Sugar Savvy

I have long maintained that ice cream knows no season. Alicia, in her recent review of Ben and Jerry’s new items, agrees. If you can drink an ice-cold soda or beer year-round, why should ice cream be relegated to the sunnier months? (Alleged) Fact: Portland, Oregon leads the country in ice cream consumption per-capita. Fact: It is very rainy and grey in Portland for much of the year and also sunny and mild for (not quite as) much of the year. Conclusion: ice cream is delicious any day of the week, any month of the year.

However, I do realize that springtime is when most people veer their focus towards this sweet, frozen confection. With that said, let me tell you about a new one that caught my eye at the market just the other day:

The Greek Gods Baklava Pagoto

Pagoto, FYI, means ice cream in Greek. And baklava, as I’m guessing most of you know, means layers of delicious, buttery, honey-sweet, flakey nuttiness.

I suppose what I was expecting was a vanilla or honey-vanilla ice cream studded with chunks of actual baklava, in the spirit of a brownie or cookie-laced ice cream. Instead, this is an ice cream seasoned and flavored in the spirit of baklava, without containing any actual bits of the pastry. I’m not saying that this is a bad thing; only that it was, well…unexpected. Specifically, according to the company’s website, it is a:
“Honey-cream base with a mixture of walnuts, almonds and cinnamon, to recreate the flavors found in Greek baklava.”

In other words, there is not a trace of phyllo dough in the mix.  The ice cream features, rather, a re-creation of baklavian flavors.

I picked-up a pint on a recent evening when I was hosting a small, impromptu cocktail party at my house. Luckily (and probably not coincidentally) my buddies love sugar almost as much as I do;  all were more than game for a blind taste-test. I wanted to see if anyone could identify the ice cream as being specifically “baklava-flavored”, and, as I suspected, they could not. As the towel-wrapped pint passed hands, guesses ranged from apple pie and pumpkin pie to tiramisu. By the time the container was empty, not onehem of t was able to put their finger on the flavor.  But, let it be noted, the pint was, indeed, quickly emptied. My guests tasted and re-tasted…and although the ice cream’s identity remained elusive, each bite was consumed with gusto.

In sum, this is some good, creamy, high-quality and delicious stuff.

Other all-natural, preservative-free pagoto flavors offered by Greek Gods include Chocolate Fig and Honey Pomegranate. Drop me a comment if you’ve tried either of these and let me know what you thought.

Apx. $3.99/pint. Check store locator to track down a pint near you.