After tasting the likes of Lemon Cookie and Chocolate Orange Confetti, I've kept my eyes open for some of the more interesting offerings from Three Twins. The last time I was at The Fresh Market I stumbled across the strange sounding flavor referred to as Dad’s Cardamom: an aromatic spice for an extraordinary taste sensation. Although the flavors from Three Twins featuring mix-ins tend to outperform their base only creations, this one sounded too mysterious to pass up. Since cardamom isn’t a spice normally found in frozen desserts, I surfed over to their website to educate myself on the inspiration behind this odd ice cream. According to founding twin Neal Gottlieb, “Cardamom is a taste unto itself, so I am always at a bit of a loss when asked to describe its flavor. It’s akin to describing the color blue or the scent of white truffles.”
Three Twins expands on this by adding, “cardamom tends to envelop you in its taste and unmistakable aroma – it’s an otherworldly taste experience," They also stay true to their simple, organic roots by saying this of what’s inside Dad’s Cardamom, “So, what's in it? Really, not much. We start with our base of milk, cream, sugar and eggs and then add our beloved Madagascar vanilla and a healthy dose of ground cardamom. And then we're done. Six ingredients. All delicious.” In addition, they've managed to restrict this cardamom-infused vanilla ice cream to only 180 calories per serving. After taking off the top, the first layer looks very similar to that of a vanilla bean ice cream with such a high concentration of cardamom flecks. Considering Three Twins mentions aromatics in the description, I took notice of the strong scent coming from inside this pint. Since cardamom doesn’t routinely make its way into my diet, it wasn’t a smell I was familiar with; but was interesting to say the least.
The spiced base scoops out rather easily as my spoon scraped across the first layer and fell in line with other sub-200 calorie, premium flavors as far as consistency is concerned. The fluffy cardamom ice cream starts out with the sweet flavoring of complex vanilla, but is soon overpowered by the unique herb on the backend. The result is a one a one of a kind taste that I’ve never experienced before and is expanded upon on the Three Twins website when they said, “This is a flavor that often pleasantly surprises folks, whether they’re trying it for the first or third or 93rd time. And, this is one of the flavors that folks most often sing the praises of on Facebook and in the Twittersphere.” Dad’s Cardamom came off overwhelming at first, but was able to win me over by the pint’s completion. If you’re looking for a truly riveting ice cream experience, this definitely fits the bill.
Where I Found It: The Fresh Market
Grade: B
