Jeni's - Golden Nectar

Golden Nectar - (11) - Golden Vanilla Ice Cream Flavored with Ylang Ylang and Clove with Toffee Candy Pieces

 

The final flavor in Jeni's Ice Cream Truck Collection is  called Golden Nectar.  This is a very interesting flavor.  It  is a unique flavor.  The flavor name implies that there is honey in there, but I don't see it on the ingredient list.  What I do see is vanilla, clove oil, ylang-ylang oil.  They've also added turmeric to give it a golden color.  I am very intrigued.  I have actually had ylang-ylang oil once before in an ice cream (see review here for more on ylang-ylang) and clove is one of my favorite spices.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid and peeling back the seal, I see a bright yellow base.  It looks a lot like a custard, but a check of the ingredient list shows that there are no eggs.  Digging in, it tastes a lot like a vanilla custard.  Maybe a combination of the vanilla, the yellow color from the turmeric and the tapioca syrup that Jeni's uses as a stabilizing agent is giving me that impression.  It does have some nice aromatic notes.  I think that's the ylang-ylang in the mix.  The clove is extremely subtle.  Just a pinch is used here so it does not provide the bite that is present in other flavors such as Claire's Cabinet.  One thing I don't see is toffee candy.  I do taste some caramel-like flavor from time to time.  I think the toffee may have dissolved in the ice cream.  I've seen this happen several times.  Sometimes this works really well, but other times I wonder if this is supposed to happen.  This reminds me of when I had a pint of Van Leeuwen's Honeycomb flavor and the honeycomb pieces had melted in the cream when I had read articles about how crunchy they were.  Here, the side of Jeni's pint talks of 'firecracker-like snaps of aerated toffee candy' and my pint is all smooth with some caramel notes.  It all tastes really good, but I wonder if I am missing something.

This is an interesting experimental flavor blend from Jeni's.  The flavor is excellent.  It is has a very appealing vanilla-custard-like flavor with aromatic notes from the ylang-ylang and a subtle hint of cloves.  The smooth caramel sections instead of aerated candy pieces make me wonder if the toffee mix-ins dissolved and blended into the base, though.  So, although I enjoyed the flavor, it has me wondering if I should try this at a scoop shop where the mix-ins are more likely in their original intended state.