, or cardamom and pistachio, or cardamom as part of a spice blend, but just cardamom and vanilla.  I have always been intrigued by the cardamom spice -- the middle eastern spice which Scandinavians fell in love with.  Every time I've tried it, I've noticed how it adds an aromatic effect inside my mouth but it's often hard to isolate it's exact flavor.  That's why I've always wanted to try Dad's Cardamom.  I have had the darnedest time trying to find it, though.  I finally tracked it down at a Festival Foods in White Bear Lake.  So, I trekked out there, picked up a pint and I am anxious to check it out.

Opening the pint, the ice cream is very grainy.  You can see the crushed cardamom pods!  By my count, the speck density is higher than a vanilla bean flavor but lower than an cookies & cream flavor made with Oreos.  Digging in, I taste the cardamom right away.  It is flavorful and aromatic as expected and it is not at all overpowering.  It's a good well-balanced flavor.  As I continue eating the pint, the flavor fades a little bit as it builds up in my palate.  One might want to eat this with something so that the palate can be cleansed every so often and that nice effect of that first spoonful can return.

I enjoyed this pint quite a bit.  It is a simple homogeneous pint with no mix-ins, but it is perhaps the best example of cardamom flavor that I have tried yet.  If you are curious about the cardamom flavor as I am, then check it out.