Final week, when honored Ohio ice cream purveyor Graeter’s introduced that it will produce an ice cream impressed by Cincinnati’s beloved Skyline chili, I used to be admittedly a bit of repulsed. Regardless that I do know that Midwesterners steadily eat cinnamon rolls alongside their chili, this was a mix that took the meaty-savory-sweet pairing just a bit bit too far. Travis Kelce, boyfriend of Taylor Swift, Tremendous Bowl-bound Kansas Metropolis Chiefs tight finish, and an Ohio native, not too long ago agreed with my preliminary evaluation on his podcast, New Heights. After giving the ice cream a style, I can confidently verify that we had been each unsuitable.
Upon receiving the dry-ice-encased pint of Skyline ice cream, I steeled my abdomen on the considered attempting it. Thankfully, it shortly turned clear there isn’t any precise chili in Graeter’s chili-flavored ice cream — no chunks of meat or errant tomato — simply heat spices in a creamy vanilla base. Opened in Cincinnati in 1949 by Greek immigrants, Skyline is fairly secretive in regards to the spice mix utilized in its chili, which is distinctly totally different from the spicier, extra tomatoey Texas-style chili. Within the ice cream, I tasted allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon, possibly a bit of clove. That combo is, in fact, additionally extraordinarily in style in desserts and baked items, and it makes complete sense in a pint of ice cream.
However there’s one thing savory within the background of this mashup that I can’t fairly establish — it retains the ice cream from tasting an excessive amount of like eggnog or cinnamon rolls, and the impact is definitely fairly nice. The chile powder notes are extra refined; Graeter’s isn’t attempting to punch you within the face with the truth that it’s a chili flavored ice cream, it’s simply taking a bit of inspiration from an American icon. I additionally actually loved the entire oyster crackers, historically served alongside Skyline chili, which might be swirled all through the pint. The trace of saltiness from the crackers is definitely welcome, they usually in some way remained crispy regardless of being smothered in cream and frozen.
This ice cream succeeds the place different gimmicky ice lotions have failed, following within the footsteps of the gloriously tacky Van Leeuwen Kraft mac and cheese collab and avoiding the pitfalls of the garlicky, gritty every part bagel taste from Jeni’s Splendid Ice Lotions. There’s a way with numerous these “model collabs” that they’re simply advertising stunts, not precise merchandise people would wish to eat, however that’s not the case right here. I might genuinely see this pint being a dose of comforting nostalgia for a lifelong Cincinnatian, in addition to only a enjoyable solution to introduce a complete stranger to the magic of Skyline chili.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I would like the Skyline chili ice cream to interchange my go-to darkish chocolate or cookies and cream, nevertheless it’s objectively an amazing scoop, and I’m large enough to confess that I used to be completely unsuitable about it. Maybe if the Chiefs win their document third consecutive Tremendous Bowl, Travis Kelce, who as soon as performed for the College of Cincinnati Bearcats, will even be able to eat his phrases and have fun with a pleasant, cool bowl of Skyline chili ice cream.
If you wish to do the identical, you higher act shortly — it’s a limited-time providing, and a consultant for Graeter’s tells me that pints are flying off the cabinets, each on the creamery’s web site and in grocery shops in a handful of states, together with Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania.
