Persephoneers! Greetings and salutations!
It’s hotter than Hades here in lovely NYC and I’m bored (and broke) off my ass because almost all my students are currently abroad; what better way to ensure I remember what day of the week it is than to run another dairy-based bracket, this time focused on the sweet, cooling deliciousness that is ice cream??
First, some important notes: This is a contest of flavors, as opposed to comparisons within the spectrum of frozen deliciousness. You will find no Italian ices, no sorbet, no chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches in this bracket; marvelous as they all are, that’s an entirely different ballgame. Nonetheless, this is also distinctly about ICE CREAM – not chocolate as a flavor vs. vanilla as a flavor, but chocolate ice cream vs. vanilla ice cream (it makes a difference!). Of course, this also allows the contest to extend easily into highly similar forms of churned creaminess; Tofutti, Coconut Dream, various frozen yogurts – all are well within the purview of your consideration.
As with this past Winter’s Cheese Bracket, the individual options should be read as inclusive of closely related flavors; for instance, if Cherry Garcia is your cream of choice, vote for it as Cherry/Cherry Vanilla. This may mean a bit of finagling – would chocolate mint chip fall under chocolate or mint chocolate chip? – but I’m sure we’ll all manage fine.
Finally, the selections: I relied on Baskin Robbins, various lists of the most popular ice cream flavors (which tended to be U.S.-based), and, of course, tumblrsourcing. There is definitely some personal bias present; deal with it. I did try to be inclusive of modern additions to the repertoire, such as Green Tea and Red Bean; added the semi-generic not-exactly-a-flavor Moosetracks, under duress; and tried to avoid too much overlap. Most of the flavors will be highly familiar; a few are more regional – for instance, I have never encountered Cinnamon ice cream, which I have on good authority is a very popular version, while plenty of others I heard from had never had Black Walnut.
This bracket will start with four contests per day, Monday-Thursday; the winners of Round 1/Week 1 will be announced on Friday. Round 2/Week 2 will be two contests per day, with the final rounds played out over Week 3.
Peruse the bracket! Stake your claims! Bitch about exclusions! Visit the freezer section of your nearest grocery! And VOTE for your crème de la crème!
24 replies on “I SCREAM, YOU SCREAM, WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM!!!”
Will you be including Spumoni icecream?. The vanilla, chocolate, pistachio, and cherry mix has always been my absolute favorite!
Alas, no Spumoni, because it’s not *nearly* as widely available as it should be; unlike, say, mint chocolate chip, you can’t really imagine what it tastes like until you’ve had it, and too many people haven’t had it.
Also, damn you, now I want spumoni.
oh now this a bracket I can get into! I love all sorts of chocolate add-ins to my ice cream. Mr. Sally J is a die-hard mint chocolate chip fan. I’ve known him for 15 years, and I’ve never known him to order anything but MCC. I feel like he hasn’t lived, he feels that he’s eating the only flavor worth eating. It’s weird.
Every year, my town has a BBQ festival, and one of the participants makes home-churned ice cream. It is my favorite. Sweet potato souffle, with tiny pieces of sweet potato and a few pecans here and there. It makes me so happy. Like – one small tear in your eye happy.
It may not make it on the list, but if you ever get to try it – do.
Holy crap, that sounds fabulous! Never had sweet potato in ice cream, although it shouldn’t surprise me (especially given my love and admiration for a particular flourless sweet potato chocolate cake).
Sweet potato chocolate cake?? I want a recipe for THAT!
Yes, another bracket! It brings out the best/worst* passionateism in PMag’neers.
* cross out whatever is appropriate.
I am clearly not a sports person because…. um…. am I voting for one? or one for each bracket in this round?
You’ll be voting for one ice cream in each contest–a contest being the two matched up against each other. So for instance, the first day you’ll be voting in four different contests, picking one from four different match-ups.
Will Dublin Mudslide be a contestant? Or any variant of Bailey’s ice cream with chocolate things in it? Because Dublin Mudslide (a B&J flavor) changed my life. My recent foray into home made ice cream has created an excellent nectarine flavor and a nutella flavor that will blow your mind.
I may be going into overload here. I LOVE ice cream. I feel sad if I have gone a few days without it. (this is not good for my waistline of course). I may cry at many points during this bracket. Emotional investment: I haz it.
SADLY, because that’s such a specialized (and rare) flavor, nope, it’s not in the bracket. The only liquor is in rum raisin… but also, I wanted to stay away from what I consider “made-up” flavors of the sort B&J has been putting out the last five or ten years. I am interested in the basics, more than anything else, because when all manner of special and unusual varieties are added, half the voters will never have tasted half of the options!
I mean, I LOVE black pepper and sweet corn ice cream, but I can’t justify putting it in a bracket, ’cause how many people will be able to vote based on experience?
You should absolutely share your favorites, though. Including recipes, hint hint wink wink nudge nudge.
Okay, I just had chocolate-lavender ice cream and all the other ice creams can go to hell now because DAYUM.
I’ve been on a hunt for greek frozen yogurt lately. I’ve been told that Ben & Jerry’s versions are delicious, but really, I think that B&J’s put too much crap in their stuff (blueberry crumble, strawberry shortcake). I just want something simple and on the tart side, but have only come up with Adonia Mango greek frozen yogurt as a (delicious, but still too sweet) contender. Anyone? Bueller?
The B&J stuff is not loaded in the sense that the ice creams are. The raspberry is definitely the best. I have no idea if any other tart frozen yogurts are available in groceries.
Oh yeah? That’s good to know that B&J don’t destroy froyo the way they destroy ice cream (imo). Thank you for the tip! As for tart frozen yogurt, I guess I’ll keep looking. But (almost lactose-free) kefir will have to do in the meantime.
Oh pistachio my love! I shall fight for thee!
Mmmmmm…..seconding pistachio. I can only have a kid-sized ice cream (boooo lactose intolerance).
That’s rough, but at least you can still enjoy it a little bit. And I’m totally with you on B&J putting too much stuff in their ice creams. Sometimes all you get is the filler, which is sad cause their plain ice cream has such a good texture and rocking flavor.
I’m glad that I’m not the only one. My whole family love B&J’s, but I just don”t think it’s very good.
Oh for your sake I hope that’s not their go-to ice cream. I’m lucky in that we have Braums where I live, so my family doesn’t really ever bring B&J home.
Cinnamon ice cream is pretty good, but my favorite is banana chocolate chip, when made with fresh bananas. It’s dreamy.
Cookie dough vs. Cinnamon in round 1? NO! Cookie dough is my absolute fave, but cinnamon is freaking fantastic too, just hard to find. I can’t wait for this to start!
I tried to find a real cinnamon before starting this, but to no avail! I ended up jerry-rigging my own with vanilla Haagen Dazs, but I’m sure the real thing is different.
A ridiculous factoid about frigg: I’m really kind of meh about ice cream. Â Maybe I’ll eat an ice cream cone once a year if it’s super hot and I’m with someone who is having one. Â If I never ate ice cream again I wouldn’t feel like anything was missing in my life.
If I am going to have ice cream it has to be mint chocolate chip. Â Mmmm.