Jeni's Black Ice Cream Is Unlike Any Other Flavor on the Market

Everyone has a favorite ice cream. Mine as a child was cookies and cream, which took my very favorite cookie—the Oreo—and turned it into a decadent dessert. I’ve always preferred ice creams with mix-ins, and tend to gravitate towards two flavors: Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food and Tillamook’s Campfire S’mores. All the little goodies mixed in just make this type of ice cream feel like, well, more of a treat.

So when I saw that Jeni’s Ice Cream was releasing a new flavor called “Opaque,” I was intrigued. Jeni’s has a reputation for quality ice creams with interesting and elevated flavor profiles. But this new flavor? They kept us totally in the dark—literally—about what to expect. I got a hold of the mysterious Jeni’s black ice cream to try it for myself.

We Tried It

Jeni's Opaque Ice Cream

What is the Jeni’s black ice cream?

Opaque is a collab between Jeni’s and artist Cj Hendry. According to Jeni’s website, the brand reached out to the Brooklyn-based artist to see if she wanted to collaborate on a new flavor. Cj Hendry had one requirement: make it black. Pitch black and opaque, like no other ice cream on the market. The rest is history!

When news of the collab first dropped, the flavor of the black ice cream remained a total secret. What could it possibly be? Now that it’s available to shop on-site, we have a list of the flavors: Black cocoa, espresso fudge and balsamic cherry. I have to say, when I read that description I got pretty nervous. Sure, the chocolate and cherry made sense, but where the heck did balsamic fit into this equation? Ever dedicated to my craft, I scooped myself a bowl.

How did the Jeni’s black ice cream taste?

I Tried The New Jeni's Ice Cream Opaque Flavor — HAYLEY SCHUENEMAN FOR TASTE OF HOME

Firstly, the ice cream really isn’t black. It’s a very, very dark brown. I like to joke that my eyes are so dark brown they’re basically black, so you can’t really see my pupils. That’s immediately what I thought of when I opened this pint of ice cream. When I gave it a sniff, I just smelled chocolate. I immediately felt like this was going to be a boring bowl of weird chocolate ice cream with some tangy hit of balsamic.

Then I ate a spoonful. And another. I was immediately blown away by the depth of flavor in this ice cream. It was definitely chocolate, but somehow more concentrated. It reminded me of fudgy brownie batter, but somehow richer. I kept eating it, enjoying how smooth and intense the flavor was with each spoonful. The consistency was creamy, the flavor indulgent.

I didn’t necessarily taste any balsamic or cherry, but there is a brightness here. The perfect amount of acid to cut through the dense cocoa of it all. I thought about how this was a collaboration with a visual artist, and started thinking about my bowl of ice cream as an art installation. It demanded that I pay attention to it, because it was unique and shocking, but also familiar. I don’t know that I’ve ever described an ice cream as “unapologetic” before, but Opaque fits that bill.

Final Thoughts

This is quite possibly the best ice cream I’ve ever eaten—and I eat a lot of ice cream. I felt transfixed by my bowl of Opaque, and I felt bad for turning my nose up at it’s simplicity when I first took the lid off the pint. Even the name Opaque is a genius way to describe this flavor. If we think about the definition of the word, it can mean “not transparent” or “not see-through.” But it can also mean something that is difficult to understand, or a concept that is hard to grasp. This is an ice cream that almost defies explanation—it has to be tasted to be believed.

Author

Hayley Schueneman

Hayley Schueneman (she/her) is an editor and writer for Taste of Home. She's loved all things food for as long as she can remember. Hayley has worked in media, marketing, food service and as a supervisor at Whole Foods, where a customer once threw a bag of quinoa at her head. (Don't worry, she still loves quinoa.) Her areas of expertise include veg...