One of my favorite parts of my job here at Weber is when I get to do market research. We work with many different industries, but the ice cream/dairy industry is by far my favorite. I get to sit and research flavor trends in ice cream and drool all over my keyboard thinking about how delicious some of the ice cream flavors sound. I imagine travelling to the west coast and visiting the new trendy ice cream shops in the San Francisco area serving flavors with interesting ingredients like basil, rosemary, balsamic vinegar, earl grey and olive oil. I dream of doing a tour up and down the east coast stopping at all of the coastal ice cream shops eating waffle cones full of black raspberry chocolate chip and maple walnut ice creams. I really like ice cream in case you couldn’t tell. I realize as I’m day dreaming about eating all of these interesting flavors of ice cream, my childhood self is looking at me with disgust. I loved ice cream as a kid, but I wasn’t very adventurous. I think the only flavors of ice cream I ever ate as a kid were Vanilla, Chocolate, Chocolate Chip and most often Chocolate Chip Cookie dough. It made me realize that in all of my research on new popular ice cream trends, kid friendly flavors are few and far between.
I did a little research (and I’ll admit some taste testing) with our lab and put together a list of some of the concepts/flavors we have come up with in the past few years that really had kids in mind. I think I would have even passed over my beloved chocolate chip cookie dough for a few of these when I was a kid. Maybe in the next few years we will see a trend of the popular ice cream flavors being the ones we would have gravitated to as a kid.
Playtime Ice Cream– A fun blend of brightly colored yellow, blue and red ice cream with a flavor reminiscent of Play Dough. I got to try this ice cream when our lab made it up and it was a blast from the past. The colors and taste are just like the favorite childhood toy. We also did a version of this sugar cookie pieces mixed in that was very good. Our palettes may change as we grow up, but it doesn’t mean we can’t cut loose, have some fun and actually be allowed to eat the play dough every once in a while.
Peanut Butter & Jelly Ice Cream– Peanut butter ice cream swirled with a ribbon of grape jelly variegate. This is a great combination that tastes just like sandwich.
Sidewalk Chalk Ice Cream– This is a fun variation on cotton candy flavor ice cream. It is a blend of pink cotton candy ice cream and blue raspberry ice cream sprinkled with pink and blue confectionery chips.
Firecracker Ice Cream– Red Cherry, Blue Raspberry, and White Lemon with pop rock candy mixed in swirled together to create a fun and patriotic treat. The pop rock candy make it really fun and it would be so much fun for the Fourth of July!
Can’t Wait for Brownie’s Ice Cream– A delicious brownie batter flavored ice cream with a chocolate fudge ripple. It’s like licking the brownie batter right out of the bowl without all of that pesky salmonella danger.
Snack Cake Ice Cream– Sweet yellow cake flavored ice cream with pieces of yellow cake swirled with a whipped cream ripple. It tastes just like those classic yellow snack cakes!
Good Night Blue Moon® Ice Cream– Blue Moon®flavored ice cream sprinkled with tart blue raspberry candy pieces and swirled with a sweet blue frosting ripple. Blue moon is a popular flavor here in the Illinois/Michigan/Wisconsin area that has a very strong following. The Chicago Tribune did a really good article on it a few years ago that is a good read. You can find it here. The flavor is best described as a fruity cereal in milk type flavor. It is also commonly used as the blue portion of Superman ice cream.
French Toast Ice Cream– Cinnamon egg custard ice cream sprinkled with either brown sugar cinnamon bits or sticky bun pieces and swirled with a maple syrup variegate. Who hasn’t wanted ice cream for breakfast when they were a kid? Now they can at least have breakfast for ice cream.
Birthday Cake Ice Cream– This has been popular for a few years now. We have done two different versions: Yellow Cake flavored ice cream with yellow cake pieces, confetti, and swirled with a chocolate frosting ripple and White Cake flavored ice cream with confetti pieces and swirled with a blue frosting ripple. You can make if feel like your birthday even if it is your un-birthday.
Superman Ice Cream– This is a classic flavor that I have heard of being made many different ways. Some people use vanilla ice cream with blue, red and yellow coloring. We did a version that is Yellow Lemon, Red Fruit Punch, and Blue Raspberry ice cream blended together. There is a new superman movie coming out next year.
Dino Sour Ice Cream/Sherbet– Black Cherry flavored ice cream in a dark red/purple color blended with Lime Sherbet with a Neon Lemon Lime Color. Blended at a 2/3 1/3 ratio. The black cherry and lime flavors work really well together plus it’s the coloring of everyone’s favorite purple dinosaur!