Izzy's - Black Licorice

Black Licorice - Black Licorice Ice Cream

Today's flavor is from Izzy's Ice Cream in Saint Paul.  This is their Black Licorice flavor.  I have not had licorice in ice cream before.  Licorice is an interesting flavor.  It comes from root of an Old World plant called Glycyrrhiza glabra.  The flavor of licorice is similar to the spices of anise, star anise and fennel (see label tags on the sidebar for ice creams that I have tried which include those ingredients), but the plant whose roots give us licorice is not at all botanically related to the plants which give us those spices, but they all contain a chemical called anethole which is responsible for the distinctive flavor.  You can read more about licorice and anethole in this interesting NPR article from ten years ago.  Licorice is one of my mother's favorite candies, so I plan on sharing this pint with her and getting her feedback to help me with this review.

Popping off the lid, the ice cream is brown!  It is not jet black like a piece of black licorice candy.  It is brown.  At first glance, it almost looks like chocolate.  Digging in, this is definitely black licorice!  It tastes exactly like it!  It's a rich, creamy base -- I get the impression that Izzy's has a high buttercream content -- but underneath all of the creamy texture, I would swear that I was tasting black licorice candy.  You can smell it as you are eating it and it has the exact same aftertaste.  I gave my mother a healthy serving and she loved it!  She's biased of course because she loves licorice, but it does say that she greatly approves of how the flavor was incorporated into the ice cream.

This is an extremely well-done implementation of a black licorice ice cream from Izzy's.  The color is not what you would expect but I guess that's what happens when you add milk and cream. It proves they did not try to use artificial flavors.  Now, I do understand that black licorice is not for everyone.  Some people love it and some people hate it.  But if you one of the people who love this flavor, you should try at least a scoop of it the next time that Izzy's has it available.

Jeni's - Milkiest Chocolate

Milkiest Chocolate - Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

Today is the fourth and final flavor from my recent shipment from Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream.  I did buy this online, but this is one of their more commonly available flavors.  I have seen this locally at Whole Foods.  This flavor is called Milkiest Chocolate which is their 'milk chocolate' flavor.  I am interested in contrasting this with their Darkest Chocolate flavor which I review just a couple of months ago.  Both are dairy flavors, so they both contain milk, but the 'Darkest' flavor packs in as much cocoa as possible while the 'Milkiest' flavor uses evaporated milk to enhance the dairy.  I am looking forward to comparing the two.

Removing the lid, I see the cool seal with the fun phrase.  Fun.  Peeling back the seal I see the chocolate base has the expected brown color.  It does not look noticeably different from most brands' regular chocolate -- when they said it was 'milkiest', I thought it could be a lighter color, like a chocolate-sweet cream blend or something.  Digging my spoon in, it has the "Jeni's texture" -- thick and dense with tapioca keeping it firm.  It is noticeably less chocolatey than the 'Darkest' flavor I had before, but the chocolate flavor is quite good.  Rather than tasting like chocolate milk, I thought it tasted like one of those German milk chocolate bars.

This is a good implementation of a chocolate ice cream from Jeni's.  I expect it is a popular flavor in scoop shops, but for a super-premium pint, I would prefer the Darkest Chocolate flavor.  That flavor was still dairy (not a sorbet) and not at all bitter -- it just had more chocolate.

Coolhaus - Queens' Coffee

Queen's Coffee - Coffee Ice Cream 

Well, here is an unexpected surprise!  A new flavor from Coolhaus which I stumbled upon at the Whole Foods on Lake & Excelsior in Minneapolis.  It is called Queens' Coffee and I had no idea it was coming.  Also, Whole Foods usually only carries Coolhaus sandwiches and not the pints.  It was only after I got the pint home and in my freezer that I started seeing tweets about the flavor.  I have checked their website again and a link has shown up.  It appears to be a simple coffee ice cream implementation.  The coffee comes from Allegro Coffee headquartered in the Denver area.  Specifically, it includes a coffee which Allegro calls their Three Queens Blend -- coffee from three farms  -- one in Rwanda, one in Malawi and one in the Democratic Republic of the Congo -- which promote gender equity.  Coolhaus itself is a women-founded and women-owned company, so this partnership makes sense.  Also, there was not previous a coffee flavor in Coolhaus' pint selection, so this pint fills a void in that respect as well.

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid, it looks like Coolhaus has switched from foil to plastic for their extra seal.  Compare the image below from today's pint with that from a previous review with the same message.  I understand the move away from foil, but I'm not sure about the color scheme.  It's just a cosmetic thing.  Peeling back the seal, the coffee base has the expected light brown color.  Digging in, the coffee flavor is quite good.  It has a lot of coffee flavor, but it is not too intense and not at all bitter.  The ice cream has the thick texture that I've come to expect from Coolhaus.  They originally designed their product for use in ice cream sandwiches so it appears to fold onto your spoon as you scoop it.  I shared some of this flavor with my coffee-loving friend and they approved.  It is a homogeneous pint with no mix-ins.

This is a solid implementation of a coffee ice cream from Coolhaus.  Nothing too fancy.  There are no mix-ins or swirls and it does not have a super-intense flavor to appease caffeine junkies.  I have trouble ranking coffee bases against each other, but this is certainly a good coffee ice cream.  I look forward to seeing if they work this flavor into future ice cream sandwich releases.  It would go really well with a chocolate cookie.

Milkjam Creamery - Desert Rose

Desert Rose - Almond Ice Cream Layered with Toasted Almond Pieces and a Persian Rose Cream  

Today we return to the Milkjam Creamery of South Minneapolis for a flavor called Desert Rose.  It looks like this was part of their "Silk Road" series from January, but I bought it more recently than that.  Sometimes they have pints from the previous month in the freezer case of the shop.  Milkjam is always notably terse with the flavor descriptions on their website flavor page, but I have found that their instagram account often includes more details.  The instagram post for this flavor is here and mentions that this is based on a Persian-style ice cream popular in Iran called "bastani".  It has an almond flavored base with almonds and rose water flavored cream.  I believe this is a dairy flavor -- the instagram page does not specifically mention that it is not.   Let's check it out!

Popping off the lid, the ice cream has a yellow color and there's a dark pink swirl.  It looks beautiful.  Digging in, the base ice cream is soft and smooth (I am pretty sure it does contain dairy).  There is an almond-like flavor to it, but it is not the strong marzepan-like flavor.  The swirl does have a mild rosewater flavor to it.  I have had rosewater in ice cream several times before -- the strongest one being a McConnell's pint.  It is a decent flavor -- not as strong as it's color would imply.  I did not see the almond pieces that were in the instagram post linked above, but the pink sections of this pint did get quite clumpy as I ate my way down.  One of the clumps was so large and thick that it took quite a bit of effort to cut with my spoon so that I could eat it.

This is an interesting and exotic flavor from Milkjam.  The almond and rose flavors were good and not too strong.  The clumpiness was a bit strange and a mild issue, but not a deal breaker.  This was a fun experimental flavor for me -- I got to learn what 'bastani' was.  It tasted alright, but I did not love it.  Perhaps this is a flavor which is best enjoyed in the scoop shop where you get a scoop at a time and the texture can be better controlled.  If this comes back, sample it before you order.

Jeni's - Skillet Cinnamon Roll

Skillet Cinnamon Roll - Dark Caramel, Cream Cheese, Pastry and Cinnamon (lots of it)

So, the third flavor in my recent shipment from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams is called Skillet Cinnamon Roll.  It is a new flavor this year from Jeni's.  It's rather convenient that they had two new flavors (this one and Pineapple Upside Down Cake) which I could pad my special order to get the super-limited Claire's Cabinet release.  This flavor is not available locally in Minnesota (to my knowledge).  Skillet Cinnamon Roll a flavor based on homemade cinnamon rolls which you can bake in a cast-iron skillet for which there are lots of recipes.  It's a pastry with lots of cinnamon, cream cheese frosting and a dark caramel.  This looks like a winning flavor combination.  The previous pints that this remind me of are the Cinnamon Buns flavor from Ben & Jerry's and the retired Cheese Crown flavor from Graeter's.  Also, there have been a handful of churros-based flavors.  The fried churro is quite different than the baked roll but when swirled into an ice cream you get a very similar flavor mix.

OK, on to the ice cream.  Removing the lid, I see a cool Lord of the Rings inspired message on the extra plastic seal ("One ice cream to rule them all").  I approve of these extra seals.  Peeling back this seal, I see the top of the pint.  There are a couple of small air voids (not too big, thankfully), the base ice cream is a bright white and some of the dark caramel swirls can be seen.  Digging in, the base ice cream has a very bright flavor -- sweet, but not too sweet.  I quickly encounter the caramel swirls.  This swirl is very thick and dark.  It has a rich brown sugar flavor with lots of cinnamon.  The front of the container boasts that there is "lots" of cinnamon and they are correct.  Dispersed throughout the base are more mix-ins.  There are quite a few pieces of cream cheese icing.  They are about the size of the pieces that flake off of a cinnamon roll and onto your plate while you are eating it.  Then every once in a while I encounter a small piece of pastry which adds a little chewiness into the mix.  It all goes very well together.  The dark caramel cinnamon swirl in particular is amazing.

I really enjoyed this excellent new flavor from Jeni's.  They seem to be on a roll of late (pun not originally intended, but I'll let it stand).  Great flavor combinations that are mixed very well -- blended enough so that you get most flavors in each spoonful, but not overly blended so that you can't pick out each flavor.  This is my new flavor cinnamon pastry flavor.  Check it out.

Pumphouse - Black Garlic

Black Garlic - Black Garlic-flavored Ice Cream

The Pumphouse Creamery in South Minneapolis is getting very creative this winter.  Yes, you are reading the blogpost title correctly:  Black Garlic ice cream.  Since I eat so many different kinds of ice creams, I do feel like I have to sample the weird and unusual ones.  This is indeed my first garlic ice cream.  Garlic is an Old World plant which is related to the onion, shallot and leek and is known for its pungent flavor.  Black Garlic is garlic which has been heated and aged so that undergoes the Maillard reaction giving it a more a more complex, but muted flavor.  If you have Facebook, the Pumphouse account does have a photo with the ice cream, some of the black garlic bulbs and a short blurb about the flavor.  (I hope I linked that correctly).

On to the ice cream!  Removing the lid, the base ice cream has light beige color -- perhaps a bit more taupe than the usual caramel color.  I can see a few black dots in the mix as well which may be ground up pieces of the black garlic.  I brace myself as I dig my spoon in, but upon tasting it's fairly mild.  I can tell that it is not vanilla, but it does not have a super strong flavor.  Only after swallowing do a notice the garlic flavoring.  Although I can see the black specks, they do not provide any textural or specific flavoring in themselves.  They remind me of the bean specks in a vanilla bean flavor.  Being in the mix provides flavor to the base but otherwise they just blend in.  Since the garlic flavor is not very intense, I have no problems eating the whole pint in one sitting.  Using black garlic instead of white garlic I think is the key here.  About a half hour after finishing, I did have a lingering taste in my mouth and

This is a very interesting and unique pint of ice cream.  I never would have guessed that garlic could be put into an ice cream.  On one hand, it is so carefully and tastefully done so as to make the ice cream palatable.  On the other hand, muting the flavor this much begs the question as to whether it brings me joy when I eat it.  So, yes I ate it, it was not that bad and I get to add a 'garlic' tag to the block of label tags on the right, but when would I eat this again.  Would a savory ice cream go with a savory pie (Shepherd's Pie?).  I don't know.  I do applaud the experimentation though.

Jeni's - Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Pineapple Upside Down Cake - Sweet-tart Pineapple with Golden Cake, Red Cherries, and a Caramel Swirl

Recently, I ordered a shipment from Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams because of their extremely limited batch flavor inspired by the Outlander television series called Claire's Cabinet.  One of the bonuses of making such an impulsive purchase is that I get to fill out the order with more pints from Jeni's!  Today's flavor is one of those pints.  It is new flavor this year called Pineapple Upside Down Cake and has an interesting combination of pineapple, cherry, cake and caramel.  A reminder to local readers that I bought this online and I do not believe that any local grocery stores are stocking this flavor.

An upside down cake is a fun cake where the toppings of the cake are added to the bottom of the cake pan before the batter and the whole thing is cooked together.  Then when the pan is flipped over to remove the cake, the cooked toppings are back on top.  Pineapple is the most popular topping for these types of cakes because rings of pineapple that you can buy in a can hold their shape when cooked.  There are lots of recipes online.  Jeni herself even has an instructional video from several years ago showing how to adapt a "Lady Cake" recipe from her own cookbook into a pineapple upside down cake.  And now we have an ice cream from her to try.  Yum!

(Edit: this month Jeni's has added a pineapple upside down cake recipe to their website blog)

Popping off the lid, I see an extra wrapper on top.  I think this is the new normal from Jeni's now.  I like it.  Peeling back the wrapper, I see a cream-colored base with a large dark caramel swirl meandering across the top of it.  Digging in, I taste the pineapple right away.  The pineapple flavor is good -- not too sweet and not too tart.  Checking the ingredient list, the base is a mixture of buttermilk frozen yogurt and ice cream.  I've never seen that before, but the results are good.  There are a few small pineapple pieces in the mix as well.  That's not all, though.  Occasionally, I find a small cherry piece.  The cherry flavor does not dominate any individual spoonful, but I can tell it is in there.  I find a cake piece from time to time.  The effect of the cake is only textural -- soft and chewy -- but it is still good.  Then, there is the dark caramel swirl which is simply delicious.  It has a bit more of a brown sugar flavor than the usual caramel.

This is an excellent new flavor from Jeni's.  Flavors with so many ingredients have the risk of being either overmixed where you can't perceive the individual flavors or they are undermixed where the flavors you feel like there are multiple scoops in the same carton.  This somehow has mastered the 'half-blend' where every spoonful contains all the flavors but you can still taste them all indivudually.  I really enjoyed this and it should be a hit with pineapple lovers.