Bebe Zito - Beijinhos

Beijinhos - Beijinho-flavored Ice Cream with a Strawberry Lemon Ripple

The next flavor from the Minneapolis-based Bebe Zito is called Beijinhos (instagram link here).  A beijinho is a Brazilian confection made with coconut and condensed milk.  It has been described as the coconut version of a brigadiero (which I have had in ice cream here).  Here, Bebe Zito adds a strawberry lemon ripple into the mix.  Let's see how this turns out.

Removing the lid, I see quite a bit of the strawberry-lemon ripple right away -- a big glob plus a few veiny threads of it.  I also see an off-white clump which looks like it might be coconut.  Looks like there are chunks of actual beijnho mixed in.  Digging in, the beijnho pieces are sticky and sweet but quite delicious and they go well with the strawberry-lemon swirls.  Strawberry and lemon go well together (as they do in strawberry lemonade).  I am surprised that I do not see them together more often.  As I eat further down, the strawberry-lemon swirl seem to have migrated to the sides of the container (I have seen that before) but it is quite easy to get some of this swirl into every spoonful so it is not something to complain about.

This is a fun and unique combination of flavors from Bebe Zito.  The beijinho confection is not one that I was familiar with before, but now I want to try one.  Blending in condensed milk does make this a sweeter than average pint, but the extra sweetness did not bother me one bit.  Strawberry and coconut was not a combination that I had imagined before but it is quite delicious.  With Bebe Zito having a Brazilian-theme to several of their flavors (one of their owners in Brazilian) and this being a fun implementation of a Brazilian dessert, this Beijinhos flavor deserves to be one of their signature flavors.  Check it out the next time that you are there.