One of the best parts of my role at Jeni’s is that I get to help name our flavors and write pint descriptions (in collaboration with an amazing team of designers). Here’s a quick look at a few recent pint designs and the accompanying romance copy.
Buttercream Birthday Cake
Buttercream frosting, golden cake, and a rainbow of sprinkles.
Let’s rewind to the era of real buttercream worthy of a once-a-year celebration. Spongy, pale yellow cake. Bouffant-high buttercream frosting. Blue and pink rosettes all over. It’s time these perfect, pastel-hued, tiered confections of the ’40s and ’50s stop living in our imaginations and cartoons. This is what a birthday cake should taste like. Don’t call it a comeback. Call it a return to glory.
Everything Bagel
Cream cheese ice cream with everything bagel gravel.
There are rare moments when we create a flavor so shockingly good the Jeni’s test kitchen looks like a soundless rave. We can’t help but dance. Shimmy. Feel the flavor in our bones. This is one of those ice creams. A soul-shaking, dancing-with-no-music kind of delicious. Buttery streusel laden with sesame, poppy seeds—and yes, onions and garlic—schmeared throughout subtly sweet cream cheese ice cream. Give yourself room to enjoy this one.
Pluto Bleu
Electric orange with a bolt of blue. A collaboration with Tyler, The Creator.
Earthly words fall short of its true essence. This flavor is more of a feeling. So tart it’s electric. So lush it defies gravity. The closer you get, the more the flavor radiates. Like the aftershock of some distant sonic vibration.
Cognac with Gingerbread
Swanky cognac cream, dark caramel sauce, and spiced gingerbread cake.
The camel cashmere turtleneck, double-pleated trouser, and plaid blazer of ice cream. Cozy and captivating. The butterscotch and brown sugar notes of a complex French brandy roll out of the cream one by one. Then the molasses-infused, incredibly gingery cake. Then the nutty, deep amber caramel sauce. Pair with a blazing fire on a cold winter’s night.
Watermelon Taffy
Like an uber creamy, tart candied watermelon.
Meant to taste like a watermelon sour candy, this one’s for tart people. It’s got perfect, puckery fruit flavor from a little watermelon and plenty of citric acid, just like the candy. And a bouncy character from cultured buttermilk and fresh yogurt (made for us by a fifth-generation Ohio dairy), which thickens the cream and makes something that is both ethereally light and extraordinarily creamy. Best enjoyed with a few flakes of pink sea salt or under a crisp bubbly soda.