Is Anyone Else Getting Tired Of The Bizarre Ice Cream Flavors?
While people love both pizza and ice cream, they typically don't eat them together. We guess no one told Van Leeuwen's that because they invented a pizza ice cream that sounds diabolical or great depending on who you ask. They're also the mad scientists behind Kraft macaroni & cheese ice cream as well. Meanwhile, Ben & Bill's Chocolate Emporium in Bar Harbor, Maine continues the New England stereotype of throwing lobster on everything with its butter-flavored, crustacean ice cream. Have ice cream flavors gone too far this time?
One just has to look at Baskin Robbins promoting Chick'n and Waffles as its Flavor of the Month as a sign of the times. However, if you're becoming tired of all these bizarre ice cream flavors, you're not alone. In fact, several reviewers, such as a Redditor on r/food, have called out the pizza ice cream flavor for tasting "kinda like a cold mozzarella stick." Meanwhile, one YouTube reviewer who taste-tested pizza ice cream, complained, "ice cream's supposed to be sweet. This tastes like tomato soup." More and more people are rejecting bizarre flavors for tried and true classics.
Finding comfort in the familiar
Critical reviews of some of the weirder ice cream flavors fault them as playing off of the idea that what we love separately, we will love together, such as the aforementioned pizza and Kraft macaroni & cheese ice creams. One brave reviewer at Buzzfeed found that the latter mac n' cheese flavor was off-putting and texturally gross, adamantly insisting that these contrasting flavors should forever remain apart. Meanwhile, New York Post panned a guacamole ice cream flavor as making them "want to chug from the nearest bottle of Listerine."
Bizarre ice cream flavors can be seen as a bit like novelty items or marketing gimmicks. While they do draw plenty of attention and discussion, sometimes it's best to just stick with the classics. In fact, people seem to prefer classic ice cream flavors more than any other. When you examine the most popularly consumed flavors, vanilla claims first, followed by chocolate (per Daily Herd Management).
So why do most people prefer plain old vanilla over some of the strange ice cream flavors out there? Dessert shop La Gelati attributes it in part to the universal appeal of vanilla and the fact that it is used as an ingredient in many other aspects of cooking. It's the old idea of finding comfort in the familiar. One scientific study even found that eating vanilla ice cream can provide a positive mood booster (via The Guardian). And who doesn't want to feel good?