Kensington Organic Ice Cream

[crawfish]

has a new location on Palmerston just north of Queen, behind Hero Burgers. Just opened today!

[goodcookiedrift]

I have a tub of rose, lavender/blue, apple rhubarb and ginger and its not as bad as people make it out to me. In fact, there's nothing about this ice cream (at least the tubs i have) that would make me do that whole gagging-reflex-motion with my head. It's not an overly decadent ice cream (which is what i like) but hardly worthy of "awful ice cream".

Seeing that this post is almost a month old, perhaps he had some opening hiccups that have been rectified thus far.

[estufarian]

My post - which started the critical comments - was on June 26 and posted the day after I had the 'experience'.
What puzzled me, was that all previous comments seemed favourable - I couldn't understand why nobody else had criticised the product.
Of course, once I opened the door, the rest of the unbelievers came forward.
It's badly made - how else do you get the crystals; and the flavours are not defined - but they sure do look pretty on the label.
As an aside (and promise) - I and several 'enthusiasts' have been slowly tasting their way through the various ice-cream products available in Toronto. Eventually a report will surface on Chowhound, but the 'boutique' operations are not showing very well so far. But Kensington was easily the worst.

[rat under paper]

Ordered a little rose-flavoured cone last weekend. We tried, but could not taste the rose. It wasn't the same thing as being subtly flavoured, either. The flavour was absent. Disappointing. Went straight to Il Gelatiere, where the melone gelato made me a very happy rat indeed. It was like one of those beautiful, perfumy Cavaillon melons you find in France. We ordered seven more flavours, and almost all of them were wonderful.

[julesrules]

What do people think of Mapleton Organic? It's currently cheaper than Hagen Daz at my IGA.

[embee]

They aren't directly comparable in my opinion. Mapleton's is tasty, but it's a different kind of experience. The organic aspect is irrelevant (except, perhaps, philosophically).

Haagen Dazs is extremely high in butterfat and contains very little air. The flavours tend to be (for better or worse) extremely intense. The only stabilizers seem to be egg and some elements of their industrial process.

Mapleton's flavours are much lighter. The butterfat content is much lower and Mapleton's has much higher overrun (i.e., it contains less ice cream and more air per litre) I believe they use stabilizers.

Of course, Haagen Dazs is made by a multinational mega corporation and Mapleton's is made by a small Ontario dairy farm. But if you are looking for decadent ice cream, Mapleton's may not satisfy.

[julesrules]

IIRC correctly the list of ingredients on Mapleton's was short, may have had one stabilizer but nothing like the crazy long list of weird stuff on Kawartha's vanilla. But yeah, there was no way to tell the BF content or how much air, so you gave me the exact kind of info I was looking for. Thanks.
I really enjoyed some of Kensington's flavours at the shop a couple of years ago, although they were somewhat inconsistent, but haven't tried it lately... guess the pints are a miss then.

[estufarian]

Finally got down to try this at the end of last week.
It was AWFUL! Not just bad, terrible!!!!!!!!!
We tried two flavours - apple and rhubarb, and caramel. Both were poorly made containing ice-crystals. The apple rhubarb was just sweet - lacking any balancing acidity. The caramel was so bad that AmuseGirl just threw it away - artificial flavour that was barely there - and she NEVER passes on caramel!
Thought hard before posting, but on reflection it also occurred to me that possibly their entire stock had melted then been refrozen, hence creating the ice crystals. If not, then it's just plain inferior. If it did melt - that's even worse! They're deliberately selling a foodstuff that could be a health hazard. Either way, you've been warned.

[deelicious]

You should try the milk chocolate!!! It's even worse!

[bacon]

The first time I tried the blueberry lavender in a pint and it was good times.

The next time, everything had ice crystals, really dissapointing texture.
I've tried double dutch chocolate, vanilla, blueberry-lavender, apple pie, caramel and the mint strawberry. No real favourites yet.
The apple was really sugary; it needed something.
The lavender blueberry had blueberries in it, i think. Pretty scarce though.
Mint strawberry was basically mint ice cream that happened to be pinkish.

Oh and one more thing..8$ for a teensy milkshake? Kiss my organic ass.

Anyway...I think this place maybe has a shaky first couple of weeks and they could totally redeem themselves.

[Snarf]

Haven't tried the place, so can't comment, but on a positive note, there's a relatively new place on Mount Pleasant called Il Gelatiere which does made-on-site gelato that's fantastic.

[embee]

I've tried them several times over a few years. I went there expecting to love the place. I certainly loved the idea behind it. But I found it very disappointing.

The flavours sound exciting, but they mostly aren't. They have tended to be very weak, and even elusive. More to the point, they don't seem to know, even after several years of practice, how to make good basic ice cream. The icy, grainy consistency has been typical. I doubt that their stock melted and refroze. They have problems with whatever they use as a base as well as with freezing temperature, overrun, and tempering. It's not about the "organic" angle, since (1) most common ice cream stabilizers are organic (e.g., guar gum; carob bean gum; carageenan) and (2) my homemade ice cream has no stabilizers and is much better than this. So is Haagen Dazs, though I recognize that their process likely isn't feasible on a micro scale.

It is an extremely expensive product and I feel it just isn't very good. I could teach them a few things about making ice cream, and all I do is dabble at it every now and again.

[Atahualpa]

Thank God! Reading the top half of this thread I thought I was the only one. I've tried their stuff several times and several different flavours. All have been grainy and sometimes ice-crystal filled too.Plus, none have been really great flavours either -- either weak or unbalanced.

[JonasBrand]

The cardamom and apple ice cream was great as was the green tea and raspberry... at least back in the kensington market days. Some flavors are hard on the palette and the stomach... to avoid is anything with pepper or cayenne (and I love spicy).

Looking forward to swinging by for a scoop!

[smallsociety]

I tried the ginger and chocolate. But went with the milk chocolate. It was excellent! Like eating a chocolate bar.

[moldy109]

Thanks everyone for the updates! I've been mourning their disappearance from Kensington for awhile now, and I was wondering how on earth I would ever find a replacement for the Chocolate DooDah ice cream that won my heart and tastebuds. I'm relieved that now I don't have to. I can feel my heart mending already. : )

[julesrules]

Can also be purchased at the Big Carrot, and (I believe) Fresh From the Farm, for us East Enders.

[estufarian]

Also available at Summerhill market.

[thenurse]

Really? The Big Carrot? As in the cafe, or the supermarket? Single serving or in a tub?

[julesrules]

The supermarket. Tubs. Same at Fresh From the Farm. But I seem to recall the tubs were near $10 at the Carrot, and they are more like $7-8 at the Farm. Call first, it was a while ago that I saw them at the Carrot (but saw them at the Farm just last week).

[thenurse]

leaving work now to go buy some... have been waiting for this miracle for a few years now!

[Atahualpa]

Well, the Big Carrot has had it for at least a year and a half now. Although, I don't know why you'd want the stuff. Its terrible. I've tried it on several occasions and it has been consistently grainy and the flavours underpowered and lackluster.

[vorpal]

I bought a container (maybe 500 mL) of vanilla today at the Big Carrot for $7, and while it was okay, it wasn't great: I found that it wasn't particularly creamy and something in the taste was lacking.

[pinstripeprincess]

i'll also add in fresh & wild at king/spadina.

[yummy_mummy]

it actually opened last weekend..had the lavender ice cream. Was just mediocre......