Beta 5 Ice Cream Socials Return - Strawberry Fields Forever

My favourite ice cream event is back for another summer! Beta 5 Chocolates kicked off their infamous Ice Cream Socials May 12th, Mother's Day Weekend with a Mimosa Sundae. As I am a massive citrus lover, there was no way that I was going to miss it. I missed the Surfin' USA sundae, a coconut and pineapple flavoured one which was the second sundae for this year. Both of those weekends I was immensely busy, so I know I did not post anything about them. So I am going to get right into the third sundae for 2018's social which is the Strawberry Fields Forever. 

Beta 5 got their inspiration for this sundae from the Beatles song and wanted to play homage to it in ice cream form. A scoop of strawberry sherbet was paired with a scoop of vanilla ice cream that had rhubarb swirled through it. Of course, no sundae is complete without toppings and Beta 5 really delivered for this one. 

The sundae cam with macerated strawberries, mini biscuits, kataifi hay, strawberry chocolate shards and their signature vanilla chantilly. I love that the way they sliced the strawberries before macerating them and the mini biscuits were crispy and coupled with the kataifi hay it brought a great texture to the sundae. The chocolate shard was beautiful and the painted strawberries on it was a beautiful touch. Definitely lots of strawberry going on in this sundae which is what I want when its called Strawberry Fields Forever. 

The vanilla ice cream was rich and had a creamy texture. You could see the vanilla bean seeds in the ice cream, but I did not get much of the rhubarb swirl. My only issue with this sundae is the level of sweetness of the strawberry sherbet. I have become accustomed to Beta 5's refreshing sorbets that often let the fruit speak for itself, so I was frankly taken aback by this extremely sugary sherbet.

You might be wondering what is sherbet and how does it differ to sorbet? Like sorbet, it is often made with pureed fruits, sugar and water, but sherbet has a little bit of dairy added, making it creamier and often pastel in colour. However, they went quite heavy-handed on the sugar masking the real fresh strawberry and instead left the sherbet tasting like an artificial strawberry candy - definitely more appealing to a child's palette versus an adults. 

I hope Beta 5 will adjust the level of sweetness in their future sundaes considering the vast majority of their clientele are late teens and adults that have an appreciation for more delicate flavours. Beta 5's restraint with sugar is what initially attracted me to their ice creams and is why I have continued to drive up from Richmond weekend after weekend. I also find sorbet and ice cream to be a killer combination because in the summer heat you want that cooling refreshing sorbet with the richer ice cream complimenting the light sorbet. Fingers crossed that Beta 5 ditches the overtly sweet sherbets and returns to their refreshing dairy-free counterpart. 

BYES