Jeni’s Right Bee Cider Sorbet Review

As the cider industry continues to blossom and develop, the introduction of other cider-related products some to fruition.  One of these is a hard cider sorbet by Jeni’s ice cream company.  Jeni’s is an ice cream company started by Jeni Britton Bauer, focusing on better ingredients, fewer stabilizers, and clean flavors. Jeni’s Ice Cream is known for its unique flavor profiles including Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk, Bangkok Peanut, Lemon & Blueberries Buttermilk, Wildberry Lavender, and more.

Jeni herself is a James Beard award-winning author of a few cookbooks, so she knows what she is doing when it comes to ice cream.  This sorbet was designed with Chicago’s Right Bee Cider in mind to create a unique craft sorbet.  Jeni has known the team from Right Bee Cider for some years and their dry-and-simple cider works as a great base for the sorbet.  They describe it as “round and refreshing. A bright blend of crisp Granny Smith apples with fermented, fizzy apples from Chicago’s Right Bee Cider.”  That is an intriguing description that led us to a few sample pints at the front door to review.

When we received the package, it was in a brightly-colored box filled with dry ice to keep it frozen for its trip to us.  Once you open it you see the clean design aesthetic of the pint, with apples and bottles scattered across the container.  After that, we took a look at the ingredient list to get an idea of what exactly is in the product.  As expected there was a simple list of ingredients: Granny Smith apples, cane sugar, water, tapioca syrup, hard cider, natural flavor,  and citric acid.  The natural next step was to crack it open and take a taste.

Upon opening the lid, you see a honey-colored sorbet that is icier than I would have expected.  There is not much of a scent coming off until you get close in.  It smells like fresh apple skin, sugar, and notes of honey.  Even with how icy it looks the spoon glides through easily on the scoop.  Admittedly, I just ate it out of the container because why not, right? To the taste, you catch the flavor of applesauce with a sweetness and honey accent.  The texture is smooth but you get a textural experience of the skin of the apples that are in the mixture when it slowly dissolves in your mouth.  The sorbet melts in your mouth easily and leaves you wanting another semi-tart bite.

Overall it is great, but it leaves me wanting more of a cider taste than an apple sauce flavoring. Nonetheless, this product is delicious and actually plays very well with a waffle cone, as one of us tried. We would recommend this for a hot summer day to leave you refreshed.

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