Verdict on the Coffee Ice Cream

As has been the case with all the Ninja Creami results, the texture has been perfect. I had to do the re-spin in order to change the texture from crumbly to creamy, but that's fine. It had a good strong coffee flavour, but too bitter for my taste. Others would like it, I expect. Also, a bit too tangy, I probably shouldn't have added the citric acid, or at least, not as much. Still, I'm currently smothering it with Maple Syrup, and that's nice. However, I don't think I'll do "coffee sorbet" again. I should have realised it wouldn't be my thing; it's really more for people who like their coffee black, whereas with me, I'm a "would you like some coffee with your milk" person. So if I do coffee ice cream again, it will be with a truckload of dairy in it. After all, James Hoffmann's recipe was born of his frustration that standard dairy-based coffee ice cream is more like a cafe latte than a straight black coffee.

But I'm still glad I did it, after all, I did learn something, and not just that I prefer my coffee ice cream to be milky.

For one thing, oh halelujah, it has demonstrated that, unlike with traditional churning, the Ninja Creami can make ice cream from a drink without having to do things like add inulin to it in order to give it a creamy texture. Just a bit of guar gum and erythritol is enough to make it feasible. Note that the instructions for the Ninja Creami explicitly state that one should NOT try to process ice cubes or a solid block of ice. So one can't just chuck any old drink in a tub and expect it to work; one will need to add something to the mixture to lower its freezing temperature, whether that be sugar, fat/oil, alcohol or a sugar-alcohol.

But still, this adds a host of possibilities! Just think of chai ice cream! Or orange sorbet made from orange juice! Or apricot sorbet made from apricot nectar! Oh I like those ideas, yes indeed.