Pumphouse Creamery - Kulfi

Kulfi - Kulfi-inspired Ice Cream with Pistachio, Cardamom and Rosewater

Recently, I went back to the Pumphouse Creamery on Chicago Avenue in South Minneapolis to see if they had any new flavors.  I found a couple.  This first of these pints is called Kulfi.  It is not listed on their menu and was not in the scooping bin, but they had some pre-packed pints of it.  Kulfi is a dessert popular in the Middle East and on the Indian Subcontinent.  I have had Kulfi-inspired ice cream once before from Adirondack Creamery on one of my trips to New York City.  It is essential a twist on pistachio ice cream.  Some cardamom is added and rosewater is added here as well.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, I see a very white ice cream with lots of green specks inside.  There are some air bubbles on the top of the pint but I don't mind.  They actually look rather cool and since they are quite small, I don't feel like I am being robbed of ice cream.  Digging in, I taste the pistachio and the cardamom right away.  It is quite delicious.  I am guessing that the base is a plain sweet cream and the pistachio flavor is coming from the mix-ins.  I taste the cardamom more as a finish, but it is definitely in there.  The rosewater flavor is not completely obvious to me -- to be honest, I was expecting it to be a bit pink -- but it could be that the rosewater is part of the blend and that the cardamom is distracting me.  The texture is thicker than I expected.  The previous Kulfi pint was a bit more soft -- perhaps more like the Indian dessert -- but the pistachio/cardamom flavor is still quite delicious.

Like the previous pint from Adirondack Creamery, this is a fun twist on a pistachio ice cream.  I like how it mixes with the cardamom.  The rosewater here is quite mild.  That could vary from batch-to-batch but I think at most it will play a supporting role (the Adirondack pint did not even have rosewater).  Anyhow, if you're a big fan of pistachio ice cream and want to see how they enjoy a similar dessert in the middle east, give this pint a try.