In my decade of experience writing about food, I've tasted hundreds if not thousands of ice creams, and yes, I have a favorite. Jeni's Salty Caramel [1] ($12) is almost always stocked in my freezer. I consider myself a pretty frugal grocery shopper [2], but I do have one vice, and that's Jeni's. The price tag is steep — really steep — but hear me out. First of all, Jeni's ice cream has the best texture I've ever encountered. It's creamy, not icy, and has a slight chewiness to it, like Turkish ice cream or mochi. And the flavor? It tastes like delicate cream (she uses grass-grazed cow milk) with a roasted, caramelized sweetness and clean, salty finish to balance out the richer flavors. I can easily polish off a pint in two sittings, and sometimes, I pair it with my second favorite ice cream in the world: Salted Peanut Butter With Chocolate Flecks [3].
Here's what makes the Salty Caramel ice cream even more amazing: the owner of Jeni's, Jeni Britton Bauer, invented the flavor in 1996 [5], inspired by traditional French salted caramel [6] candies. Rather than rely on flavoring, Jeni's Ice Cream toasts brown sugar in a big kettle over a fire and then blends the caramel with the cream and milk before churning it into ice cream. This flavor has been re-created countless times by famous ice creameries across the country, from San Francisco's Bi-Rite Creamery [7] to Disney World's French Pavilion at Epcot [8]. While the copycats are good, nothing can compare to the original Jeni's. Try it yourself and you'll see why the addiction is real.