Bebe Zito - Berry Queen

 

Berry Queen - Black Raspberries, Blueberries, with Strawberry Cookies. Topped with Strawberry Cookie Crumble and Snozzberries Sauce
 

Today's flavor comes from Bebe Zito scoop shop that opened this year in the Lowry Hill/Wedge neighborhood of Minneapolis.  This one is called Berry Queen.  It looks like a berry blend.  Black raspberries and blueberries in the base and strawberry cookie mix-ins.  The flavor page also mentions snozzberries which is a Roald Dahl/Willie Wonka joke.  In the 1971 movie, Veruca Salt argues that there is no such thing as snozzberries, but Willie (Gene Wilder) assures her that they do and that they "taste like snozzberries".  Googling gets me other theories based on other more mature Roald Dahl books, but that's beyond the scope of this blog.  This looks like a 'berry blend' ice cream which I have had with Izzy's Church Elderberry and Four Berry flavors and Jeni's Wildberry Lavender which include orange in the mix.  Let's check it out!

After removing the lid, the top of the pint has a list pink color with a few dark specks in it.  The first spoonful is very berry as expected.  I can specifically taste the black raspberry the most, but I do taste some blue berry as well.  The ice cream has a bit of bit of a gritty texture to it.  It looks like the strawberry cookies have been crushed into fine crumbs which are dispersed evenly throughout the ice cream.  Focusing in, I believe they do add a little bit of strawberry flavor into the mix, but honestly one on the fun parts of a berry blend flavor is how the individual flavors get lost and you end up with a big mouthful of berry-ness.  It is quite delicious!

This is a fun and appealing blended berry flavor from Bebe Zito.  It's hard to compare it directly to other berry blends because they are all a little different in their ingredient rations, so I will just tell you want sticks out as different here.  I believe black raspberry is the largest contributor to the over all blend and the cookie mix-ins are crushed into crumbs creating almost a homogenous blend with a gritty texture.  If you are in a berry mood, give this one a try.