Which is why the show’s collaboration with Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams makes a lot of sense, especially given the flavor of the “Ted Lasso”-branded new offering: “Biscuits with the Boss,” a reference to a ritual that Lasso initiates in his efforts to win over his initially chilly superior, the club owner Rebecca Welton.
The limited-edition flavor, which features crumbled shortbread cookies in a salted-butter ice cream, will be available by the scoop in Jeni’s locations and in pints on the brand’s website starting Thursday.
As fans know, “biscuits with the boss” isn’t just a recurring bit on the show, whose third season debuts March 15. It’s a motif that embodies so many elements of the beloved central character and his world. They’re sweet, just like the good-natured coach himself, of course. And they represent the Kansan’s spotty efforts to assimilate into the United Kingdom — “Cookies,” he says as he presents them to Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham) for the first time, “or as y’all call ’em over here, biscuits, though I do not recommend that you smother them in gravy.”
Like the show itself, the routine reveals itself to be a surprisingly layered thing — we learn that Ted (Jason Sudeikis) has been making the biscuits rather than picking them up at a bakery, tucking them lovingly into pink cardboard boxes. His insistence that the skeptical Rebecca engage in the daily ritual is pure Lasso, in whose playbook persistence wins championships. Eventually, “biscuits with the boss” has its intended effect.
And while the inspiration behind the ice cream might give us the collective warm fuzzies, what about the scoop itself: Was it a win or a lose? (Because as fans know, ties are the “first sign of the apocalypse.”)
We dug into a pint to find out. The ice cream tastes super-buttery, like shortbread on performance-enhancing drugs. Do you like movie-theater popcorn? Well, then this just might be the cone for you. A touch of salt is a welcome balance to the sweetness and the ultra-creamy mouthfeel that Jeni’s is known for, but the uber-butter vibe persists above all.
When I finally hit a chunk of shortbread, it offered a nice textural change, but the mild cookie, er … biscuit, doesn’t add anything new to the mix. That’s unlike a traditional cookies-and-cream flavor, in which a chocolate cookie contrasts with the vanilla surrounding it.
Like the character that inspired it, this Jeni’s flavor has charms to offer the show’s fans, including packaging emblazoned with the coach’s AFC Richmond red-and-blue zip-up jacket. But Lasso himself might have summed up my thoughts on the flavor: “As my doctor told me when I got addicted to fettuccine Alfredo, that’s a little rich for my blood.”
