The N.C. Double Scoop Round Of 64, Flight 1: Write-Ups
Welcome to the N.C. Double Scoop’s Round of 64!Below, the commentary for Flight 1.Confused?The main NCDS page is right here, and you can find the full bracket here.
The tentative schedule as of this writing: Flight 2 goes up tomorrow, Flight 3 Saturday, Flight 4 Sunday; we begin closing flight voting on Monday in the same cascade style.
Ready to vote now?Vote here!
1 Cookie dough vs. 16 red bean. Ugh, is there even a question here? I find red bean fairly repulsive. Then again, salmonella sufferers might feel the same about cookie dough. However, since there hasn’t been a cookie dough salmonella outbreak in eons (the last food poisoning via ice cream happened with Coldstone’s cake batter), I’m putting my money on cookie dough. Raw or cooked, it’s better than beans.
8 AmeriCone Dream vs. 9 black raspberry/Oregon blackberry. Aw, poor Bunting. Her favorite is going to have quite a match against Stephen Colbert’s freedom flavor. Aside from strawberry, I’m not much for the fruit-flavored ice creams, so I gotta go with AmeriCone Dream. And not just to suck up to Colbert; I really do love the sweet taste of liberty in my mouth. Also the caramel. And waffle cone pieces.
5 Butter pecan vs. 12 orange sherbet. I don’t think I’ve eaten sherbet — which I’ve always called by its accepted variant “sherbert” — since I was at a twelve-year-old’s birthday party. When I was twelve years old. Butter pecan is another one of my adored flavors but beyond that, I think it carries more weight than sherbet.
4 Tin Roof vs. 13 peppermint. Huh, and all this time I thought Tin Roof was a sundae dreamed up by Bridgeman’s. I’m not the biggest fan of fudge swirls and chocolate-covered peanuts — do you really need both? Also, I still think it’s a sundae, not a legitimate flavor. Kicker: I simply adore peppermint — the pink kind, not green — and that’s where I’ll be voting, but I won’t be surprised if my favorite melts away in the first round.
6 Chunky Monkey vs. 11 Java Chip. Yeech. I know this is, like, the fourth best-selling flavor on the Ben & Jerry’s roster, but I hate bananas in any form or flavor and I love coffee ice cream. I’m giving it to Java Chip (especially Starbucks’s version), but I think the popularity of CM will trounce it.
3 Salted caramel vs. 14 Mexican chocolate. Talk about hitting me where I live! The first time I had a big dollop of salted caramel, I thought I had died. A perfect combo of salty and sweet that is way better than chocolate-covered pretzels. Meanwhile, the cinnamon and cayenne added to Mexi-chocolate is no snooze on the cone, either. This is a toughie, but I’ll call it for salted caramel.
7 French vanilla vs. 10 pumpkin. Ah, can pumpkin pie flavors ever reach their full flavor potential without a complementary scoop of vanilla? This is a brother-against-brother to be sure. I’m not one of those benighted folks who damns vanilla as “boring.” In fact, I judge any ice cream brand by the quality of its vanilla the same way I judge a Vietnamese restaurant by its Imperial Rolls. I yearn for both these flavors, but I think squash-phobes will throw everything in for French vanilla.
2 Chocolate vs. 15 green tea. Lord, these more esoteric flavors are going to take a beating in this round. I like green tea a heck of a lot — especially when I get it free for spending way too much money at sushi joint — but I think the peeps are going to go for chocolate.
Ready to vote?Vote now!
Tags: food Stephen Colbert
I make my own cinnamon ice cream – vanilla ice cream, sprinkle in some cinnamon. Mmmm.
But then I heart cinnamon almost enough to marry it. I love it in PB & honey sammiches.
Sars,
Despite the “eh” towards chocolate I really must recommend the Graeter’s Black Raspberry Chip as a not-to-be-missed ice cream. It’s now carried in some groceries stores here (Cleveland) so I no longer have to bring back a cooler from the parents in Columbus. Maybe the distribution has expanded.
I second the Graeter’s. But you do have to love the chocolate, ’cause we are talking CHIPS here. http://www.graeters.com/raspberry.aspx
Dude, the co-op has the best blackberry ice cream I’ve ever eaten. It’s so effing good. Come over, and bring a spoon.
PS: Salted caramel vs. Mexican chocolate? That’s like Sophie’s Choice. Gah.
Ti-i-i-i-i-i-n roof – rusted! Beaten handily by the peppermint, it seems.
When I was a kids Breyer’s made containers that were half chocolate, half butter pecan. The chocolate half was scarfed up right away. Our dad was the only one who would eat the butter pecan. I love pecans, but I can’t stand butter pecan to this day. I seem to remember bits of bitter black skin on the nuts, and they were like little bits of gristle in your dessert. Ick. Next to the citrusy, refreshing goodness of Orange Sherbet? No contest. And yet, it seems I am in the minority here. Story of my life.
Who is this who has declared “sherbert” to be an acceptable alternative? As Nero Wolfe once declared in a different context, not under my roof.
On another topic, Chunky Monkey would take the whole megillah if I were judge. I like ice cream well enough, but I can go without it for long stretches of time without missing it too much. Except if it’s banana-flavored, and then I scarf it down unashamedly. There used to be so many more banana flavors. Most of the popular brands had one. Edy’s, within the last decade, had two: Chiquita and Chocolate (not too different from C.M.) and Banana Cream Pie. Both heaven. But really, for all practical purposes the only one left is Chunky Monkey, and that’s my one true love.
Red bean ice cream done well is stupendous. It’s basically french vanilla with a kick. The only thing better than red bean ice cream is tempura fried red bean ice cream (and yes, it sounds potentially disasterous, but if pulled off you’d think you died and went to heaven).
I’m also very partial to green tea ice cream (finally learned to make my own last summer, too), and had the most heavenly olive oil ice cream recently.
What can I say, I’m a fan of offbeat ice cream offerings.
Never heard of Salted Caramel before…I SO have to go to the grocery tonight.
The hard thing with Red Bean vs. Cookie Dough is that there is so much BAD red bean ice cream out there, but even the B&J cookie dough ice cream is pretty mediocre. The complete lack of eggyness blows it for me. Does it have chocolate chips and good ice cream? sure. Is that goo cookie dough? not so much. Choosing between Good red bean vs okay cookie dough, I’ll take the red bean please. Especially if it’s Mochi.
I don’t DIS-like chocolate, but I seldom crave it
I know what all those words mean separately, but together they’re making no sense. Seriously, though, what’s that like? I knew a woman in university who did actively dislike chocolate – as in, she wouldn’t eat anything that had chocolate in it. There are days when I wish that was me, too.
Has anyone tried cinnamon flavored ice cream?
Yes, and it’s awesome. Here in Toronto Greg’s Ice Cream makes a cinnamon ice cream that’s to die for. Combine it with their chocolate-orange (which tastes exactly like a Terry’s chocolate orange, only cold) and you’ve got yourself a reaaaalllly good day.
@JennyB – I’m not sure of the name of the place – it’s a chocolate store in Westboro that also sells gelato. And yeah, some flavours of B&J are available all over, but I have yet to find Americone Dream (or Phish Food, or any number of others) in Canada. If you’re telling me I can get Americone Dream in Montreal, I will have to move there posthaste: bagels+jazz+ice cream = yay!
Wow! All these flavours I’ve never had!! We are in desperate need of a Ben & Jerry’s outlet in the southern hemisphere.
Sars – as another lover of rich fruit icecreams I’m wishing I could send you a tub of Cherikoffs Wild Rosella – which has the unfortunate name of ‘Crimson Tide’, believe me it tastes better than the name would suggest!
I’m typing this between spoonfuls of BR Gold Medal Ribbon.
I’m with Sandman on the CCCD ice cream.
And I can’t wait to try Salted Caramel. Anyone know of a place in Dallas that might have it?
@Beth- Peppermint with mini chocolate chips on it = love. We were also known to drop a small scoop into hot chocolate in my college days. Mmmmmmmmm.
“Next to the citrusy, refreshing goodness of Orange Sherbet? No contest. And yet, it seems I am in the minority here. Story of my life.”
If it had been lemon or lime sherbet, I might have voted the other way. But orange is just too sweet, without the sour bite that I like in my frozen citrus desserts.
“Cheap green tea tastes like lint, and has the same consistency.”
The stuff I had tasted like clay. Frozen clay. Maybe I just had a bad batch, but it left me kind of green-tea-shy.
I’m not a huge chocolate fan, either, but there is just something about the Graeter’s CHIPS that makes them different. I think it may be the way they’re made (French pot process) or something, but their texture is much different than that of your average ice cream chippage.
And yes, the chips are HUGE.
Favorite ice creams = cinnamon, pumpkin
Also, caught a recipe for NUTELLA ice cream (here) which sounds like it must be the best thing ever.
So many other flavors I’m dying to try…. honey ice cream, especially, since I’ll eat honey straight. Maybe that should be the next ice cream maker project.
Okay, so I just had to hit the grocery store tonight and find the offbeat flavors, few of which were available, BUT – just had my first Green Tea. MAN was that good!
Still voting for chocolate though.
Aw yeah. My chocolate-not-craving peeps!
One more pitch for the Graeter’s–I should point out that the word chip is a misnomer. Graeter’s idea of a chip is a huge chunk of (gourmet) chocolate, anywhere from 1-3 Hershey’s squares in size. If you want to, you can easily pull them out and bliss out on untainted black raspberry ice cream goodness.
I get a 12-pack of assorted flavors (with at least 3 BR) shipped to Texas every year. It’s that good.
I concur on the cinnamon. I love cinnamon, but the one variety I tried (Graeters) was merely good, not great. Perhaps I should have tried it on pie…
I had the weirdest cookie dough recently – Friendly’s makes a version where it’s vanilla ice cream with chocolate chunks and then chip-free cookie dough globs throughout. Strange.
Americone Dream is my favorite ice cream ever, though. Ever ever. I want to stockpile it in deep freeze against the day it gets retired.
And now I’m hungry.
As soon as I saw the endorsement for peppermint over tin roof I punched a baby.
So a friend said that Japan had an ice cream expo in Yokohama, where they rolled out weirder flavors like ox tongue, sea urchin, eel and horse meat. Yikes. Though I wouldn’t mind trying bacon and avocado out of curiosity, I think I’ll stick with red bean and green tea for now.
I’m going to gain a lot of weight by the end of the bracket, aren’t I? Hellcat13, I feel you: bought a pint of Caramel Cone Explosion after work last night, ate almost the whole thing when I got it home. Oy.
@Deirdre: not loving chocolate is an idea equally impenetrable to me, but I don’t know that I even want to know what it feels like. You must be braver than I am.
i can’t vote! is the page still working?
Works for me, although it’s loading slowly in IE (FF is fine). Clear your cache and try it again?
@ natasha: I thought it wasn’t working too, but it’s just loading REALLY slowly. So even though it says, “Done” at the bottom, give it a good 30 seconds and see if it finally pops up. That worked for me.
Also, Sars, is there a way to look a the results without voting again?
I’m not sure, Tisha; I set it so that, once you’d voted, you’d only see results; does your browser clear cache and cookies after every shutdown? Because if so, that could be the issue.
The MicroPoll site is a little boggy this morning on the back end as well, so thanks, everyone, for hanging in there. Should right itself, I hope. Working on Flight 2 now.
it’s working…i just had to wait for it. sorry all for the mini freak out.
Oh, my beloved red beans–! I grew up near DC, in the days before Japanese food hit the mainstream. After our first taste of red bean ice cream, my mother trekked into some seriously skeevy part of Chinatown (as it was then) to get jars of red beans in syrup. Poured over vanilla ice cream, it was heavenly and totally worth being known as “the weird girl who eats beans on her ice cream.” (To this day, even my Asian friends gawk at me as I chow down on my red bean pastries and and taro root bubble tea.)
Salted caramel sounds intriguing. Our local gelato place (http://www.capogirogelato.com – OMG BEST GELATO EVER) makes a sea salt gelato, but I find it a little *too* salty, even paired with something sweet.
Best ice cream/gelato I’ve ever had was Capogiro’s Lancaster Rose. I have dreams about that stuff.
Hey, Sandman, glad to be of service on the Vosges tip.
It’s pricey, but the ice cream is crazy dense, like no air at all, and velvety and everything you could ever want in an ice cream. And then it’s Red Fire flavored! Hell yeah.
You Americans are KILLING me with the Graeter’s talk. Why did I go on the website? Why? And why can’t they ship to Canada???
@meltina: I recently tasted (under duress, admittedly) olive oil ice cream and I can’t wait to go back and have it again. Talk about unexpected deliciousness!! Mmmmm.
I’ve never tried Americone Dream because Ben & Jerry’s just doesn’t do it for me compared to the rich goodness that is Haagen Dazs. I excavated the last container of HD’s Extra Rich Light Caramel Cone ice cream at Gristede’s last week and it was gone in 2 days. You would not know, I swear, that it isn’t the full-fat version.
@Karen: HD has a Vanilla Honey Bee flavor out. Haven’t tried it, but if you’re a honey person, it looks like it’s all that and a bag of… honeycombs. http://www.haagendazs.com/products/product.aspx?id=354
Just had to chime in on the Black Raz/Chocolate debate…I’m usually fundamentally opposed to fruit and chocolate, but damn, there’s a place on Cape Cod where I discovered Black Raspberry Oreo. Think I died and went to a lil’ bit of heaven right there.
Oh – and Throwdown had an ice cream battle on the other night. Somebody mentioned Dark Chocolate, olive oil and red wine ice cream. Want.
@ Deirdre, Thanks for the heads up on the gelato. How fortuitous that I should me moving to Westboro soon! I might be wrong about being able to find Americone Dream in Montreal. I’ll be there this weekend, so I’ll see if I can go on a little ice cream recon and report back.
As a Cincinnatian, I do have a soft spot for Graeter’s, and Black Raspberry Chip IS their signature flavor after all. I do think, however, that if one is not a fan of chocolate, they’ve got plenty of other flavors that are out of this world. I highly recommend their Strawberry. For an ice cream lover, Graeter’s should be tried once.
I mean, Oprah once said it’s her favorite ice cream, and let’s be honest… we do what Oprah tells us to, or she ends us.
Sandman, are you saying you have no Colbert rapport?
I had to buy the salted caramel ice cream last night…oh my lord. My new favorite.
HD is also putting out a sweet cream and Lehua Honey flavor, which is different from the vanilla and honey, although I haven’t tried that one. The Lehua honey one is delicious, and lighter tasting than you’d expect.
But it’s got to be peppermint. I did a dance. I only wish it were easier to find outside of the holidays.
@Deidre (and, by default, JennyB)– Is it Truffle Treasures? Last time I was there they only made chocolates, but that’s the only chocolate store I can think of in Westboro…Regardless, their truffles are delightful.
Hmm…I think I should get me an ice cream maker…