Typically, when Cascadia Daily News reporters and editors gather around the gargantuan conference table adjacent to our office, it’s to discuss heady topics such as water adjudication, election coverage and pending story ideas.
But on a recent afternoon, we were there to eat ice cream. Lots of it. In advance of National Ice Cream Day — which this year takes place Sunday, July 16 — we decided to taste-test handmade fare from area ice cream shops, pick the winners and share our results. The categories were simple: tastings would include vanilla and chocolate, with zero toppings.
The night before the big event, pints from each of the contestants were procured at Mallard Ice Cream, The Selkie Scoop, Acme Valley Ice Cream Cafe, and the Community Food Co-op, which carries Lopez Island Creamery products at both Bellingham stores.
A friend of the CDN dished out small servings for each of the eight judges, who didn’t know whose ice cream they’d be eating. Each was asked to choose their No. 1 flavor favorites of the vanilla options and the chocolate choices.
Sounds easy, right? It wasn’t. Pretzels were provided as palate cleansers and taking notes was necessary to remember which bite stuck with us. Overheard were comments ranging from the simple (“yum,” “no” and “hmmm?”) to more complex. (“One of these was the clear top vanilla ice cream. One was very clear, this is awful.”)
While each of the four ice cream purveyors received both positive and negative responses, it was clear people’s tastebuds vastly differed when it came to choosing what they liked. At the end of the day, it came down to personal preference.
One scoop-slinger was a clear winner. Mallard Ice Cream received five out of eight votes for its vanilla ice cream and tied with Acme Valley for its chocolate ice cream. Both establishments received three votes apiece for their chocolate offerings, with The Selkie Scoop receiving the other two votes in that category.
Mallard has been making micro-batch gourmet ice cream with an emphasis on organic ingredients and locally grown produce at its Railroad Avenue headquarters since 2001, so it’s no surprise they were a fan favorite.
Rhonda Prast, CDN’s new managing editor, touted Mallard’s vanilla dessert in her comments, noting it was creamy and rich, but not too sweet.
“I would eat more, much more,” she wrote. “[It] reminds me of root beer floats of my childhood.”
Environmental reporter Julia Lerner agreed with Prast’s description, calling it a “classic vanilla” that reminded her of “childhood trips to a baseball game.”
Digital Editor Jaya Flanary — who’d guessed the winning vanilla was from Lopez Island Creamery, but was incorrect in her evaluation — noted it tasted as if it came “straight out of the udder.”
Intern David Nuñez and Executive Editor Ron Judd were the only dissenters regarding Mallard’s vanilla ice cream, with the former declaring it “tastes like number 2 (Lopez Island Creamery), but with lower-quality ingredients” and the latter saying it was “OK” and had a “smooth texture but [is] bland.”
When it came to the chocolate winners, assessments were all over the map. Judges either loved Acme’s chocolate ice cream or gave it the thumbs down. Assistant Editor Audra Anderson said it was “thick, sticky, fudge-y” and had a nice texture, while Nuñez was curt in his review, saying it “tastes like medicine.”
Similarly, judges reacted with strong opinions to Mallard’s chocolate ice cream. Parsed phrase included “better depth of flavor,” “reminds me of chocolate milk,” “hint of malt” and “I imagine this is what chocolatey sawdust is like.”
Unlike last November’s inaugural CDN Ranch-off — which saw each contestant whipping up their own ranch dressing and relying on food writer Mark Saleeb to pick a favorite — nobody took negative reviews personally.
“The only thing that’s keeping us civil right now is because we didn’t make these,” Flanary said. “At the ranch competition, things got nasty.”
According to the International Dairy Foods Association, the most popular ice cream flavors in the country are vanilla, chocolate, cookies n’ cream and strawberry. We narrowed our lens on two of these flavors, but are well aware there are a number of options at each of the aforementioned locales for people to taste-test on their own. On National Ice Cream Day, make it your mission to find a favorite.
