2004 -- Flavors of the Week

Each Friday, we try something new with a "Flavor of the Week" chosen from suggestions we've received from our customers, friends, and contacts in the ice cream business. Some of these are so popular that they become part of our normal menu offerings. Others are unusual enough that we can't seem to get people to try them!

Have an idea for a great new flavor you'd like to see us offer? Send it to us!  Maybe you'll see it show up as one of our Flavors of the Week!

Here are the past creations:

September 17, 2004: Apple Pie

When I bought my batch freezer, the seller gave me several cans of ice cream base flavorings, one of which was Apple. It sat on the shelf unopened for two years.

With the slower traffic in September, I finally decided to experiment with this, and I'm glad I did. This is a delightful flavor, with chunks of cinnamon-sweetened apple. I added a graham crumb swirl, and a few other flavor enhancements, and was very pleased with the results. Close your eyes, take a bite, and you can imagine that you're eating a big slice of apple pie a la mode. (Topped with a big scoop of our delicious Vanilla, of course!)

I think this one is bound to be a regular on next year's menu board.

September 10, 2004: Guinness

A friend of mine in the ice cream business was kind enough to share his recipe for this with me. This flavor wasn't exactly what I expected, but it definitely attracted the most requests for flavor samples -- it seemed like everyone who came by the stand wanted a taste!

I started with authentic Guinness draft beer, and cooked it down a bit (sorry kids, the heat cooks off the alcohol...!) and added some other various malt aids. I think it still needs a few tweaks, as the result was ok, but a bit too cocoa flavored for me, but we'll give it another shot next year to see if we can get it closer to the taste of real Guinness.

August 20, 2004: Sundae Special

As part of the St. Augustine School's Christmas Party last year, we donated an auction prize: Design your own ice cream flavor.

This week, the winner of the auction, Andrew Szendey and daughter Olivia, stopped by to scheme up their flavor. They decided on a Mocha ice cream, with brownie and oreo pieces, and a stripe of fudge. The result was very good -- not sure this will make our regular lineup, but a very enjoyable flavor nonetheless.

Olivia did a wonderful job helping us make the ice cream -- we've already got our eyes on her as part of our 2009 crew!

July 16, 2004: Blueberry Sorbet

We had lots of blueberries to use up, so we tried using them to make a sorbet, and the results were great. This is a very sweet flavor, the blueberries are just the right sweetness to make this a wonderful flavor to cool off with.

July 9th, 2004: "Killa" Cherry Vanilla

I was trying to finish up the closing tasks one night this week, when a couple came to the window quite a long time after we'd officially closed. I served them, and we got to talking, and the guy told me about a favorite ice cream place of his up north, which made a great Cherry Vanilla -- he described it as "Killer".

I told him that I'd been meaning to try that flavor, and that he should check back with us in a few days. As he left, he shouted to me "Yeah, and if you make it, you have to call it Killa' Cherry Vanilla.

So now, we have it! I made a couple of varieties of this. One is simply vanilla ice cream, flavored with the strained juice from the cherries and loaded up with cherry halves. In the other, I swirled in some fudge. I'm not sure which one is better, but they both taste great to me, and this has never been a favorite flavor of mine.

[Postscript: I tried another variation on this a week later. In this one, I didn't add the cherry juice, so the base is much whiter. We'll see if folks prefer this over the flavored base.]

July 4th, 2004: Blue Berry

Our friend David at Turkey Hill Farm in Haverhill, Massachusetts was kind enough to allow us to come up to his beautiful blueberry fields before he was officially open for the season to pick enough to make a batch of Blueberry ice cream. The taste is good, but the berries are still a little away from peak flavor, so check back in a week or so for an even better batch of this one.

If you want the best berries around, do yourself a favor and plan a trip up to see David at his berry farm. Not only does he have the best tasting blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries around, but the fields are clean, and the picking is easy, and David is a great guy to talk to as you pick. There are bathroom facilities and drinking water at the fields, so you can bring your (well behaved) children and not worry about anything other than picking some great berries.

June 26, 2004: Fresh Strawberry

When the strawberries are in season here, there's no better flavor of ice cream than fresh strawberry. Son David and I hand picked these berries at Boston Hill Farm in North Andover. It took a lot of effort, both in picking the berries and in preparing them correctly, so we need to charge a little more for this flavor, but trust me, it's well worth it, as this is some of the best tasting strawberry ice cream you'll find.

June 18th, 2004: Orange Chocolate Chip

Customer Susanne Willert submitted this flavor suggestion via our website back in May, and I thought it sounded interesting enough to give it a try. The result is fantastic -- the contrast of the orange flavored ice cream with the sweet chocolate chips is really nice. This one may end up being a part of our regular rotation.

May 20th, 2004: Banana Crunch

One of my distributors sends out a monthly flavor suggestion, and this was one of them for April. I hadn't planned on making this, but decided to after a new co-worker at my day job told me that he loved banana ice cream.

We didn't use the distributor's pre-packaged flavoring, we used fresh bananas, then stirred in crumbled chocolate wafers and a stripe of cold fudge. Again, I'm no big fan of banana flavored ice cream, but we've received a lot of positive feedback on this one. (I still think it'd be better if I added walnuts to it, but the kids wouldn't let me do that...)

April 23rd, 2004: Mango Sherbet

We managed to get through all of last year without making any type of sherbet, but I knew that had to change.

On the Ice Cream Folks Yahoo discussion group that a bunch of us ice cream retailers use to swap ideas, folks around the country claimed that Mango is one of their hot sellers.

Putting those two items together, I thought that trying a Mango Sherbet was probably a good idea. The result is a light, refreshing, citrus flavor. This flavor came out so well that I ordered enough flavoring to last the summer, as I can see this being a very popular flavor when the warmer weather hits.

April 9th, 2004: Ginger & Ginger Chocolate

Team member Mike's dad was insistent that I try making a ginger ice cream last year, but I just never seemed to get around to trying it, largely because I never found a really good source for candied ginger.

This year, our nut supplier also happens to carry an excellent crystalized candied ginger fruit, so I decided to give this flavor a shot.

I took fresh ginger root, juiced it to flavor the base, then added minced ginger fruit. I also ordered some chocolate covered ginger, and made one tub using these.

Ginger is definitely not one of my personal favorites, but I'm happy to report that Mike's dad was pleased, and a lot of others also gave it a thumbs up".