My DM was from RI. I'm a Midwesterner. She drank root beer floats. I drank black cows. Just the two ingredients AFAIK -- no chocolate syrup.

Between Thanksgiving & new year peppermint ice cream. It's the only time of the year its available. Summer time fresh strawberry ice cream is my flavor of choice.

Bpath, yes, way back when i drank Coke, a Coke Float was really good and a treat my DM made for us sometimes. Her favorite to make for us though was a Purple Cow. Most have never heard of it, but it's Welch's grape juice and Vanilla ice cream. No soda, no other grape juice, it had to be the real deal Welch's. She even had a little poem about a purple cow she would recite whe she made it and of course we giggled. I've made it for our kids and all our grandkids, and they all loved it and talk about it often. And the poem.

Anyone else being inspired into impulse purchases? Tillamook Campfire Peanut Butter Cup. I liked it, good balance, not overdone.

Rating ice cream seems a lot like rating wine! Up here in PNW we like both the Tillamook brand as well as the Umpqua brand. Both are based out of Oregon & both readily available in most grocery stores.

Outside, was it this poem?

I never saw a Purple Cow,
I never hope to see one,
But I can tell you, anyhow,
I’d rather see than be one!

My dad used to recite that with us! It’s old, published in 1895 by G. Burgess.

As for me,

I never HAD a purple cow.

I someday hope to try one.

(not sure how I will feel about it, though.)

(Funny, I always thought the poem was by Ogden Nash. Or did he have something to do with the one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater? We had debates as to whether he was purple, or ate only purple people. It would have been helpful back then to know if there were a hyphen involved. We were a language-loving nerdy family.)

I’ve read that Kirkland (Costco) Vanilla ice cream is made by Humbolt Creamery of California. It is really good!

"Up here in PNW we like both the Tillamook brand as well as the Umpqua brand."

Agree! Tillamook is my favorite. Have you been to Tillamook and seen the ice cream being made? And all the cheese too?

Jamoca Almond Fudge or a good coffee ice cream. My husband likes plain ol' vanilla. preferably Trader Joe's.

Yes! That was the poem! I have no idea who authored the poem, but my mother may have known. She must have run across it in school at some point.

I remember I never saw a purple cow - I never hope to see one-. Wasn't that by Ogden Nash?

I remember that so well from elementary school. I wonder if they teach that now. Going to have to ask DD......

and yes Tilamook is very good. We also have and like Handel's....but my new found favorite is a one locaton place. It's a dairy farm with the most beautiful delightful restaturant/cafe..It's called September Farms, in Honey Brook Pa.

I've only been there maybe 5 times but it is to die for . Luckily, it's about 40 minutes from home. I get the Peanut Butter Overload or Explosion I can't remember...and I am in heaven. They have a beautiful porch with Adirondack chairs, some rocking, and heaven it is.

September Farms

@sephia_wa Yes, have been to Tillamook & have toured their facilities. Tillamook cheese is favored in my household too.

@bpath The Purple Cow poem!! I’d forgotten about it but boy do I remember it!

Ogden Nash wrote this poem:

The cow is of the bovine ilk; One end is moo, the other, milk.

The Purple Cow was written by Gelett Burgess as bpath mentioned.

Both great poems.🐄

An article I saw this morning prompts this question: sherbet or sherbert? According to the article I read, when words come into a language from an unrelated (or very, very, distantly related) language and writing system, spellings can be all over the place. So, both spellings, and more, of the frosty treat have been used over the past few centuries. I remember Austin, the Jeopardy! contestant who caused a bit of ruckus over it.

So, which do you say? And which way do you spell it?

I say sherbert (burt)

I remember my gran sending us Liquorice Sherberts from England.

They were a powder in a tube with a stick of liquorice stuck in them.

LOL, and now that I look them up, they’re spelled sherbet.

I always said sherbert🤷‍♀️ I learned something today.

Wow I guess I didnt read carefully. I thought GB was the other poem. Anyway how did we all grow up thinking it was Ogden Nash? I (wrongly, clearly) think I remember a book of Ogden Nash poems that had that in that. Maybe it was a book that had some Ogden Nash poems and I didn't read that too carefully either?

It's interesting but not maybe not surprising to hear such praise about Tillamook products from PNW folks. I've never found its stuff to be anything more than of perhaps mid-range quality. Similar to products from other high volume producers. Its competitive and modest individual item prices suggest that's where they aim to be.

I'm not that familiar with the company, or with Oregon, but we encountered a Tillamook Dairy visitor center when driving down the Oregon coast during a PNW driving trip. It may have been in the town of Tillamook (I just looked at a map) but it's been almost 10 years since that trip and I'm not certain. It was a very busy place.

Rox - I think it's spelled sheUrbet in Canada. ;-p

Yo’ co’ld be right, LoneJack.

I work with a lot of people in/from the PNW. They're all die-hard tillamook fans.

I can take it or leave it.

My favorite ice cream brand is Häagen-Dazs, followed by Blue Bell.

When I lived in Texas, I loved the Blue Bell commercials that said, ”Why does Blue Bell ice cream taste so good? Because it’s from Brenham, and the cows think Brenham is heaven.”

When I worked in a hotel in Dallas, which hosted a lot of business travelers, one evening a guest checked in with his company host. The host asked if two spoons could be sent to the room. Of course, said I, looking quizzically at him. He held up a paper bag. ”Blue Bell ice cream. They don’t have it in (wherever the guest was from).” I couldn’t help but laugh ”Cookies and cream?” “Of course!” he said.

I find Haagen Dasz a little too creamy (and a little too hard to spell.) We used to have a local, well, next state but sold here (and made by a relative) ice cream called Swiss Gourmet, and their competitor Valpo Velvet. It was god, and I heard a lot about how the storage and transport of ice cream affects the flavor and texture. He stopped selling it to one local store because the freezer temperature fluctuated too much.

My current faves, because I’m always changing, are the local sweet shop, Breyer’s, and Tillamook.

In my younger days my favorite was Butter Brickle, but it's no longer available, at least not locally. It was sold by High's Icecream which is no longer in business.

I remember Butter Brickle!

Tillamook is the best of the supermarket offerings here in Oregon. Of course it's not as good as homemade ice cream from a mom and pop store. We have Umpqua, Breyer's and Dreyer's but it's been many years since I've bought them so I can't compare, just recall they weren't as good as Tillamook. I like their Old-Fashioned Vanilla--tastes like custard from the custard stand--not very vanilla-y, just a fresh cream flavor. I like to eat it in a wafer cone and pretend I'm eating custard, which I can't get here (except for Dairy Queen).

Our Kroger-owned store, Fred Meyer, sells a very good coffee ice cream under the Private Selection label. It's only sold in pints.

More than 30 years ago we were in Hawaii and discovered Lappert's ice cream. The best ice cream ever! We were so excited to discover that a small coffee shop near our new home in California carried Lappert's. And equally disappointed that recently they moved to smaller location and didn't have room for ice cream! My favorite flavor was Kauai Pie which is Kona coffee ice cream with macadamia nuts, coconut and fudge swirl.

My normal ice cream favorite flavor is pistachio. Ben & Jerrys has the best pistachio. Hagen Daz is a close second.

Also, a few years ago Tillamook changed their recipe to include egg yolks in most flavors. Maybe there are less gums used in their ice cream than other store brands. I don't think any other brand uses egg yolks, except in French vanilla.

One of the appeals of Tillamook cheeses is that they are rennet free. This is a critical point for vegetarians.

" Tillamook is the best of the supermarket offerings here in Oregon "

Are you comparing it to store private label brands and not to premium brands? The upmarket types usually rate highest (perhaps because of higher butterfat content). The likes of Ben&Jerry's and Haagen-Dazs are more expensive than store brands but for folks for whom ice cream is just an occasional treat, not not so much more as to be unaffordable for most people.

Egg yolks are a plus, they make any food taste richer.

'One of the appeals of Tillamook cheeses is that they are rennet free. This is a critical point for vegetarians "

Interesting. But appealing in that way to such a small percentage of the cheese buying public isn't going to boost it very much to a higher market share.

I'm not a vegetarian and the T cheese I've had has seemed pretty ordinary. Especially compared to higher quality cheese brands that seem to have a lot more flavor. Given how little of it most people consume, choosing to buy higher quality cheeses isn't that expensive a shopping preference to have.

Umm - I wonder about the number of vegetarians in OR / WA - based on restaurant food offerings I’m not sure it’s a small percentage! I have zero data to feel this way - only my impressions based on food menu offerings. I do frequent higher end eating establishments & because I have a vegetarian sibling I do make note of veggie options. They’re always increasing in number.

ETA: I don’t disagree that there are higher quality cheeses - I do love sampling them!

@bpath, the info was right there in the song:

” I said, ”Mr Purple People Eater, what’s your line?” He said, ”Eatin’ purple people and they sure taste fine!” ”

Thanks, colleen! I think we were more amused by the sound of the words and arguing than actually listening and learning (hmm, I hope we outgrew that.)

Here’s an article in my feed today about “best” vanilla ice cream. Spoiler: the winner was TJ’s French vanilla, the rest were vanilla/vanilla bean. I don’t know about you, but to me French vanilla is its own flavor, separate from ”plain” vanilla.

Here’s the article: https://shopping.yahoo.com/home-garden/kitchen/article/best-vanilla-ice-cream-160409990.html

@Czarinalex, iirc Lappert‘s has one of the (if not the) highest butterfat content ice creams sold commercially unless things have changed. When I travelled a lot to or thru Hawaii, Lappert’s original stand on Kauai was one of our regular stops. And I almost always made time for a quick cup of my favorite in the airport prior to leaving Oahu. I can recall hearing anout their expansion to California and was envious they were getting the brand and not the east coast.

Some of the best ice cream I have had in the past was at college campuses that were heavily into agricultural sciences, especially dairy. Most have some small sales operations for beef and dairy products. The first I ever visited was at PennState. The last one was at Mississippi State. Both had excellent offerings, even tho a small number of flavors. So if you ever find yourself near one in any state, check it out.

Tillamookmoon products have made their way into Publix in the south. So far what i have tried is ok (for cheese) but it has not blown me away. It did not when we were in Oregon a few years ago either. We have not tried the ice cream, preferring our favorite Mayfield or Blue Bell, or even Publix Premium. Publix gives you a free half gallon of Premium in your birthday month. I am not turning down free ice cream!

" Some of the best ice cream I have had in the past was at college campuses that were heavily into agricultural sciences "

It's been awhile since I was last there but Cornell has a fantastic Dairy Bar that I think is part of its Ag school. The ice cream is super delicious. It's been too long ago since I was last there, for me to think about how it may compare with commercial brands but it was very, very good.

Off topic but Cornell used to have an Orchard Store. Unfortunately, it closed a few years ago. The school has long been involved in work to develop new types of apples and it has extensive orchards. The Orchard Store was like others of its type, a way to get recently picked delicious apples. A wide range of varieties, including new ones in development. Fresh off the trees. I think all the apples grown now are sold to produce wholesalers, as they mostly had been before.

My beloved espresso chunky chip was a Dairy Bar flavor. Gosh what a fun trip down memory lane. 😊 And the apples were so good, and so cheap!

It was at the Orchard Store that I first encountered the Northern Spy apple. I'd never seen them before, they may not be grown in the West. Similar to my favorite, the Newtown Pippin, but different. A super tasty apple type.

My favorite ice cream flavor is Mamey, which I buy as paletas, and these are available at truck stops along I-5 between L.A. and Sacramento.

My second favorite is Guanabano, which I bought at the Mar Vista farmers' market in L.A.

My favorite flavor to make is Cherimoya, which was easier when I had a cherimoya tree, but they sell cherimoya at the Mar Vista market. A lot of cherimoya is grown around Santa Barbara.

What is sad is that ICE agents have been arresting ice cream vendors here in Coachella Valley, and I do not hear their music anymore. It is especially sad to see their abandoned carts.

My favorite gelato flavor to buy in Italy was hazelnut (nocciola), but Kevin's favorite was pistachio, which I taught him how to pronounce correctly in Italian (pistacchio), with a "K" sound instead of a "CH" sound.

Yesterday we had frozen yogurt at Yogurtland in Denver before going to the airport. Because it was self service, I ended up getting too much, and at least six different flavors, but I liked all of them. I was especially happy that they had coconut.

Coconut ice cream reminds me of being on the beach in Mexico.

I'm in Italy at the moment. I had a coffee ice cream last night which was superb. Made in the café where I bought it using the espresso from their machine. Really strong black coffee flavour and not too sweet. Perfect. It's a toss up between lemon and coffee for me. Choice depends on the intensity and quality of the flavour.

Ciao @floral_uk z.8/9 SW UK ! Your coffee ice cream sounds heavenly!

Did you have ice cream instead of gelato? Ice cream has more air than gelato.

My favorites are German Chocolate (chocolate ice cream with coconut & pecans) from Braum's. Sadly no Braum's here in Wisconsin. The other one is Lemon Pie from King Cone, a very small family owned local ice cream maker/ store.

I love Mutts!

Google helped me find the brand of Chocolate Mac Nut ice cream we loved on Maui: Roselani! It would fly off the shelves.

A local grocer, Heinen's (headquartered in Ohio), celebrated Ice Cream Day over the weekend: Three containers of Tillalmook for ten dollars. I'm not overly fond of Tillamook ice cream, but I did buy some Peaches & Cream. I haven't tried it yet. Tillamook seems to me to be less 'dense' than premium brands. It's easier to scoop out of the container.

I realize the recipes and methods are a little different but it feels pretentious to me to say 'gelato' unless I'm speaking Italian. So in English I just call what I'm eating here 'ice cream'.

Tonight's was a scoop of coffee and one of hazelnut.

I send my husband to the store. He picked out two containers of ice cream (one vanilla, one chocolate) and brought them home. Turkey Hill brand (as mentioned above).

I have to agree with whomever said it's not premium ice cream. It is not that good, at all. Likely, I'd buy it for a kid's birthday party or something but it won't be in our freezer again.

Hershey sells

Whitehouse Cherry

Vanilla ice cream with Maraschino cherries

https://hersheyicecream.com/whitehouse-cherry-premium/

I'm not sure that's available in my area. I did look it up though, thinking it was affiliated with the chocolate company, and found that it's not. But thanks.

Hands down, my favorite ice cream flavor is Black Raspberry.

It was nearly impossible to find when I lived in California - apparently a regional favorite that is sold mainly in New England down through Pennsylvania.

A local dairy has a flavor called purple cow which is my favorite .rasberry with dark and white chocolate pieces never seen the flavor anywhere else