Ice Cream isn’t technically one of the major four food groups, but in my house it is rare that we don’t have some in the freezer. Therefore, it isn’t unusual for us to try new ice cream places whenever we are out on one of our adventures. March 19, 2016 was no exception. I have already expressed several times that our trip to Columbus was one of our perfect dates that my husband, Bobby, and I have had. That is partly due to the fact we visited Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream in the Short North area of Columbus.
Bobby struck up a conversation with Teagan, our very patient and knowledgeable, server. He was able to tell us about their ingredients, the process they used to extract flavor from the mint leaves, and a lot more. He said he knew so much because he liked reading about the company and he was dating someone who worked at Jeni’s, too. We tasted several ice creams before making our selection. I tried milkiest chocolate, salted peanut butter with chocolate flecks, darkest chocolate and green mint chip. Bobby tasted churro, bramble berry crisp, salty caramel and pralines and cream. We both got two half scoops in cups. I got green mint chip and darkest chocolate. Bobby got the bramble berry crisp and pralines and cream.
The ice cream was smooth and tasty. I will say that the darkest chocolate had a bit of a coffee taste, although at the time Bobby disagreed. Since I’m not a big coffee fan (honestly I can’t stand coffee) it was the one small downside of the ice cream. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed it, but next time I’ll probably get the milkiest chocolate instead. However, mixed with the green mint chip, it was perfect. Teagan agreed that the combination is a popular one.
Bobby surprised me when he got the bramble berry crisp. I was sure he’d select the salty caramel to go with his pralines and cream. That is more his type of thing. But he had so enjoyed his taste of the ice cream (it is Teagan’s favorite, too), he had to have more. In fact, he couldn’t wait until we went back. He decided to try his hand at duplicating Jeni’s ice cream at home. He made plans to make the ice cream for our Easter holiday. But Bobby, being Bobby, can’t stop at just one flavor. Nope, he made his own darkest chocolate (minus the coffee), a cannoli flavor and a bramble berry crisp. Bobby did it the old school way. He didn’t even use an ice cream freezer. Instead he made his ice creams and put them in the freezer. Every half hour or so he would pull them out and stir them by hand. (Actually, he let me stir the chocolate one.) The ice creams turned out great and were a big hit at Easter. I think he even took some into work.
Jeni’s ice cream, whether in their shops or homemade, really is a terrific ice cream. I would love it if they made a double chocolate chip ice cream (like Graeter’s does). But I have an in with the chef here at my house, maybe I can convince him of doing that in the near future for me!
We’ve been to a lot of ice cream places like Mitchell’s, Chill and Pav’s Creamery. What ice cream places would you suggest we try? Let me know in the comments below.
