Last Wednesday Maplewood ice cream start-up One World Ice Cream founder Susan Spitz pitted four of her flavors against the well-regarded Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream.
Jeni’s is sold locally at Straub’s, and Local Harvest Cafe owner Maddie Earnest told Spitz if she could make ice cream as good as Jeni’s she’d have a good thing.
So last week Spitz hosted a blind tasting at Local Harvest—pitting four flavors that both One World and Jeni’s makes: vanilla, sweet corn, pistachio and chocolate.
About a dozen tasters sampled both brands from small cups labeled #1 and #2. Later they were told which was which.
One World eked out a win: 35 to 33; taking vanilla and pistachio.
One World vanilla has cardamom, and tasters noted its smooth texture. Jeni’s pistachio was made with ground roasted pistachios, and had a stronger flavor than One World’s, which has olive oil and honey added.
Jeni’s won sweet corn and chocolate. Jeni’s sweet corn was more subtle than One World’s, though Spitz said the sweet corn is one of her most popular. She said she changed her recipe to be more similar to Jeni’s for the tasting.
“The one we lost the worst was one of our most popular, but I had changed the recipe to make it similar to Jeni’s for this event,” Spitz said. “It was a sweet corn with black raspberry swirl. When they later tasted my actual recipe—sweet corn with sour cherry—I got such a positive reaction that I think it would’ve won.”
A taster remarked how quiet the room became when the tasters were carefully sampling small spoonfuls of almost equally delicious chocolate ice cream.
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