Jeni's - Frosé

Frosé - Sangria-style Frozen Rosé with Pear, Strawberry, and Watermelon

Today we move on to the second pint of my six-pint Black Friday order from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams.  This is called Frosé.  It is a 'frozen rosé' or a sangria-style fruity sorbet.  Normally when I order pints for shipment, I focus on pints that I cannot find locally in Minnesota, but it is getting to the point in my survey of flavors that I need to include locally available flavors in my shipment in order to fill out a six-pint order.  I have seen this pint in Twin-Cities-area Whole Foods stores.  Let's check this out.

Removing the lid, I see a deep pink colored sorbet.  This is a very striking color!  A reminder to those who have not read all of my reviews that sorbets are dairy-free by definition and unless the flavors contain their own creaminess (like coconut, chocolate, peanut butter, bananas, etc) then a sorbet will have a frozen slushie type of texture.  That is definitely the case here, though this sorbet is churned quite well and is easy to run your spoon through.  The fruit-flavor blend is quite good here.  I taste the strawberry and watermelon right away.  I do not immediately taste the pear but I do recognize that this is a more complex fruit blend than just strawberry and watermelon.  That could also be from the rosé as well.  I should note that like a good Sangria, this is not at all boozy.  The link above confirms that this contains less than half a percent of alcohol.

I liked this flavor.  It is a cool and refreshing fruit-blend sorbet.  I can see why this is on their short list of flavors that is widely distributed nationwide by Whole Foods.  I do feel like I should be enjoying this in the summer rather than the winter, but sometimes an off-season flavor hits the spot.

McConnell's - Winter Pear Crisp

Winter Pear Crisp - D'Anjou Pear Ice Cream with D'Anjou Pear Pieces and an Oatmeal Crisp

Today is the third and final pint from McConnell's Ice Cream's "Winter Collection".  It is called Winter Pear Crisp.  This is only the second pint that I've had that has included pear -- and the first pint was a sorbet.  This almost appears to be another pie-a-la-mode ice cream (like the amazing pint I just had) in that it has a fruit mix-in and an oatmeal crisp, but I have never had a slice of pear pie.  Recipes for pear pie do exist though, and I do like pear.  So, I am quite curious to see how this turns out.

Removing the lid, I see the base ice cream is very light in color.  Some evidence of mix-ins can be seen under the surface.  Digging in, there is a bit of pear flavor in the base, but it is mainly sweet cream (or perhaps some vanilla, they don't list ingredients for all of the seasonal flavors).  I quickly encounter the mix-ins which I saw below the surface.  There are pear pieces and oatmeal crisp pieces.  They are both about the same size.  The pear chunks are quite substantial.  Often the pear was a bit frozen at first, but if I let it warm up in my mouth a bit before chewing, it was quite flavorful.  The oatmeal was quite good as well.  This pint does indeed have a pie-a-la-mode feel to it.

I liked this pint.  The occasionally frozen pear pieces kept me from liking it as much as the previous two pints, but it is still quite good and pear-themed pints are so rare.  I enjoyed this Winter Collection from McConnell's.  I liked the Blood Orange the best, then the Vanilla Grapefruit and then this Winter Pear Crisp pint.  It was fun to get some excellent and uncommon fruit-themed flavors in this coldest part of the winter.

Sweet Science - Pear Riesling

Pear Riesling - Pear Riesling Sorbet

I am still working my way through my stockpile of Sweet Science pints.  Today, I decided to try a sorbet: Pear Riesling.  I have never had a pint which included pear before!  Come to think of it, I have never had riesling before, either.   The pear is a fruit of the rose and is fairly closely related to the apple.  It is an Old World fruit which has been known since antiquity.  Riesling is a white grape variety from the Rhine region of Germany.  It is a popular flavor combination -- including a pint from Jeni's which is similar to this one.  I am quite curious to try this flavor.

Opening the pint, I can tell right away that is a fruit sorbet.  It has the look of a frozen applesauce.  I guess this is not surprising because apples and pears are related and have a similar texture.  Digging in, it has the texture of a churned sorbet (it scoops, but remains a bit slushy).  The pear flavor is there.  It is not just juice and ice either, some pulp is in there too.  It's how I imagine a pear version of applesauce would taste like (pear sauce?).  I am not entirely familiar with the taste of riesling, but there is a subtly sweet aftertaste which is not inconsistent with a white whine being in the mix.

This was certainly an interesting pint -- it is not often when all of the flavor labels that I tag a review with are being used for the first time.  I don't know if a pear sorbet is my thing, though.  I wanted to have only a single scoop instead of a full pint.  I had a similar reaction to an apple sorbet that I tried a while back so perhaps I am not the target audience for this.  I do not want to discourage you if you love pears and fruity sorbets, though.  If that's your thing, go ahead and track this down (or the Jeni's pint if you are not in the Twin Cities).