This composite review summarizes my thoughts on a few flavors already covered on ICI. My expertly packed shipment from Greenfield Ice Cream Company (est. 2011) arrived frozen solid, awash with a wide variety of flavors. The flavors we reached for first have already been covered on this site. We wanted to weigh in, too.
The
Decadent Chocolate Sorbet is something special. The depth of flavor is excellent. I'd love to see them try some other non-traditional sorbets, like a peanut butter sorbet.
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| Greenfield Decadent Chocolate Sorbet |
For their ice creams, Greenfield steeps the ingredients in their custard base. This results in a deep, full-flavored taste without exception for both flavors :
Vanilla Honey Crumble &
Sticky Pecan. Inclusions and variegates are also nicely flavored, and balance well with the ice cream with regard to flavor. However, achieving an excellent balance of flavor and texture is extremely challenging, especially without stabilizers or thickeners.
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| Greenfield Vanilla Honey Crumble |
The
Vanilla Honey Crumble melted down into a puddle almost immediately. The moisture penetrated the crumble, creating a slightly soggy texture. While the vanilla flavor was lovely, pronounced and accentuated by the sweetness of the honey and sugar, the ice cream itself was flat.
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| Greenfield Sticky Pecan |
The
Sticky Pecan flavor was also nicely seasoned. The pecans themselves were very sweet; nicely sugared and spiced. The ice cream here was noticeably higher overrun; a casualty of batch mixing. I'd take a bite and the ice cream would disappear on my tongue like cotton candy, revealing the air mixed into the base in the batch freezing process.
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| Greenfield Sticky Pecan |
From Greenfield : "
We cook our custard from scratch and hand churn to keep the quality the highest possible as you would make it in your own kitchen. We then hand number each pint in batches which are no bigger than 3 gallons." While that sounds like a plus, the downside is that consistency is better achieved on a larger scale. Batch freezers are great for producing ice cream quickly for a dinner party or in a restaurant setting, but they beat up the ice cream and force a lot of air into it creating an inconsistent and higher overrun product. Producing a consistently balanced product using a batch freezer to make small batches is extremely challenging. To compete successfully with heavyweight artisan producers means firing on all cylinders and consistently producing a complete product that is balanced in terms of flavor and texture.
Where Elliot Found Them: GreenfieldIceCream.comElliot's Grade: B for all
