Sebastian Joe's

As Madeline already mentioned, I am visiting her in Minneapolis. Obviously the first thing we did was go to an ice cream shop. Sebastian Joe's was just the perfect little neighborhood ice cream shop. It opens at 7am almost daily because it also serves coffee and coffee drinks, but this seems like the type of place that if you wanted a cone of ice cream with your morning coffee, you could do that. The people working were friendly, the atmosphere was relaxed, and on a slow day like the one we went I bet I could even park at one of their tables and read a book or do homework for a few hours.

I got two flavors, an inventive one and a classic. After long discussions with my friend Lizzie, I have decided something about ice cream shops that sell crazy flavors. These shops are all well and good, fabulous actually, as long as they have perfected some basic flavors. If you can't give me a delicious chocolatey creation I don't want your lemon-chili-basil-vanilla-tea flavor. It's perfectly reasonable that you may disagree with me, but I can be a bit of a five year old with my tastes and I like chocolatey chunky ice creams.

At Sebastian Joe's I tried their Ginger ice cream and their Raspberry Chocolate Chip. I always like ginger in foods, but I don't love candied ginger, so I was curious to see how I would like a ginger ice cream. And you can't go wrong with raspberry chocolate flavor...hopefully.

After one bite of the Raspberry Chocolate Chip, I give Sebastian Joe's my permission to make as many crazy flavors as they like. The raspberry ice cream had a strong, tangy raspberry flavor right at the very front of the flavor profile which transitioned nicely to the mellow chocolate chips at the end. This ice cream was bolder that most raspberry ice creams and really tasted like the fruit! Yum.

Also after one bite of the Ginger ice cream, I have become a huge ginger ice cream fan. The front of the flavor profile of this ice cream was creamy and mellow and picked up in spiciness at the end. Not the spiciest flavor, but I liked it that way. This flavor was making a strong claim to being a dessert flavor and not a crazy flavor. The chunks of ginger were little and sparse, which I like because, as I said, I don't love candied ginger. The little ginger chunks added the perfect amount of kick just when it was needed to make this ice cream a touch more exciting.

Sebastian Joe's, you have my seal approval! Because I'm sure you were looking for it.