Sebastian Joe's - Spumoni

Spumoni - Almond Ice Cream with Orange, Lemon and Apricot Pieces

 

Today's flavor comes from the Minneapolis-based Sebastian Joe's Ice Cream and is called Spumoni.  I bought it at the scoop shop in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis.  I have had an ice cream called Spumoni from the nearby Sonny's Ice Cream, but this flavor looks completely different.  Sonny's had marbled swirls of cherry, pistachio and chocolate.  Today's flavor has an almond flavored base with candied fruit mix-ins (orange, lemon & apricot).  Checking the wikipedia entry for spumoni, the Sonny's flavor focuses mainly on the base ice creams (cherry, pistachio, chocolate) which eventually led to the Neapolitan flavor while today's Sebastian Joe's flavor emphasizes the candied fruit and nuts.  Looks good.  Today's flavor is the first time that I have an ice cream which includes apricots -- an Old World fruit closely related to peaches and plums.  Let's check it out!

Removing the lid, I see that Sebastian Joe's has generously overstuffed my container.  I love it when they do that.  I see the pale yellow off-white color of the almond base and I see quite a few of the fruit pieces.  These looks like little pieces of dried fruit.  Interesting!  Digging in, the fruit pieces are quite delicious.  They do taste like dried fruit pieces that one might pick up at a co-op to take with you on a hike or something.  They work really well as an ice cream mix-in!  I think the cold and moist ice cream perks them up a bit.  There seems to be equal parts of dried lemon pieces, dried orange pieces and dried apricot pieces, although at times I admit they all kind of blend together and just taste 'fruity'.  The almond flavored base serves as an excellent mild vehicle for these mix-ins.

This is an excellent and unique flavor from Sebastian Joe's.  Dried fruit should be used as a mix-in more often!  It reminded me a bit of their KARE 11 Sunrise flavor which also had lemon candy pieces in it.  The next time you see this in their scooping bin, check it out.