Canela Sorbet

Give your breath long lasting freshness...

Reminder: for those who would like to participate in judging the final round of The Tournament of Ice Cream, send me your individual votes by this Friday! I already have 15 votes, but more are welcome!

---

Do people still chew Big Red? I haven’t seen it in awhile, but I enjoyed it quite a bit while growing up. Spicy cinnamon gum! Yum!

Canela sorbet—also known as cinnamon sorbet—originates from Bolivia. A friend of mine, who is currently living with his family in Bolivia and teaching at an international school in Cochabamba, tipped me off to its existence. It sounded intriguing, so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Here are the ingredients:

That’s 5 cups of water, 1.25 cups of sugar, a cinnamon stick, a tablespoon of corn starch, some lemon juice, and a little red food coloring.

You start by boiling the cinnamon stick until the water has reduced by 1 cup.

Then you add the sugar, food coloring, and boil for five minutes.

Then make a cornstarch slurry, add that in, and boil for an additional five minutes.

Then you strain it, add the lemon juice, and you’re ready to churn!

Here’s the churning video:

Looks like cotton candy, but how did it taste?

Well, it tasted like Big Red gum. And I don’t mean that as a compliment. As much as I enjoy a slice of Big Red, this is, hands down, my least favorite creation since starting the blog. The taste is truly awful. Having a sorbet that tastes like Big Red is neither satisfying nor pleasing nor refreshing nor anything else one might expect a scoop of sorbet to be. It’s off putting and—to borrow a phrase from friend of the blog Pristine—it reminded me of mouthwash.

I don’t think I screwed up the recipe in any way. I think this is exactly how cinnamon sorbet is supposed to taste. And frankly, I’m horrified. What is happening down in Bolivia, other than coups against my dude Evo?

I should mention that my son enjoyed eating this, and my wife and daughter both thought it was intriguing enough that they each ate an entire serving. All three said they would have liked an even stronger cinnamon flavor. They wanted spicy cinnamon, I guess, like Big Red. As for me, I took two bites and dumped the rest in the sink.

Suffice it to say I won’t be making this again anytime soon. This flavor is just not my cup of tea. I sent a WhatsApp to my friend in Bolivia to get his thoughts on all of this, and I’ll let you know what he says.

That’s about as good a place to wrap this as any. Send me your votes on the ice cream final by Friday!