Ice Cream Rankings

Having been banned (for spring training) from making my own ice cream for a while. I've been back at some of the shops around town. Tried Meyer Lemon and Coffee Porter at Bi-Rite. Meyer Lemon is a bit too mild and lacks the tang I like in Ici's version. I like my own Meyer Lemon Sherbet best. Coffee Porter was delicious, nice bitter beer tones with some rich coffee flavor.

At Humphry Slocombe had scoops of Kumquat Poppy Seed, Earl Grey, Guiness Ginger Bread, Blue Bottle Vietnamese Coffee, Bacon Pistachio, Secret Breakfast and Black Sesame. At Mission Street Food, I had a Green Tea Sesame. Out of these I liked BB Vietnamese Coffee and Guinness Ginger Bread. I loved Kumquat Poppy Seed and the Green Tea Sesame. I did not like the Bacon Pistachio or the Black Sesame I had at the shop. The sesame seeds were whole and not crushed or chopped at all which overwhelmed the taste of the ice cream. I have mixed feelings about this place, I think it's great that they are experimenting with flavors, but they shouldn't be experimenting on their customers. Some of the flavors, that I had small tastes of, proved to be better as concepts than as ice cream.

At Ici, had the Vanilla Cherry Almond and the Candied Kumquat. Both were excellent, loved the dried cherry tartness against the almond crunch. The Candied Kumquat was perfect. I think I'm developing something for kumquat ice creams, I've got to try making some. As I left Ici, I thought of how much admire the first person that solved the problem of ice cream dripping through the bottom of hand rolled cones. Put a dollop of dark chocolate at the bottom! Truly problem solving of the highest order.

Also made it to Sketch to try their soft serve style. Sesame and Earl Grey were both very good and deeply flavored and the soft serve style gives it a creamier mouth feel. At a dinner party, I happened upon Polly Ann's Lychee and Green Tea. The Green Tea had a good bitter tea flavor, though the consistency of the ice cream was more air fluffed and less creamy -- similar to Mitchell's style.

New Rankings:

Candied Kumquat - Ici
Kumquat Poppy Seed - Humphry Slocombe
BB Vietnamese Coffee - HS
Vanilla Cherry Almond - Ici
Salted Caramel (add toasted almonds) - Bi-Rite
Macapuno - Mitchell's
Coppa Mista - Gelato Classico
Sesame - Sketch
Cookies and Cream - Bi-Rite
Ube - Mitchell's
Green Tea Sesame - HS

Previous: Ice Cream Ranking in July 2007