Clementine's Creamery: Olive Oil Lemon Verbena and Chocolate Peanut Butter Dreams
This past Saturday I was lucky enough to spend a lazy afternoon with my good friends Katy and Evan on a culinary adventure around St. Louis. After breakfast and coffee at Kaldi's, then a late lunch at Fork and Stix, we obviously decided it was time for ice cream. I had not yet had a chance to go to the actual Clementine's store front since it opened, and both Katy and Evan were up for trying something new.
The Lafayette square area of St. Louis is unfortunately an area I have not spent enough time exploring. There are lots of cool places like Park Avenue Coffee and Bailey's Chocolate Bar, and of course now Clementine's Creamery. Clementine's isn't on the main drag like Park Avenue and Bailey's, it is sort of down the way and around the corner, so you get to drive by all of the adorable houses in this area of the city as you go there.
Clementine's was adorable, as well. The interior was decorated with a black and white and chalkboard theme, and it was cozy. There wasn't much seating inside, which was fine because they had a nice patio outside. The coolest part about the patio was the grape vines and the mint plants. However, as the summer rolls on or as winter arrives and the weather isn't as pleasant as the day we ate there, I could see the lack of indoor seating becoming a problem. Hopefully they are able to expand and include some indoor seating sometime soon!
Now for the important part, the ice cream. I was immediately drawn to the Olive Oil Lemon Verbena Flavor. I couldn't tell you why, but when I saw it, I knew I had to have it. The description reads Fresh verveine leaves stewed and blended with extra-pure rich olive oil makes this creamy concoction heaven.
Yes indeed this creamy concoction was heaven. It reminded me of lemon cake or a lemon bar drizzled with olive oil because it was so sweet and creamy. The flavors were light, but the lemon heavier than the olive oil. Before writing up this post I did not know what verbena was, so I can't comment on the flavor of it in this ice cream. It is apparently used as tea and can have a lemony flavor, according to this tea website. I'll have to make some verveine tea and then go back and have more of this ice cream. Or I'll skip the tea nonsense and get more of this ice cream because it was super tasty.
I like to get one unique flavor, in this case the Olive Oil Lemon Verbena, and one more standard flavor when I visit an ice cream shop that does unique flavors. I decided on one of the most traditional of traditional flavors, Chocolate Peanut Butter Dreams. The description reads The classic combination recreated with our own dreamy peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. A creamier way to enjoy your chocolate peanut butter cup.
This flavor was way simpler and sweeter and creamier than I expected it to be. The chocolate ice cream was sweet, milky, and not too rich. The peanut butter was sweet and light. If it was in a swirl form, the swirl was thin and permeated the whole pint. No crazy dark chocolate, no crazy salty peanut butter. I believe we usually think you need to have a dark chocolate or a salty peanut butter to get sophistication out of a chocolate peanut butter flavor, but this flavor has proved that theory wrong. In it's simplicity and unadulterated state it reached sophistication because it wasn't trying to be anything other than exactly the perfection you wanted.
My one qualm? I wanted more! The scoops were small for the price paid. So make sure to savor every last bite.
The Lafayette square area of St. Louis is unfortunately an area I have not spent enough time exploring. There are lots of cool places like Park Avenue Coffee and Bailey's Chocolate Bar, and of course now Clementine's Creamery. Clementine's isn't on the main drag like Park Avenue and Bailey's, it is sort of down the way and around the corner, so you get to drive by all of the adorable houses in this area of the city as you go there.
Clementine's was adorable, as well. The interior was decorated with a black and white and chalkboard theme, and it was cozy. There wasn't much seating inside, which was fine because they had a nice patio outside. The coolest part about the patio was the grape vines and the mint plants. However, as the summer rolls on or as winter arrives and the weather isn't as pleasant as the day we ate there, I could see the lack of indoor seating becoming a problem. Hopefully they are able to expand and include some indoor seating sometime soon!
Now for the important part, the ice cream. I was immediately drawn to the Olive Oil Lemon Verbena Flavor. I couldn't tell you why, but when I saw it, I knew I had to have it. The description reads Fresh verveine leaves stewed and blended with extra-pure rich olive oil makes this creamy concoction heaven.
I was trying to take a picture of some green specs I saw, which I believe to be bits of verbena leaves!
Yes indeed this creamy concoction was heaven. It reminded me of lemon cake or a lemon bar drizzled with olive oil because it was so sweet and creamy. The flavors were light, but the lemon heavier than the olive oil. Before writing up this post I did not know what verbena was, so I can't comment on the flavor of it in this ice cream. It is apparently used as tea and can have a lemony flavor, according to this tea website. I'll have to make some verveine tea and then go back and have more of this ice cream. Or I'll skip the tea nonsense and get more of this ice cream because it was super tasty.
I like to get one unique flavor, in this case the Olive Oil Lemon Verbena, and one more standard flavor when I visit an ice cream shop that does unique flavors. I decided on one of the most traditional of traditional flavors, Chocolate Peanut Butter Dreams. The description reads The classic combination recreated with our own dreamy peanut butter and chocolate ice cream. A creamier way to enjoy your chocolate peanut butter cup.
This flavor was way simpler and sweeter and creamier than I expected it to be. The chocolate ice cream was sweet, milky, and not too rich. The peanut butter was sweet and light. If it was in a swirl form, the swirl was thin and permeated the whole pint. No crazy dark chocolate, no crazy salty peanut butter. I believe we usually think you need to have a dark chocolate or a salty peanut butter to get sophistication out of a chocolate peanut butter flavor, but this flavor has proved that theory wrong. In it's simplicity and unadulterated state it reached sophistication because it wasn't trying to be anything other than exactly the perfection you wanted.
My one qualm? I wanted more! The scoops were small for the price paid. So make sure to savor every last bite.
Comments
Post a Comment