Ice Cream Sundaes

Mmmm...Ice Cream Sundaes...is it real ice cream or toppings on plain ice cream?

Aaah, who doesn't love ice cream sundaes?  Banana Splits?  Hot Fudge?  Ooey gooey Caramel?  Sprinkles, chocolate and rainbow?  And don't forget the thick, gloppy strawberry sauce.  Oh yeah, somewhere underneath all of that is...Ice Cream!   And when the guy or gal is ladling all those toppings onto your ice cream, you are secretly yelling, more...! more...! more...!

Then you grab your spoon and dig in.  Mmmm, great hot fudge.  Mmmm, tasty strawberry.  Hey, did you forget something?  Uh, what flavor is that ice cream?  Does it really matter?  For all the taste and texture you're getting, it might as well be the bottom shelf, cheapo ice cream brands from any supermarket.  

When I taught myself to make ice cream, I knew it had to be the absolute Best Ice Cream In The World. The flavors had to be both bold and flavorful.  The texture was smooth and ultra-creamy. No throat-freeze.  No after taste. 

I didn't use artificial colors, flavorings, emulsifiers, or stabilizers.  In order for my ice cream to be reminiscent of what I had as a kid, I used ingredients from my childhood: Oreos, Snickers, M&Ms, Apple Pie, real shredded coconut, 100% chocolate (dark, milk, white), cherries, and on and on.  And I bought the real stuff.  No knock-off store brands would ever enter my cart. 

I sought out the best dairies to get the top quality ice cream mix.  Then I bought the world's best batch freezer to make it. 

You just can't believe the difference between putting all the best ingredients in a cheap machine, as opposed to a great one. Think about it.  Your carefully made mixture has to be churned and frozen in a proportion and ratio that will yield a superior product.  Wrong speed?  Too quick a freeze?  No no no no.

So, after I had it perfected, about four months, I was ready to have the world experience The World's Best Ice Cream.  I opened a store.  Six flavors.  No toppings.  No mixing flavors.  No cones.  No samples.  And, because I used chest freezers rather than open-view dipping cabinets, you couldn't even see the ice cream.  Five dollars got you a cup, a spoon, and about 14 ounces of The World's Best Ice Cream.

Did I encounter resistance?  Were many of the first customers unhappy?  Did some turn around and leave?  Yes, yes, and yes.  I knew I would have to educate the customers as to what real, highest quality ice cream taste like. Let's back up a bit.  Why no toppings? 

Because I want people to taste and remember what this amazing Ice Cream treat is, and always has been, all about.  No mixing flavors?  The natural tendency when there are two or three flavors in a cup is to use your spoon to gran a little bit of each one.  You don't get the unique experience of that one beautiful flavor going through your mouth and down your throat.  No cones? 

Homemade ice cream melts quicker than the junk you get in the store.  Putting 14 ounces in a cone means that you're building a hi-rise in the cone.  It'll be a drippy mess before they can even get down to the cone part.  "Clean up on aisle two!"  And if it's a

kid?  just picture it.  No samples?  Give them a choice, and they'll take it.  I simply told everyone, if you don't like it, no problem.  Come back up, and pick anything else.  NO PROBLEM at all.  It happened twice in 10 years.

Over the  first six or seven years, I created about 90 amazing flavors. 

I even came up with a way to infuse popular alcohols into my ice creams. Many of these 90 or so flavors are now for sale in over 18 countries, and in every state in our great country.  They are winners.  They are The World's Best Ice Cream.