Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams: Whiskey & Pecans

Alright. I did it. I spent $9.99 on a pint of ice cream. My dearest reader you'd better appreciate this blog post.

However, this is not actually the first time I've bought Jeni's ice cream. A way long time ago when I was a freshman in college, in reality inexperienced in the ways of ice cream and still having an unsophisticated palate. My friend Jess and I bought a pint of Queen City Cayenne and Salty Caramel at North Market. Back in the day, aka 2011, the spicy chocolate and salted caramel crazes that have hit desserts in the last few years, hadn't hit yet. One might even say that Jeni's helped start those trends, or at least they were on the cutting edge of ice cream. When I tried those two flavors, I was in love. I really truly hadn't tasted anything like either of these flavors before. The Queen City Cayenne was so rich and chocolatey and really spicy, too, and the Salty Caramel was ssaaallllty. Jeni's really did impress me back then.

Now, I've been around the block a few times. I've travelled all over the country and tried flavors from olive oil to Thai iced tea to chocolate orange confetti. This time around, I'm gonna be a bit harder to please. My money concept is also considerably more solid and $9.99 per pint means a lot more.

The Dierberg's at the Lake only had two Jeni's flavors, Whiskey & Pecans and Dark Chocolate. I really only wanted to buy one pint, so I decided to go for something unlike anything Madeline or I have ever reviewed thus far. When I went to check out, I was carded, because this ice cream apparently has enough alcohol in it that you have to be 21 to buy it. That made me feel a little bit better about spending this much on one pint.

So now for the ice cream. The description on the pint reads "Middle West Spirit's OYO ("oh-WHY-oh") whiskey-fueled ice cream with notes of honey, vanilla, coconut, and cinnamon spiked with savory toasted and salted pecan halves." Here's what the Jeni's webiste has to say about the whiskey they use: "Our friends at Middle West Spirits in Columbus' Short North neighborhood distill small batches of OYO whiskey from 100% single-source, soft red Ohio winter wheat and barrel ages it to perfection in white American oak cooperage-and for good, classy measure-sealed with beeswax."

The whiskey flavor was really subtle, which at first disappointed me. However, I ended up really liking it because the subtlety of the whiskey flavor really let the pecans shine through. I really love pecans, and they have a flavor that is easily overshadowed. Could I taste the honey, vanilla, coconut and cinnamon? The vanilla, yes, the coconut, cinnamon, and honey, maybe. The pecans were also great. Just enough of them that this ice cream had a real chunky factor, but not so many that it was chunk overload. 

This ice cream is wayyy to classy to eat straight out of the container.

Now to talk about the best part of this ice cream: the texture. Wowow, the texture is what really knocks this one out of the park. There is very little air in this ice cream, but I wouldn't call it dense. But it wasn't too light either. It was just so perfectly smooth. It was so creamy and you could even taste the cream with the flavor, which was very nice. The texture of this ice cream definitely puts it in a league above anything else I have reviewed on this blog. The texture, the quality of the ingredients, and how amazing Jeni's is as a company makes this ice cream worth the price. 

Below I have a little bit about what Jeni's say about themselves and their ingredients that I love so much. At first just browsing their website, Jeni's seems nauseatingly hipster.  Like you can buy a Jeni's sport sweater.

I'm not gonna lie. I would wear this sweater if you bought it for me for Christmas. 

Please watch this ad for the sweater. It's terribly amazing.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10154927360205492&set=vb.53668535491&type=2&theater

However, the more I read, the more I learned that Jeni's really is committed to making great ice cream and a great world. They also have a cycling team. And they have cookbooks with recipes for their ice cream!!! Props guys, props.

Here's what they say about their milk:

We work in tandem with small Ohio family farms within 200 miles of our kitchen to create the delicious foundation of our ice creams. Our milk comes from cows who eat grass, which is more flavorful than conventional milk. Two are Berg Farms and Eichorn Dairy Farm in Richland County. The dairy cattle on both the Berg and Eichorn farms are milked twice a day and freely spend the balance of their waking hours grazing lush Northeast Ohio pastures. “They go out and graze whenever they want,” says Pete Berg. “And that’s almost all of the time.”

And their chocolate:

Bean-to-bar guru Shawn Askinosie supplies the cocoa and chocolate we use in Askinosie Dark Milk Chocolate. We love Shawn’s chocolate and we love the way he procures it. Shawn makes his own cocoa butter (using the fat in the cocoa liquor he also makes), and he shares the profits with the men and women who cultivate and harvest the beans.

And did you know they are a certified B corporation? Read more about Certified B Corporation status here!

We are a proud Certified B Corporation endorsed by the international nonprofit B Lab as a company that meets rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.

Chocolate sauce