Qiiii (ice cream)

In a recent experiment I attempted to reproduce the flavor of Qi Black Tea Liqueur in a delicious ice cream form. The exciting part is that (for the most part) it worked!

To quote from the label on the bottle, Qi Black is "handcrafted from cedar-smoked Lapsang Souchong tea, rare fruits, and invigorating herbs." When I first tasted this spirit, I did not like it at all. The second time I was less against it, and with my third taste I found myself intrigued. Clearly it won my love, as this is now one of my favorite spirits anywhere. It's delicious on its own, mixed into a slew of cocktails, and I've used it to make truffles and other desserts. Once we got the ice cream maker I knew it was only a matter of time.

For my first batch of Qi Black ice cream, I chose a night we were having distillery friends (and distillery wives) over for dinner. This seemed like the easiest way to test the success of the maiden QB batch. I then spent a portion of the day playing with the following ingredients:

3 iterations of Qi Black/Lapsang Souchong

-1 tea-ball full of Lapsang Souchong tea (steeped for about 15 minutes in 3/4 cup milk)

-1/4 cup Qi Black reduction

-1/4 cup Qi Black liqueur

All of that added up to about 2/3 cup Qi Black Base. I rounded that out with 1/3 cup of milk (and one more tiny splash of Qi Black) so that I had a full cup of "milky Qi Black mix."

In a large mixing bowl, I added 3/4 cup of sugar to that "milky Qi Black mix" and stirred it 'til the sugar dissolved. Then I added 2 cups of heavy cream and again stirred until everything was combined. Worried that the Qi Black might not be coming through quite enough, I tossed in one more shot of the liqueur for good luck. Following our ice cream machine's trusty instructions, at this point I put my ice cream mixture into an ice bath to cool it down quickly. Per the instructions, I then let the ice cream mixture set in the fridge for a several hours until it was ready to come out as a finale to our mac-n-cheese-off (chronicled earlier by Josh).

To my delight, the flavor of Qi Black came through very nicely. Our esteemed friend Brad (who may be one of the world's most dedicated Qi Black fans) declared it a victory, and everyone else chimed to agree. Sadly, the ice cream was just a little bit on the soft side. I think it was that last shot of booze (for luck) that did it in. Next time, I'll go with a bit more reduced Qi Black, and a little less of the straight spirit. For now, I'm pleased to have developed at least a "working" Qi Black Ice Cream recipe. I'll update as I continue to tinker with it.