Sebastian Joe's - Dakota Cherry

Dakota Cherry - Black Cherry and White Chocolate Ice Cream with Almond Pieces

Today is another flavor from Sebastian Joe's of Minneapolis.  This flavor is called Dakota Cherry.  It is a black cherry with white chocolate and almonds.  Their flavor page lists a Dakota Berry but the guy at the scoop shop on Lowry Hill assured me that this is Black Cherry.  It sounded interesting and different from what I've been eating recently, so I am looking forward to it.

Removing the lid, the carton is packed full with a dark pink ice cream.  Several of the almond mix-ins can be seen on the top already.  Like most Sebastian Joe's pints, this ice cream is very dense and thick.  The black cherry base has a lot of small cherry pieces in it and it is quite delicious.  Dispersed throughout the pint are small almond pieces which are just large enough to provide a bit of crunch to most spoonfuls.  I do not specifically taste the white chocolate, but I have noted in the past that white chocolate is an inert flavor on my taste buds.  I think what has happened here is that the white chocolate is blended completely into the base cream and is used to cut the strong cherry flavor a bit.  If so, it did work!  The black cherry flavor is quite good without being overpowering.

I really enjoyed this flavor.  The closest flavor I can find in my archive is Cherry Nut from Izzy's which I also really liked.  There are key differences between the two flavors, though.  The main difference is that this is a black cherry while Izzy's uses regular cherries.  Also, this pint uses almonds while Izzy's uses walnuts but that's a smaller difference.  Which one you prefer depends on what type of cherry you are in the mood for, but either way, you can't go wrong.