discardia

BoingBoing (worth hitting every once in a while) posted an article about some of the wild and wacky Japanese ice cream flavors that are fairly common and not all that wierd in the Japanese market. Things like Soy Sauce, or Squid, and others that will make some American’s tongues turn around and run down their throats. Not for the squeamish obviously.But I have always wondered why it is so difficult to get ice cream flavors here in the states that I would figure would be very common. For instance… banana ice cream. Just plain old banana ice cream. Ben and Jerry’s has the very awesome Chunky Monkey (which includes choco chunks and walnuts)… and you can get banana in some of the premium ice cream shops. But I want to know why fat ol’ Americans aren’t happy with any ice cream that doesn’t have tons of add-ins or just plain chocolate or just plain vanilla. Strawberry is about as “out there” as you can get. Drives me nuts. (ha ha) There has to be a market here, there has to be.
Some of the flavors/variations I would like to see in mainstream (ie commonly available non premium ice creams):

• Banana (duh)
• Coconut
• Apple (yes it can be done… Dreyers has a limited edition Apple Pie every year)
• Cinnamon (Plain ol’ cinnamon)
• Mexican Chocolate (twist on the cinnamon)
• Breakfast cereals mixers (Imagine your favorite childhood cereal mixed into vanilla ice cream!) Fruit LOOPS! Sugar Smacks! Cinnamon Toast Crunch! …Even Frosted Flakes (which btw is totally awesome on top of vanilla ice cream).
• Almond (no nuts, just flavor)
• Toasted Marshmallow
• Cherry (not Sherbert)
• Blueberry (Ditto)
• Malt (Seriously - add malted milk to vanilla - goooooood)

I could keep going… i guess the only thing the plain flavors have going for it is the “blank canvas” factor. You can add anything you would like to it to make your own. And of course you could just buy a simple little machine and make it yourself. (Frozen custard is worth doing if you have your own machine - see Alton Brown’s Good Eats.) Personally, I would like to see quirky flavors in the grocery store. I for one would be brave enough to buy them.