Contents
Brand
Flavor
Rating
6 of 10
Review
Sweet Cream Ice Cream: A sweet, creamy, custardy base. A classic blank canvas to build a pint upon.
Bourbon Cherry Swirl: A very subtle bourbon note in the cherry swirl. After the second taste, I couldn’t really detect it any longer. Those averse to alcohol flavors in their ice cream have nothing to fear. It’s not strong, and the flavor tamps down quickly.
The swirl is a cherry compote—think cherry jam. It’s swirled throughout and easily overwhelms the sweet cream base flavor.
The big problem with the swirl is that it is somewhat icy, specifically little ice crystals running throughout the swirl. I could even detect the iciness when scooping the pint. I don’t know if this is a manufacturing or transportation issue. But fruit-based ice creams are prone to these issues because fruits naturally contain water. The ice crystals were frequent enough throughout to affect my enjoyment of the pint.
The pint notes that the cherry swirl is a compote. Making a compote involves heating and sugaring the cherries, and typically that would resolve the issue—reducing and binding the water content of the cherries so they can be frozen without creating ice crystals. The inclusion of bourbon in the compote, another sugar to bind to water, would also typically help reduce or eliminate ice crystals in the swirl. So the ice in the swirl is likely a manufacturing issue.
Black Cherries Chunks: It seems like the cherry chunks were just part of the cherry swirl. To me they tasted almost like maraschino cherries—pleasantly sweet. The cherry chunks were pretty small, perhaps 1/6 of a cherry or smaller. Also, there weren’t many of them, as you can see from the cross-section pictures. Including more cherry chunks would help improve this pint.
Overall: Van Leeuwen’s Bourbon Cherry Jubilee is a pleasant ice cream plagued by ice crystals in the cherry compote swirl. The sweet cream base is good quality—rich and creamy—the quality I’ve come to expect from VL. The bourbon flavor in the cherry compote is subtle, vanishing into the background after a few bites—always a concern for those like myself who don’t really appreciate alcohol flavors in ice cream.
But I couldn’t get past the amount of iciness in the cherry swirl to really enjoy this pint. The ice was everywhere in the cherry swirl, throughout the pint. The cherry chunks weren’t icy, however, but there weren’t that many of them either, as you can see from the cross-section pictures. This would make a nice refreshing pint on a hot summer day if the ice is removed from the swirl. 6/10.
Home Delivery
Nationwide Shipping of Van Leeuwen Ice Cream
Front Blurb
Bourbon Cherries Jubilee
French Ice Cream
Back Blurb
Ever since 2008, when Van Leeuwen was born out of a yellow truck on the streets of NYC, we’ve been making good ice cream from good ingredients that makes you feel good.
After all, happiness is healthiness.
And nothing makes us happier than this Bourbon Cherries Jubilee Ice Cream. Not a flame went near this sweet cream ice cream but we did blend in swirls of bourbon cherry compote so this flavor is still lit.
Calories
- 2.5 servings per container
- Serving size: 2/3 cup
- Calories per serving: 280
- Calories per container: 700
Ingredients
Cream, Milk, Cane Sugar, Egg Yolks, Cherries, Tapioca Syrup, Oranges, Lemons, Vanilla Extract (Grain Alcohol, Vanilla Bean), Salt, Bourbon, Vanilla Bean, Tapioca Starch, Cinnamon, Carob
Contains: Milk, Eggs
Purchase Location
Walmart
Price
$4.98
Books
Need to know how Van Leeuwen does it? Get Van Leeuwen’s cookbook: Van Leeuwen Artisan Ice Cream
Related
Psst! You can make ice cream like Van Leeuwen at home. Here’s Van Leeuwen’s secret ice cream base recipe! (Spoiler: their secret ingredient is 8 egg yolks!)
Read all our Van Leeuwen pint reviews.
Read all our other pint reviews.
Last Updated on August 29, 2022 by Ice Cream Admin
