Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams: Dark Chocolate
So it is kind of disappointing that Dierberg's only carries 2 flavors of Jeni's ice cream and that Dierberg's is the only grocery store around me that carries Jeni's. However, I really like making lists and crossing things off lists and crossing all of the things off a list. I like this so much so that sometimes I put things on lists that I've already done just so I can cross them off. So much satisfaction. So the task of trying all the Jeni's ice cream flavors available to me was a great one to take on! And look at that, I'm already finished. :)
On the pint, this ice cream is described as Mouth-filling, palate-gripping, intense chocolate flavor with a fudge-like texture. Pleasingly dry finish.
Longer descriptions on the website read: Mouth-filling and palate-gripping with a pleasingly dry finish. The most amount of bittersweet chocolate and Direct- and Fair-Trade-Certified cocoa and the least amount of anything else. Like the inside of a super-rich chocolate truffle.
and the flavor story
There's chocolate ice cream - and then there's chocolate ice cream packed with as much chocolate as you can possibly pack into chocolate ice cream.
Customer's always say Signature Flavor Dark Chocolate ice cream - bittersweet, rich, super-dense, and slightly chewy - tastes a lot like the inside of a truffle. They are completely right. This is the darkest, most chocolatey Dark Chocolate ice cream you will ever taste.
All I want to say about the description is lay off the hyphens plz? Kthnx.
I definitely felt that all of these statements were true about this ice cream. However, what bothered me about this is that I don't really know if I feel that I would describe dark chocolate as "palate-gripping" or as having a "pleasingly dry finish." Really, really dark chocolate, like 88% cocoa, has a dry finish, but it still has some inherent creaminess because it is a bar of chocolate. Obviously this ice cream had creaminess because it is ice cream, but it definitely had a dry finish that I don't typically associate with dark chocolate. What I do associate it with is cocoa powder. So cocoa solids (aka cocoa powder) is what is left after you take cocoa butter out of cacao beans. Cocoa butter is the fat of the cacao bean. So cocoa butter + cocoa solids = chocolate. Sort of. A standard bar of dark chocolate (I'm using Dove as a reference because I bet most of us have tried it and I was easily able to find their ingredients online) doesn't so much use one or the other but both. So maybe it is this smaller ratio of cocoa butter to cocoa solids that I am tasting with this palate-grippingness and dry finish, that I don't normally associate with dark chocolate.
However, this ice cream was rich and it was dark and I did like it. It also was so intense a flavor that it definitely stands on it's own without mix-ins or swirls and you don't need to add any toppings either. You could, and I did (I made a chocolate strawberry sundae with it), but I definitely recommend eating at least a portion of this pint on it's own. I haven't tasted any other ice cream that has created such a dark, intense chocolate flavor. I am really just nitpicking with my cocoa powder versus dark chocolate that I taste, but I would really like to try and dark chocolate ice cream that just reminds me of dark chocolate, and not of cocoa powder.
Lastly, the texture of this is pretty standard Jeni's. I would definitely describe it as fudge, and before I ever read Jeni's describe their ice cream and chewy, I noticed that distinct feature of their ice cream.
Which leads us into another wormhole of ingredients talk.
Not too long ago, someone commented on my post about Jeni's Whiskey & Pecan and basically trashed Jeni's. One thing they mentioned was Jeni's use of tapioca starch. And as you can see, yes they do use tapioca starch in their ice cream. But what is tapioca starch and why does it matter? Thanks to a wonderful blog, Ice Cream Geek, I have some answers for you. So tapioca starch is a stabilizer, just like things like guar gum, locust bean gum, xantham gum, etc. Ice Cream Geek tells us that stabilizers do two things in ice cream: "[reduce] iciness, and [extend] shelf life." When you take ice cream in and out and in and out of the freezer, the melting and refreezing process causes ice crystals to form, which no one likes. Stabilizers help prevent this by slowing down the melting process. So Ice Cream Geek's take on stabilizers is somewhere between neutral and positive while our commenter friend and some proponents of health foods and the like definitely have negative opinions of them.
How do I feel about them? I'm not entirely sure. Jeni's definitely has a unique, chewy, sticky texture and tapioca starch probably contributes to that texture. I kind of like Jeni's texture, mostly because it is so unique. However, I would probably have to eat more Jeni's ice cream to really have an opinion about the texture as well.
All in all, if you want really dark, cocoa powdery ice cream, and don't mind spending a pretty penny, this is the ice cream for you.
Chocolate sauces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_solids
https://jenis.com/flavors/ice-creams/dark-chocolate/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_liquor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter
http://www.dovechocolate.com/nutrition
http://www.icecreamgeek.com/?p=664
On the pint, this ice cream is described as Mouth-filling, palate-gripping, intense chocolate flavor with a fudge-like texture. Pleasingly dry finish.
Longer descriptions on the website read: Mouth-filling and palate-gripping with a pleasingly dry finish. The most amount of bittersweet chocolate and Direct- and Fair-Trade-Certified cocoa and the least amount of anything else. Like the inside of a super-rich chocolate truffle.
and the flavor story
There's chocolate ice cream - and then there's chocolate ice cream packed with as much chocolate as you can possibly pack into chocolate ice cream.
Customer's always say Signature Flavor Dark Chocolate ice cream - bittersweet, rich, super-dense, and slightly chewy - tastes a lot like the inside of a truffle. They are completely right. This is the darkest, most chocolatey Dark Chocolate ice cream you will ever taste.
All I want to say about the description is lay off the hyphens plz? Kthnx.
I definitely felt that all of these statements were true about this ice cream. However, what bothered me about this is that I don't really know if I feel that I would describe dark chocolate as "palate-gripping" or as having a "pleasingly dry finish." Really, really dark chocolate, like 88% cocoa, has a dry finish, but it still has some inherent creaminess because it is a bar of chocolate. Obviously this ice cream had creaminess because it is ice cream, but it definitely had a dry finish that I don't typically associate with dark chocolate. What I do associate it with is cocoa powder. So cocoa solids (aka cocoa powder) is what is left after you take cocoa butter out of cacao beans. Cocoa butter is the fat of the cacao bean. So cocoa butter + cocoa solids = chocolate. Sort of. A standard bar of dark chocolate (I'm using Dove as a reference because I bet most of us have tried it and I was easily able to find their ingredients online) doesn't so much use one or the other but both. So maybe it is this smaller ratio of cocoa butter to cocoa solids that I am tasting with this palate-grippingness and dry finish, that I don't normally associate with dark chocolate.
However, this ice cream was rich and it was dark and I did like it. It also was so intense a flavor that it definitely stands on it's own without mix-ins or swirls and you don't need to add any toppings either. You could, and I did (I made a chocolate strawberry sundae with it), but I definitely recommend eating at least a portion of this pint on it's own. I haven't tasted any other ice cream that has created such a dark, intense chocolate flavor. I am really just nitpicking with my cocoa powder versus dark chocolate that I taste, but I would really like to try and dark chocolate ice cream that just reminds me of dark chocolate, and not of cocoa powder.
Lastly, the texture of this is pretty standard Jeni's. I would definitely describe it as fudge, and before I ever read Jeni's describe their ice cream and chewy, I noticed that distinct feature of their ice cream.
Which leads us into another wormhole of ingredients talk.
Not too long ago, someone commented on my post about Jeni's Whiskey & Pecan and basically trashed Jeni's. One thing they mentioned was Jeni's use of tapioca starch. And as you can see, yes they do use tapioca starch in their ice cream. But what is tapioca starch and why does it matter? Thanks to a wonderful blog, Ice Cream Geek, I have some answers for you. So tapioca starch is a stabilizer, just like things like guar gum, locust bean gum, xantham gum, etc. Ice Cream Geek tells us that stabilizers do two things in ice cream: "[reduce] iciness, and [extend] shelf life." When you take ice cream in and out and in and out of the freezer, the melting and refreezing process causes ice crystals to form, which no one likes. Stabilizers help prevent this by slowing down the melting process. So Ice Cream Geek's take on stabilizers is somewhere between neutral and positive while our commenter friend and some proponents of health foods and the like definitely have negative opinions of them.
How do I feel about them? I'm not entirely sure. Jeni's definitely has a unique, chewy, sticky texture and tapioca starch probably contributes to that texture. I kind of like Jeni's texture, mostly because it is so unique. However, I would probably have to eat more Jeni's ice cream to really have an opinion about the texture as well.
All in all, if you want really dark, cocoa powdery ice cream, and don't mind spending a pretty penny, this is the ice cream for you.
Chocolate sauces: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_solids
https://jenis.com/flavors/ice-creams/dark-chocolate/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chocolate_liquor
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocoa_butter
http://www.dovechocolate.com/nutrition
http://www.icecreamgeek.com/?p=664
Jeni's is the best! Straubs actually sells a lot of different flavors! Also there's going to be a scoop shop opening in the CWE hopefully within a month!
ReplyDeleteDani, I did not know that Straub's carried a lot of Jeni's flavors. I will definitely have to go there sometime when I am in St. Louis. Thanks for the tip! And I am very excited for the Jeni's scoop shop! :)
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