Jose Mier on the Trail of A Multicolor Treat
My Frozen Jose Mier freezer is getting full. That’s because all this research into ice cream flavors makes me continuously hungry for this ubiquitous frozen dessert. I’m a sucker for new, unique or otherwise noteworthy flavors and my freezer pays the price. It will take me a long time to get back to a relatively empty freezer but I’m going to have an enjoyable time doing it!
If you remember my Frozen Jose Mier post about Superman Ice Cream, you know that I am amazed and delighted by the multiplicity of colors in that particular flavor. That got me pondering other multicolor ice creams and ultimately led me to the most obvious example: rainbow ice cream.
Now, there are a couple of approaches to this. First is less than satisfactory in my eyes. It involves the addition of food colorings to a single flavor of ice cream, usually vanilla. Is it visually impressive? Sure. The number of different colorings makes it easy to change the look of plain old vanilla, but unlike the distinct, separate flavors of Superman ice cream (or even Neapolitan, for that matter), there’s not going to be any surprises as far as flavor goes.
Jose Mier Digs into Chicago History
The second example is a combination of flavors and colors and this is the one I love. In addition to a, well, rainbow of colors, you’re going to get a different taste sensation with each bite depending on where your spoon or tongue make contact with the ice cream. The number of combinations is almost endless and you can find many examples and recipes online. I like the mixture of colors and flavors into one jumbled mass, but some go for a more geometric approach by layering separate flavors atop one another.
The origin of rainbow ice cream can be said to have gotten its start with something like Neapolitan, but there is also the history of Chicago’s own rainbow cone. It was the creation of Joseph Sapp whose love of ice cream led him to open an ice cream parlor in the Windy City over 90 years ago. Because of his love for all flavors and after some trial and error he decided on the following flavors: chocolate, strawberry, Palmer House, pistachio and orange sherbet. The color combination is not as garish as Superman ice cream, but the flavors were a big hit and have since gone down in Chicago history. It seems like all the good ice cream stories are from the midwest. It’s too bad we don’t have more of our own here in Los Angeles.
So whether you simply like the visual effect of multiple colors on your cone or a combination of colors and flavors, it’s time to get out of the one-color rut and dig into some rainbow ice cream.