Pumphouse - Lychee Citrus Sorbet

Lychee Citrus Sorbet - Lychee Lemon Orange and Tangerine Sorbet

Today I return to the Pumphouse Creamery of south Minneapolis for a Lychee Citrus Sorbet.  I checked the website and the citrus flavors used are lemon, orange and tangerine.  Sorbet's are non-dairy by design.  Fruit sorbets are just fruit juice, sugar mixed with crushed ice which is then churned to give it as scoopable of a texture as possible.  Checking the lychee flavor tag on the right sidebar, I have had lychee in ice creams and sorbets several times before.  It is a watery fruit with a very sweet tropical flavor.  It will be interesting to see how it blends with the citrus.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the sorbet a creamy yellowish off-white color to it.  Digging in, you can definitely tell that it's a sorbet.  But it's not too hard to get the spoon through it.  It was churned pretty well.  The flavor is mainly lemon but it is not too tart.  I am guessing that the orange,  tangerine and sweet lychee are helping to remove the tartness.  The best blends are when it's hard to describe the effect of each individual flavor and that is what is happening here.

This is a fun and refreshing citrus blend sorbet from Pumphouse Creamery.  It is a bit of a sweet and tropical flavor to brighten up everyone's winter.  I tried to imagine that I was at the beach instead of inside escaping the cold.  I hope this flavor becomes part of Pumphouse's "sorbet rotation".

OddFellows - Mandarin Jasmine Brulee

Mandarin Jasmine Brulee - Jasmine Tea Ice Cream with Mandarin Orange Marmalade Jam and Coconut Sugar Crunch

The next pint from my recent shipment from the Brooklyn-based OddFellows Ice Cream is called Mandarin Jasmine Brulee.  Another interesting blend of flavors!  Jasmine tea ice cream, a marmalade jam and a coconut sugar crunch.  Again, I was drawn  As usual with OddFellows, I'll add a note to local readers that I bought this online and it is not available in local grocery stores.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the ice cream has a yellowish color and I see lots of little yellowish-orange specks in it.  Digging in, I taste the orange right away.  The orange specks are chunks from the marmalade jam mix-in.  In the background, I do taste some tea flavor.  My palate is not refine enough to specifically recognize jasmine, but I do taste tea and the jasmine is likely adding to the overall flavor mix.  The coconut sugar crunch described on the carton blended in with the orange chunks in my pint.  Again, I did not specifically notice a coconut flavor but knowing that this is in there, I can see how it probably added chunky/crunchy texture to the marmalade.

Another fascinating and eclectic blend of flavors from OddFellows.  Not every listed flavor was specifically recognizable to me, but I don't doubt their contribution to the overall blend.  What I did taste was a sweet orange against a tea background which is quite delicious.  It is almost like an inverse Earl Grey flavor -- orange with a twist of tea instead of tea with a twist of orange.  If you have this flavor available to you and are curious, then check it out.

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.

 

 

Jeni's - Orange Freeze

Orange Freeze - Juicy Blood Orange, Tart Orange Juice and Coconut Cream

The next flavor from the Ice Cream Truck Collection from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream is called Orange Freeze.  I bought it online and I am not aware that it is available in local grocery stores.  This is a non-dairy flavor that uses a blend of blood orange and orange juice into a coconut cream.  This looks good.  I am curious as to how the orange will blend in with the coconut cream.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, the top of the pint shows a pale orange section and a white section.  it looks like there is both an orange section and a plain coconut cream section which are marbled together.  Digging in, the orange flavor is quite good.  Without reading the carton first, I would not have guessed that it was a blood orange/regular orange blend but it is a delicious orange flavor.  The balance between sweet and tart is well done.  The coconut cream only sections are also quite good and go surprisingly well with the orange.  I have written before how Jeni's has a good coconut cream.  The coconut flavor is fairly mild and stays in the background.  The orange flavor is the star here.

This is a very delicious non-dairy orange cream flavor from Jeni's.  It reminds me a lot of their Orange Blossom Chiffon flavor from last year -- both have a very appealing light orange flavor.  The key differences are that last year's flavor was dairy and homogenous, while this years flavor is non-dairy and marbled with plain coconut cream.

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Dreamsicle

Dreamsicle - Orange Creamsicle with Blueberry Swirl

 

I am really enjoying all the special monthly flavors from Milkjam Creamery of late.  Waiting for the June flavors to drop (which they did, see instagram link here -- reviews coming soon), I saw that they snuck in a special pints-only flavor release in between May and June.  The flavor is called Dreamsicle (instagram link here).  It has a orange creamsicle base with a blueberry swirl.  I had an orange cream base from Graeter's once (they put a picture of a creamsicle on the label).  It is a very appealing flavor.  It will be interesting to see this type of base with a swirl of blueberry.

Opening the pint, the swirl dominates the top of the pint.  I see a lot of the blueberry swirl.  It looks good.  The orange cream base has a very light color -- lighter than the Graeter's pint I linked to above.  Digging in, I taste the blueberry first.  It is quite delicious.  The orange flavor in the base is not as obvious at first -- it gets dominated by the blueberry a bit, but when I grab a spoonful which does not contain blueberry then I can definitely taste it.  It does remind me of the flavor of a creamsicle a bit.  A true 'creamsicle' implementation would have marbling of orange sorbet and vanilla ice cream, but this blended orange-vanilla flavor is still quite good.

This is a fun, interesting and unique blend of orange and blueberry from Milkjam Creamery.  I have not seen orange and blueberry together before, but I should not be too surprised that this worked out well because lemon and blueberry is a fairly standard pairing (see pints from Jeni's and Bebe Zito).  Those who like a good blueberry swirl should check this one out.

 

 

 

Milkjam Creamery - Tangible Dreams

Tangible Dreams - Orange Blossom Mascarpone

 

Today's flavor comes from the Milkjam Creamery in Minneapolis and is called Tangible Dreams.  There were pre-packed pints of it available in the freezer case at their scoop shop.  The flavor has been around for a while (instagram link from 2017 here) and it is an orange blossom mascarpone flavor.  I like orange and I like mascarpone, so this looks promising.  I tried to figure out what the name of the flavor meant, but I couldn't figure it out.  I like their cryptic (and often non-sequitur) flavor names, but this one went over my head.  OK, let's check it out.

Opening the pint, the ice cream has a bright white color.  A couple of air bubbles on top gives me the impression that it has a 'fluffy' texture.  Indeed, digging my spoon in, it does have a lighter and airier texture than usual.  I taste the orange in the ice cream right away and it is delicious.  It is not super-orangy, but a little bit of orange goes a long way and this is just enough.  The mascarpone in the base is excellent.  I am a big fan of mascarpone.  It does not have a strong flavor by itself (certainly not the aftertaste that some cream cheeses have) but there is something about mascarpone which I find very appealing.  It makes everything taste better.  Immersed in the ice cream are little pieces of orange -- perhaps orange zest -- these are likely part of the source of the orange flavoring.

This is an excellent pint from Milkjam.  I am a big fan of both ingredients (orange and mascarpone) and they got the balance between the two just right.  The flavor in my archive that this reminds me of the most is Jeni's Orange Blossom Chiffon from earlier this summer.  I may actually like this one a little better.  This Milkjam pint had a bit lower orange level -- this is a good cream with an orange accent -- while the Jeni's pint had more of a gourmet orange push-up feel.  This flavor might not be commonly stocked at Milkjam, but give it a sampling if you happen to see it show up in the scooping bin.

 

 

 

Jeni's - Wildberry Lavender

Wildberry Lavender - Black Currant Ice Cream flavored with Orange and Lavender

Today is the fifth and final pint from my recent online purchase of the State Fair Collection from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream of Columbus, Ohio.  The Minnesota State Fair was cancelled this year, so I thought it would be fun to order myself some fair-themed ice cream online.  A note to local readers that I am not aware that this flavor is available in local grocery stores.  Today's flavor is called Wildberry Lavender.  This is actually an older flavor -- the text on the side of the carton mentions that it has been made for over two decades -- but it is new to me.  It looks like a fruit blend flavor.  Blackcurrant is the main flavor, mixed with orange and lavender.  Blackcurrant is a common ingredient of Jeni's.  They feature it in their Brambleberry Crisp flavor as well as their rare, special-batch Claire's Cabinet flavor.  Those both involve a thick swirl of blackcurrant in a base ice cream.  Let's see how the fruit-blend nature of Wildberry Lavender compares.

Removing the lid and peeling back the protective seal, I find the base has an appropriately lavender color.  It is nice blackcurrant and lavender both have purplish colors.  Digging in, I taste the berry-like flavor of the blackcurrant first, then I can tell there is a bit of citrus flavor in the mix as well and the lavender shows up mainly as the 'finish'.  It's quite good.  I would say it is at least half berry, probably a little more, but it does not overpower the other two.  It's all blended together as a homogeneous pint with no mix-ins.

This is an excellent fruit blend pint from Jeni's.  It is very well balanced.  The blending of the blackcurrant, orange and lavender works well, but you can also clearly identify each of those ingredients as well if you want.  This is one of the better fruit blends that I've tried.  My other favorite is Cabernet de l'Orange from Izzy's which is a different mix, but just as good.  For Jeni's fans, you can't go wrong with the two blackcurrant themed pints.  Choose Brambleberry Crisp if you'd like a berry-pie-a-la-mode type of pint and choose Wildberry Lavender if you'd like a full blended pint.

Jeni's - Orange Blossom Chiffon

Orange Blossom Chiffon - Buttermilk Frozen Yogurt flavored with Orange and Tangerine 

Today is the second pint from my recent State Fair Collection shipment from the Ohio-based Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.  This flavor is called Orange Blossom Chiffon.  My own state fair has been cancelled due to the pandemic, so it is nice that I get state-fair-themed flavors delivered to my home instead.  A note to local readers that I ordered this online and I do not believe that this flavor is available in Minnesota grocery stores.  Like the previous flavor in the shipment, Watermelon Taffy, this flavor takes a bright fruity flavor associated with sorbets and sherbets and blends it into an ice cream with the help of buttermilk and yogurt.  Checking the ingredients, it looks like they neroli oil and tangerine oil to provide the orange flavor.  I double-checked the meeting of 'chiffon' and it's a light cake made with vegetable oil instead of butter or shortening where egg whites are beaten stiff to create the fluffiness of a sponge cake but with the richness of a butter cake.    So, I'm guessing this will be a lighter orange flavor?  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid and peeling back the label, the base ice cream is a lighter color orange than I expected.  It is really an off-white orange.  Digging in, the orange flavor is muted but quite delicious.  It tastes like a blend between the sherbet of an orange push-up and a sweet cream.  The 'chiffon' does mean that this is a lighter and airier flavor.  As with the previous watermelon flavor,  I do not specficially taste buttermilk and yogurt, but I imagine they are involved in balancing the orange oils to create something fruity and creamy at the same time.  Unlike the watermelon flavor, this is not a very tart pint.  This is sweet orange flavor.  There are no mix-ins.

I very much enjoyed this orange pint from Jeni's.  It's like a very light, airy version of an orange push-up.  It is solid and homogenous, not like the 'dreamsicle' sorbet-and-cream blends from local Pumphouse and Sweet Science brands.  The flavor in my archives it compares to the most is the Orange & Cream flavor from Graeter's.  I liked that flavor, but I like this Jeni's flavor a bit more.  If you are in the mood for a light orange ice cream, check out Orange Blossom Chiffon.

Milkjam Creamery - Proud

Proud - Rainbow Sherbet Comprised of Lime Leaf, Pineapple, Blackberry, Blueberry, Raspberry and Orange Sherbets

I made my first trek to Minneapolis scoop shops since the pandemic began last week.  Most of them are open now, and I had gotten to the point where I was comfortable popping in, grabbing a couple pints and popping back out.  On this trip, I went to Milkjam Creamery and Sebastian Joe's.  So I have a two pints of each to review in the near future.  The first pint from my trip is from Milkjam Creamery and is called Proud.  It is a rainbow sherbet made in honor of Pride month (June) and although I am writing this review up a bit later, I did manage to eat this on the last day of June.  The Milkjam does not put a lot of details on their website, but I find their instagram posts have decent descriptions of their flavors.  An informative post for Proud is here.  There, they describe all the different types of sherbets used to form the rainbow:  lime leaf, pineapple, blackberry, blueberry, raspberry and orange.  I have had rainbow sherbet once before from Baskin Robbins.  In that review, I also discuss what sherbet is -- it's partway between the dairy-rich ice cream and the dairy-free sorbet.  Let's see how today's pint compares.

Removing the lid, I see not a full rainbow, but a lot of dark pink and yellow.  Digging in, I taste the berry right away.  It was sort of a berry mix.  It was delicious, though.  Eating more, I taste the pineapple at times (a very distinctive flavor) and sometimes I tasted orange.  And although I did not catch any of it in the photos below, I sometimes had a small green section which had good lime flavor in it.  A little bit of lime goes a long way.  I did not notice distinct berry sections, so perhaps a berry blend was indeed used -- but it's possible they were all in there and they blended together in my mouth.

This is a very bright, fruity and enjoyable version of rainbow sherbet from Milkjam Creamery.  Visually, it does not have quite as many colored stripes in it as I would expect from all the ingredients listed on the instagram page but taste-wise, it was very delicious.  I did like this pint better than Baskin Robbins (which only contains three flavors) but you can't go wrong with either.  It looks like they've cycled the flavor back out now that Pride Month is over but I think a fruity sherbet like this would work well all summer long.  If you see the flavor cycled back in and are in the mood for a blast of fruit, check this one out.

Pumphouse - Orange + Tangerine Sorbet with Sweet Cream

Orange & Tangerine Sorbet with Sweet Cream - Sweet Cream with a Swirl of Orange and Tangerine Sorbet

The Pumphouse Creamery in South Minneapolis is the source for the next flavor:  Orange + Tangerine Sorbet with Sweet Cream.  Their flavor page says that it seasonal flavor designed to take advantage of the citrus season.  This appears to be another one of those 'dreamsicle'-based flavors.  I had a similar flavor last month from Sweet Science.  This flavor is a little different.  There is both orange and tangerine in the sorbet and the base is sweet cream instead of vanilla.  This is the second pint I have had with tangerine in it.  The first being one of the lesser-known but still-on-the-menu Häagen-Dazs flavors called Vanilla, Tangerine & Shortbread.  Citrus flavors in the winter are a fun antidote to the cold weather.

Opening the pint, the sweet cream base is a bright white color and there is quite a bit of the sorbet on the top.  The colors are so bright and the top of the pint is so smooth that I had trouble getting my camera to focus in the first picture.  I usually catch this, but oh well.  The subsequent photos are in focus as scooping leaves some texture on top for the camera to focus on.  Digging in, the sorbet is a bit icy in texture, but the flavor is really good.  The inclusion of tangerine in the mix makes the flavor much more interesting.  The sweet cream base is quite thick -- it took a little effort to get my spoon through it.  Perhaps I should have left the pint on the counter for a few minutes before digging in.  It was good, though.

I liked this pint.  The orange/tangerine sorbet has a very good flavor which went well with the sweet cream.  I liked this about as much as last month's Sweet Science flavor I mentioned above.  The sorbet here had a more interesting flavor because it included tangerine, but the texture here was a little icy.  Check this one out if you like the idea of a tangerine dreamsicle.

Sweet Science - Fresh Oranges & Cream

Fresh Oranges & Cream - Orange Sorbet swirled with Vanilla Ice Cream

Today's review is from the Saint Paul-based Sweet Science Ice Cream.  They release new flavors on the first Friday of every month.  The December flavors are the holiday flavors and they are the same as last year.  The holiday flavors are Gingerbread, Peppermint Bark, Strawberry Kolache and Opera Cake.  They are all pretty good (click the links for the reviews I wrote last year).  There is one new flavor in their regular (non-monthly-limited) line which is called Fresh Oranges and & Cream and I will review that here.  It looks like a variation on their late-winter seasonal Blood Orange Cream where regular oranges are used instead of blood oranges.  Using regular oranges and orange juice likely means they can keep in the rotation longer as blood oranges are much more seasonal.  The orange is made into a sorbet which is then swirled into a vanilla ice cream.  Let's check it out.

Opening the pint, I see a lot of the orange sorbet right away on top of the pint.  It is a much lighter color than the Blood Orange of course.  The color looks right, but it is remarkable how yellowish the orange of an orange is.  I have had their orange sorbet before (with a twist of mexican honey lager) and it is quite good.  It tastes like a good glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.  The vanilla ice cream blends with the sorbet quite well.  Often sorbets are good for a scoop or two, not for a full pint.  Here, it was quite easy for me to eat the entire pint.

This is an excellent implementation of an orange-and-vanilla ice cream.  The side of the pint says that the sorbet & vanilla combination is like an 'orange-sicle for adults'.  This is a much higher quality orange with a softer texture than the orange popsicles used in the orange-sicles that I grew up with to boot.  If you are in a citrus mood this winter, check this one out. 

Graeter's - Orange & Cream

Orange & Cream - Ice Cream flavored with Orange Puree

Today is the fourth pint from my six-pint shipment from Graeter's Ice Cream in Cincinnati.  This is a seasonal flavor called Orange & Cream.  Like the previous seasonal flavor, this flavor has it's own bright packaging -- which in this case is appropriately a bright orange.  The artwork on the carton displays a creamsicle -- a dessert-on-a-stick which is a orange popsicle on the outside with vanilla ice cream on the inside.  I have had flavors that reminded me of creamsicles before (from Häagen-Dazs and Sweet Science) but each of those have a bit of a twist (tangerine, blood orange).  This looks like a straight version and cream.  Let's check it out.

Removing the lid, I see a light orange color of the orange-flavored base.  This is a homogenous ice cream -- this is not a marbling of orange sherbet and vanilla ice cream which I remember from when I was a kid.  This is orange-flavored ice cream.  Digging in, it is a bright orange flavor -- it tastes a lot like an orange push-up that I used to get from an ice cream truck.  It is ice cream and not sherbet though.  It is cool and refreshing.

This is a very simple, yet very well done pint of orange ice cream.  It reminds me of the treats that I used to get from an ice cream truck as a kid, but in the form of a homogenous ice cream.  It is a great flavor for a hot summer day.