Jamaica 'Hibiscus' ice cream

[HYoungJoo]

I especially love the jamaica flower or hibiscus tea on a hot day and decided to make some ice cream out of it today.

I just steeped the dried flowers like I normally do for the tea bag ice creams (like earl grey) in the heated base. I stepped away for 2 minutes, came back and oh my gosh!

The cream curdled like I squeezed a whole lemon in it.

I read that there is Protocatechuic acid in the flower.. not that I know what that means except that it has the word acid in it...

Has anyone tried to do this? I want to know why it happened...

I think I'll just make a simple syrup, super concentrated jamaica solution and use that instead... would that work? or will it just cause a lot of crystallization?

Help! I want to eat it in ice cream form!

[chiantiglace]

hibiscus is considerably acidic, thats why.

Next time steep it in water that has been subtracted from the liquid base and mix it in cold right before churning.

[baroness]

Have you considered making hibiscus ice or sorbet instead?

Or, is there a way to make a thick hibiscus syrup you could swirl into vanilla ice cream?

[cmflick]

I agree. Probably too acid for the cream. I make jamaica sorbet and it is very excellent.

[HYoungJoo]

Thank you for the suggestions! will try the sorbet and make a thick syrupy swirl to stream into a vanilla base... oohhhh! I can't wait!