Thursday, February 24, 2011

State of the Freezer


I know, I know, over two weeks late for my quarterly state of the freezer address. I've been  a big ball of who knows what lately, but I just read something totally shocking.... and then I just realized I didn't read closely enough. I got scared when I saw that Gifford's ice cream was having trouble with it's handful of retail stores. Thing is, the trouble is for Gifford's of Maryland, not my local Gifford's of Maine. Weird coincidence... no no, wait, not a total coincidence. Hey, if you've got ten minutes, check out this lengthy Washington Post article about Gifford's (of Maryland) which happens to mention a trademark battle with Gifford's (of Maine) among other things. It's a shocking read really because this guy that stuck it to Gifford's is also the guy who bought a bunch of Brigham's ice cream shops in Boston, and then drove them all into the ground. The saddest part is Gifford's knew this guy was trouble, but went through with the deal anyway. Man, what ever happened to common sense? ...ok, if you want to get really ironic, how's this: The bad guy in our story, the man who broke Brigham's stores, well, he was selling Hood ice cream instead of Gifford's. Hood bought Brigham's ice cream lines almost 3 years ago. Wait, I don't think I said that with enough irony.

Ok, enough about that, what else do we have? Well, I've been trying hard not to overload the freezer with too many choices, but now we have another problem. You see, when I go to the grocery store, I pace back and forth several times and I have the worst trouble trying to pick something new. Now spring is approaching so we should have some new products on the market soon. I also have some ideas in my heads about how to kind of fill in the missing review holes 'til then. I won't get into it too much detail incase my vague plans don't go well and I change my mind.

I made a rubber ball band today....

Oh, I'd like to take a minute to apologize to my fellow bloggers. Blogging is very much an interactive activity and I've spent way too much time off in la la land to keep track of my fellow foodies. Watching other sites also helps fill in the gaps of all the places I can't (or won't) visit. With that said, that young whipper snapper Rodzilla has bested me to the latest Ben & Jerry's flavor yet again!! Make sure you go check out the first shots of Clusterfluff, Late Night Snack, and Red Velvet Cake, plus a review of Red Velvet cake. Hmmm, I wonder if he knows that soon there will be pints of Bonaroo Buzz? You do realize all this Ben & Jerry's talk makes me like I need to stop for ice cream on the way home now right? What else do we have out there? Well, GrubGrade has a review slamming of the new "triple thick" strawberry shake and the Impulsive Buy just posted a review of new Häagen-Dazs Limited Edition Blueberry Crumble.

Ben & Jerry's 2011 new pints (so far)

Red Velvet Cake: red velvet cake batter ice cream with red velvet cake pieces cream cheese frosting swirl
Late Night Snack: Vanilla bean ice cream with a salt caramel swirl & fudge covered potato chip clusters
Clusterfluff: Peanut Butter Ice Cream with Caramel Cluster Pieces, Peanut Butter & Marshmallow Swirls
Bonaroo Buzz: Coffee & Malt Ice Creams with Toffee Chunks & a Whiskey Caramel Swirl

What else? Oh yeah, if you go into draft.blogger.com, you can turn on a mobile theme! I was flipping through food junk and grubgrade with my blackberry at lunch when I discovered they had installed mobile themes, so I went digging and sure enough I found the option in blogger. It works pretty well on my wife's iPod, but not so much on my blackberry. I'll have to have someone with an android phone test it too. I don't get a ton of mobile traffic, but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

Oh, I can't forget to talk about the Poll results (and get a new poll up there). The question I asked was "What's the best seasonal flavor?" and quickly a heated battle started up between Peppermint and Pumpkin! With 346 votes total, and a neck and neck race for well over half the race, I now declare Pumpkin the surprising winner here!

Pumpkin 127 (36%)
Peppermint 98 (28%)
Egg Nog 51 (14%)
Ginger (Snap - Bread) 38 (10%)
Bring on Spring! 22 (6%)
Other 10 (2%)

Ok, geez, I hope that's it for the moment. Be well all, and go have a scoop of ice cream!

5 comments:

  1. I have never had B+J's (expensive, and with my situation at USU, why spend money on B&J) but that Late Night Snack flavor sounds good. Our creamery just released a new flavor called Midnight Munchies which is like rocky road meets cookie fudge with added nuts. They're also supposed to add a cake flavored ice cream too :)

    In other news, Shamrock shake is back, CFA is introducing a new shake, and I have to hit up my Arctic Circle.

    Now I want some ice cream :)

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  2. Thanks for the mention, Dubba! The Bonaroo Buzz was to the left of the 3 I snapped a pic of - just not as noteworthy in my book.

    @Adam, I can't believe you've never had it. Definitely time to change your tune. I'm looking forward to a review of the new CFA shake.

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  3. Ha! The surprise three you got are definitely the big news for me as well, nice find!

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  4. @Rodzilla,

    Trust me, when you get unlimited flavors of fresh made Utah dairy at your all-you-can eat college dining hall, you don't spend a ton of money on ice cream. :)

    Perhaps I will have to do some kind of "head to head" post?

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  5. being so late with your state of the union post, i think you should have to buy everyone who comments on this post some free ice cream. it's only fair.

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