Ices Plain and Fancy: Wasabi White Chocolate

This past weekend I headed to Ices Plain and Fancy with a few friends. They hadn't been and weren't really convinced it was as good as Brett and I were saying it was. Also they hadn't seen my video of the Campfire S'mores, so they didn't really know what they were talking about. I was hoping to get the apple crumble or apple pie or whatever it was Fancy Ice that I had seen on the menu when I got the Campfire S'mores because I was excited at the possibility that it could be as spectacular as the S'mores. Alas, it was not on the menu. At first I was bummed, but then I saw Candy Cane and Wasabi White Chocolate on the menu and my disappointment lifted.

They added lights to their mixers. Super fun!!

Brett, being a mint lover and not as adventurous as I am went for the Candy Cane and promised me a bite. I went confidently and ordered the Wasabi White Chocolate. I don't totally love wasabi, but after my skepticism was proven to be misplaced with IPF's Pink Pepper Pickled Ginger (I'm sensing a sushi theme?) I was pretty excited about the flavor.

Brett's Candy Cane. Again, IPF has such great presentation.

However, I am not the biggest sushi eater, seeing as I am a vegetarian. Before working on this blog post, I didn't really know what wasabi was. Obviously I knew it was that green spicy stuff you put on sushi, but like what it actually was? I had no idea. Well if you are like me and you didn't know, it is a plant, a member of the Brassicaceae family. Other members include cabbages, horseradish, and mustard. This is why the heat of wasabi is more like a hot mustard than a chili pepper. To make wasabi, you grind up the stem of that plant into a paste. Commonly in the United States, unless you are at a relatively high end restaurant or grocery store, when you have wasabi, you aren't actually eating the wasabi plant. You are probably eating imitation wasabi, made out of horseradish, mustard, starch, and green food coloring. This is because wasabi is relatively expensive and difficult to cultivate.

Now, I have no idea whether or not this ice cream was made with real wasabi. However, I do know that this ice cream had a quite strong wasabi flavor. The white chocolate was definitely secondary to the wasabi. It just sort of mellowed out the wasabi a touch. I don't know if I would have ever paired wasabi and white chocolate but they went surprisingly well together. If you are going to make ice cream with wasabi, I think wasabi white chocolate is the way to go. However, if I were to make this ice cream, I think I would make the wasabi way more of a mild flavor. You would really really really have to be a wasabi fan to love this ice cream. There were white chocolate chips on top of the ice cream and throughout it, which was nice. However, and this is really a minor point, I like white chocolate chunks way more than chips. Chips, I feel, can get gritty and stuck in your teeth which I don't think happens with chunks. Over all, this was a great unique flavor, with the classic IPF wow factor, but not the amazing execution of their pink pepper pickled ginger.

A vegan, soy base, mint chip a friend got!

The 4 Hands (a local brewery) Chocolate Milk Stout float with vanilla ice cream.