Several years ago, a perfumista friend and I shared a few rounds of sushi at the bar of a spectacular Japanese restaurant neither of us could really afford. Midway through our abbreviated banquet the waitress brought us a palate cleanser — a tiny bowl of jasmine sorbet. It was pale, and a little watery. I expected it to taste that way. But when the frozen crystals hit my tongue my entire head filled with the scent and flavor of sweet jasmine. My friend and I looked at each other with identical expressions of shocked delight.

“Orange blossom!” she exclaimed. She was right. The sweetness made the jasmine flavor very similar to jasmine paired with orange blossom in perfume. It had the same effect as orange blossom water, but without the soapy facet, and with something more… I ate the second, and final, spoonful and it happened again — frozen flowers melting, blooming and then vanishing, in one brief ravishing moment.

Those two beautiful bites have been lurking the back of my mind ever since. With this post and triple digit temperatures as motivation, I dug out my ice cream maker this month and tried to make some at home…

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