Jeni's - Mexican Hot Chocolate

Mexican Hot Chocolate - Chocolate Ice Cream with Vietnamese Cinnamon and Cayenne Pepper 

 

I made a holiday order from Jeni's Ice Cream of Columbus, Ohio!  Rather than wait for the Black Friday sale, I pulled the trigger early this year as I am worried about shipping delays this year.  A reminder to local readers that although Whole Foods, Kowalski's and a few other places, I have never seen the holiday flavors in stock at local grocery stores.  Ok, I have had a few of the holiday flavors before (Sugar Plum, White Chocolate Peppermint and Cognac with Gingerbread), so I will refer you to those reviews.  The first new flavor from the shipment is called Mexican Hot Chocolate (instagram link here).  This flavor used to be called "Queen City Cayenne" and is one of Jeni's earliest and most favorite flavors.  It is a chocolate ice cream seasoned with Vietnamese cinnamon and cayenne pepper.  This mexican or spiced chocolate flavor is not uncommon.  I have had implementations from Häagen-Dazs, Steve's, McConnell's, and Sebastian Joe's.  Jeni's themselves even had a similar flavor called Xocorosa which had slightly different spices and was spiked with rosé.  Let's dig in!

Removing the lid, the chocolate base has a medium brown color -- about normal and not "dark".  Digging in, I taste the spices in the chocolate right away.  Mainly I taste the the cinnamon.  I taste a little bit of the cayenne pepper as well.  I have a high spice tolerance, so for me it just raises the level of the cinnamon to that of  Big Red gum.  But here in the Midwest, people have lower spice tolerances, so they may feel more of a kick.  I do not mean to belabor these spice-level observations -- this is delicious!  This is a homogeneous flavor with no mix-ins.

This is a solid implementation of a spicy chocolate from Jeni's.  It is simple and flavorful.  Part of me wishes it was a bit hotter, but that could be my high spice tolerance talking.  This is spicy enough for most.  Enjoy.