My newest theory to support ice cream snobbery is that if you can’t SEE the flavor, it’s not really there. This means, consequently, that if you do see flavor particles, you will be able to embrace the ice cream’s full flavor experience. Let me elaborate on this thought: the other night I was at a neighbor’s house helping myself to a bowl of ice cream. I chose the coffee flavored ice cream from his freezer selection. And as you can see by the photo above, this particular brand of coffee ice cream HAS flavor. And how do I know this? Because there are coffee grinds speckling the coffee ice cream! If there were no grinds, there would be no true flavor… according to my theory, that is. Pistachio was another flavor in my neighbor’s freezer. And I feel confident using the term flavor to describe the identity of this ice cream because I could see individual pistachio nuts studding the pale cream base.
Don’t be fooled, however, by false flavor advertisements. If, for example, you buy mint ice cream and it’s fluorescent green, that is not the mint flavor you see, my friends. No, no. Instead, that is the evil green food dye. Which has NO flavor. If there were mint leaves caressing the cream, then you could say you were eating mint ice cream. Until then, stick with coffee grinds and pistachio nuts and whatever else you can find stashed throughout your ice cream container of choice.
So now I urge you to be the judge. Is seeing really believing? Does seeing ‘true’ flavor convince the consumer of the identity of the ice cream he or she is eating?
2 comments:
Actually, I made mint Ice-Cream once with really fresh mint leaves in my base, it tasted rather, well, plant like, for lack of a better term.
At least in the case of mint, mint oil seems to work better, but that is very much an exception to the pure ingredient rule.
I think it's a good bet that seeing the ingredient is extra-convincing. However, I think you're at risk of exposing too much if you get too rustic with the ingredients. I used to feel sad as a child, looking at a soggy strawberry after licking all the ice cream off. I didn't want to eat it after that. Same with a cashew sticky with chocolate. Now that I'm an adult... I'm not bothered. I eat it as it is. So you're most likely right.
- Norman
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