Pop! Magazine

July 2020

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I. Love. Food. Really, I do. Food will never betray you. Food will never break your heart. It is something that we all rely on to get through our days. Literally.

We would die without it. Foodies come in all different shapes and sizes. You can never be too old or too young to enjoy the extravagant tastes of your favorite dish. You can never know too much or too little about food. However, it is no secret we can all agree on one thing about food: it’s delicious.

Pop! Magazine strives to target all kinds of different people because there are all different kinds of people who consume it; pretty much everyone, right? Pop! informs fellow food lovers about their favorite types of food and others that they may not be knowledgeable about. We strive to provide readers with new ways to look at the foods they eat or might not eat everyday while also giving them a visual experience to these foods as well.

Fun, out-of-the-box, never the same. These are some of the words I would use to describe each issue. The personalization of each headline omits expression to the print. The fact that the headlines are so different from one another also matches the playfulness of the people reading the magazine. I really wanted this magazine to resonate with people and be able to relate to it.

This magazine is be shown on a shelf to make you want to see what’s going on inside Pop! wants to achieve storytelling not only through words, but through visuals as well. We are pushing major amounts of colors and illustrations in this publication in order to keep the audience visually entertained while reading informative pieces throughout the magazine. I hope you enjoy reading and viewing it as much as I did designing it.

Maddie Mitchell

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DEPARTMENTS

02 06 14 18 Editor Letter

Travel

08 10 16

Do-It-Youself

Healthy Eating?

CONTENTS

Infographic

America’s Top 10 Ice Cream Flavors

While vanilla has reigned supreme as the world’s favorite ice cream flavor for many years, a new report shows that it may be at risk for losing that position soon. So what other flavors rounded out the list?

Cover Story

Ice, Cream, and Chemistry

Ice cream is not just for kids. U.S. residents consume 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream each year. The ice cream we all enjoy is the result of years of experimentation involving—you guessed it—chemistry!

Feature

What Makes Ice Cream So Addictive?

A team of researchers looked at which types of foods could be the most addictive. They found out that the most problematic foods tended to be those that contained a lot of sugar and caused a spike in blood sugar.

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TOP 10 PLACES IN THE WORLD

TO EAT ICE CREAM Food Journeys of a Lifetime | National Geographic

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Capogiro Gelato, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Made with the freshest ingredients, the artisan gelatos and sorbettos handcrafted each day at Capogiro Gelato include flavors not seen anywhere else—Madagascar bourbon vanilla, melograno (pomegranate), nocciola Piemonte (hazelnut), Saigon cinnamon, Thai coconut milk (with a dash of rum), and zucca (long-neck pumpkin).Planning: Capogiro has four cafés in Philadelphia.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, St. Louis, Missouri

Made from fresh cream, eggs, and sugar, frozen custard is a mid-western dessert that looks, tastes, and acts like its close cousin, ice cream. The stand on Grand Boulevard has been open since 1931, serving frozen custard in cones, shakes, root-beer floats, and house specialties, such as Hawaiian Delight and Crater Copernicus. Planning: Drewes has several locations in St. Louis.

Bombay Ice Creamery, San Francisco, California Some of the planet’s best Indian ice cream can be sampled here, in the Hispanic Mission District. On offer are flavors such as chiku (sapodilla), cardamom, chai-tea, saffron, rose, and ginger, rarely found beyond the Indian subcontinent.

Traditional kulfi (a frozen milk dessert) is also on the menu, plus lassi (yogurt drinks).Planning: The opening hours change with the seasons, so check before planning a visit.

Devon House, Kingston, Jamaica Built in the late 19th century as the home of Jamaica’s first black millionaire, Devon House is a masterpiece of Caribbean Victorian architecture and home to the island’s most celebrated ice-cream stand. The 27 flavors run a broad gamut from traditional cherry and pistachio to exotic island treats like mango, coconut, and soursop. There is even an offbeat, beerbased ice cream called Devon Stout. Grab a cone and recline in the sprawling gardens.Planning: Devon House is in central Kingston. Admission includes a tour of the house and access to the gardens.

Heladeria Cadore, Buenos Aires, Argentina Argentina’s capital has no shortage of ice cream shops.

Heladeria Cadore, in the busy theater district, is a favorite.

The Olivotti family brought their generations-old process from the village of Cadore, Italy, to Buenos Aires in 1957 and have occupied the same storefront ever since. Try the chocolate with Cointreau, dulce de leche granizado, or lemon mousse.

The best part? Heladeria Cadore delivers. Planning: Heladeria Cadore is at Avenida Corrientes 1696.

Ted Drewes Frozen Custard in Saint Louis, Missouri.

(Alexander Smith)

Ice Cream City, Tokyo, Japan With dozens of stands selling more than 300 flavors between them, Tokyo’s appropriately named Ice Cream City offers some of the planet’s more unusual ice creams, from soy chicken and orchid root to sea-island salt and unagi (eel).

If you have more conventional tastes, Italian gelato and American ice cream sundaes are also available. Planning: Ice Cream City is part of the food-themed section of the Namja Town amusement park in the Sunshine City shopping complex 15 minutes’ walk from Ikebukuro station.

Glacé, Sydney, Australia Glacé is celebrated for its cutting-edge, ice-cream-based desserts, such as bombe Alaska, checkerboard terrines, and chocolate-dipped petite fours. Rose petal, vanilla bean, strawberry pistachio, and Belgian chocolate count among its signature flavors. Planning: Glacé has one retail outlet, at 27 Marion Street in Sydney’s Leichhardt district.

A’jia Hotel, Istanbul, Turkey

There is nothing more romantic than a summer evening beside the Bosporus, especially when you are having ice cream on the outdoor terrace of the A’jia Hotel. The dessert menu includes fried vanilla ice cream, passion-fruit sorbet, and traditional Turkish dondurma (ice cream) made from goats’ milk. Planning: Located on the western shore of the Bosporus, the A’jia is a 19th-century mansion transformed into a hip new waterfront hangout.

Vaffelbageriet, Copenhagen, Denmark

Tivoli Gardens amusement park is the venue for this centuryold ice-cream outlet. The specialty is ice cream served in a large waffle cone, called the Amerikaner, which takes up to four scoops plus syrupy topping, whipped cream, and chocolate-covered meringue puff (rather than a maraschino cherry).Planning: Tivoli Gardens is in central Copenhagen, and is open from mid-April through late September. The entertainments include concerts, rides, and 40 restaurants.

Perchè No!, Florence, Italy

Vaffelbageriet Ice Creamery in Copenhagen, Denmark.

(Vaffelbageriet Facebook)

Going since 1939, Perchè No!—Why not!—sells intensely flavored ice cream produced fresh on the premises each day. The selection varies, but favorites include honey and sesame seed, green tea, and a rich coffee crunch with pieces of chocolate. They also sell a wide assortment of fruit sorbets and granitas. Planning: Perchè No! is in Via dei Tavolini, about two minutes’ walk from the Duomo.

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vanilla

Vanilla is America’s favorite flavor for a reason: it’s simple and goes with everything. Ice Cream expert Cary Frye, explains, “Vanilla has long been the best-selling ice cream flavor because of its ability to enhance to many other desserts.”

PAIR WITH strawberry sauce, butterscotch, or sprinkles

chocolate

Chocolate ice cream is a favorite because it can be rich or light.

PAIR WITH strawberries, cookie crumbles, or hot fudge

COOKIES & CREAM

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MINT CHIP

Cookies and cream is a new take on vanilla.

This is also great ice cream for waffle cones.

PAIR WITH cookie dough, caramel, or sea salt

This minty ice cream is a favorite because it’s refreshing, light with sweet chocolate chunks.

PAIR WITH chocolate sauce, shavings, or oreos

COOKIE DOUGH

It combines America’s favorite warm treat (cookies), and America’s favorite ice cream (vanilla).

PAIR WITH chocolate sauce, peanut butter cups, or marshmallow cream

Buttered Pecan

This is a crowd favorite because it has saltiness to cut through the sweetness.

PAIR WITH crushed toffee pieces, blueberries, or caramel popcorn

It includes rich butter cream frosting, sprinkles, and cake pieces.

PAIR WITH strawberries, whipped cream, or M&M candies.

Strawberry MOOSE TRACKS

Neapolitan

This is a classic fruity ice cream that goes great on its own or in a banana split PAIR WITH caramel sauce, pineapple, or bananas

There’s enough going on that it doesn’t need to be a sundae, it’s delicious all on its own.

PAIR WITH butterscotch, whipped cream, or cookie dough

The perfect mix of sweet things. This would be fun to use in a banana split because every scoop could have all three flavors.

PAIR WITH hot fudge, cherries, or mini peanut butter cups July 2020 3

Brian Rohrig | American Chemical Society

There is perhaps no fonder childhood memory than the local ice cream truck driving through the neighborhood, music blaring from its tiny speakers, beckoning all to partake of its frosty delights.

But ice cream is not just for kids.

U.S. residents consume 1.5 billion gallons of ice cream each year; that’s roughly 5 gallons (19 liters) per person! The ice cream we all enjoy is the result of years of experimentation involving—you guessed it—chemistry!

If you have ever made ice cream, you already know what goes into it, ingredients such as milk, cream, and sugar. But there is one main ingredient that you may not have thought about, probably because you can’t see it—air.

Why is air so important? If you have ever had a bowl of ice cream melt, and then refroze it and tried to eat it later, it probably did not taste very good. If you set a whole carton of ice cream on the table and let it melt, the volume of the ice cream would simply go down. Air makes up anywhere from 30% to 50% of the total volume of ice cream.

To get an idea of the effect of air on ice cream, think of whipped cream. If you whip air into cream, you get whipped

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The amount of air added to ice cream is known as overrun. If the volume of ice cream is doubled by adding air, then the overrun is 100%, which is the maximum allowable amount of air that can be added to commercial ice cream.

The less expensive brands usually contain more air than the premium brands. One side effect of adding a lot of air to ice cream is that it tends to melt more quickly than ice cream with less air.

The amount of air also has a huge effect on the density of ice cream. A gallon (3.8 liters) of ice cream must weigh at least 4.5 pounds, making the minimum density 0.54 gram per milliliter. Better brands have higher densities—up to 0.9 grams per milliliter. The next time you visit a grocery store, compare cheaper and more expensive brands by holding a carton in each hand—you should be able to notice a difference. Then read the net weight on the label to confirm your observation. Due to the high fat content of ice cream, however, and because fat is less dense than water, any ice cream will always be less dense than any aqueous solution, otherwise you would not be able to make root beer floats!

Ice cream is an emulsion—a combination of two liquids that don’t normally mix together. Instead, one of the liquids is dispersed throughout the other. In ice cream, liquid particles of fat—called fat globules—are spread throughout a mixture of water, sugar, and ice, along with air bubbles (Fig. 1). If you examine ice cream closely, you can see that the structure is porous. A typical

air pocket in ice cream will be about one-tenth of a millimeter across.

The presence of air means that ice cream is also a foam.

Other examples of foams are whipped cream, marshmallows, and meringue

(as in lemon meringue pie). Some of the most common ingredients in ice cream include ice crystals, air, fat globules, sugar (sucrose), and flavoring agents (such as vanilla).

Milk naturally contains lactose, or milk sugar, which is not very sweet. Ice cream makers need to add a lot more sugar than you probably realize—usually sucrose or glucose. Cold tends to numb the taste buds, making them less sensitive.

So more sugar needs to be added to produce the desired effect at the low temperatures in which ice cream is usually served. If you taste ice cream at room temperature it will taste overly sweet. You may have noticed this same effect with carbonated soft drinks. If consumed warm, they taste sickly sweet. In parts of the world where soft drinks are normally consumed warm, there is less added sugar. If these same soft drinks were served cold, they would not taste sweet enough.

A big reason why ice cream tastes so good is because of its high fat content. Unless it is labeled as light, low-fat or non-fat, ice cream must contain at least 10% fat, and this fat must come from milk. (You cannot use lard when making ice cream!) Before milk is homogenized, a thick layer of cream rises to the top. This cream has a high fat concentration—up to 50%—and supplies most of the fat in ice cream.

Premium ice creams may have up to 20% fat, which gives it a velvety, rich texture. Reduced fat ice cream does not taste as good as the real thing, and tends to lack the creamy texture.

Although fat is frequently vilified, it has its purpose. Most foods that taste delicious probably contain fat. Fat fills you up, so you don’t have to eat as much to feel full.

The problem with using fat as an ingredient in any food is that it doesn’t mix well with a lot of other substances. Fat is non-polar, meaning positive and negative charges within the fat molecule are equally dispersed. A polar substance, such as water, has separate regions of positive and negative charge—one end of a polar molecule has a partial positive charge, and the other end has a partial negative charge.

Polar and non-polar substances do not mix. Just like oil floats to the top of water, the fat content in ice cream has a tendency to separate out, as well.

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cream. Whipped cream has a different texture and taste than plain cream. Plain cream tastes sweeter than whipped cream. Just like ice cream without air, pure cream has a sickly, overly sweet taste. This is because the structure of a substance can have a big effect on how it tastes, and that the structure often controls the rate at which flavor molecules are released into the mouth. The larger the structure (ice cream, in this case), the longer it takes for the flavor molecules to be released. Flavor molecules that really trigger receptors on the mouth and tongue.

Without ice cream, there would be darkness

and chaos.

—Don Kardong

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When ice cream touches the roof of your mouth, it may trigger a cold headache. The cause is a dilation of blood vessels in your head located above the roof of your mouth.

When this nerve center gets cold, it seems to overreact and tries to heat your brain.

Because ice cream is an emulsion, you would expect that the fat droplets that are present in the mixture would separate after some time, similar to a bottle of salad dressing in which the oil separates from the rest of the dressing. When you shake up a bottle of salad dressing, the two parts come together. But after a few minutes, they begin to separate. That’s because the oil droplets interact with one another, a process called coalescence.

In the case of milk, each fat droplet is coated with a layer of milk proteins that prevents the fat droplets from interacting with one another. These milk proteins act as “emulsifiers”— substances that stabilize emulsions and allow the liquid droplets present in the emulsion to remain dispersed, instead of clumping together. Because these milk proteins have a non-polar side, and because like dissolves like, the nonpolar sides of the proteins are attracted to the non-polar fat globules. This is good in milk, but not so good in ice cream, in which the fat droplets should coalesce to trap air.

So another emulsifier is added to allow the fat droplets to coalesce. This emulsifier replaces milk proteins on the surface of the fat droplets, leading to a thinner membrane, which is more likely to coalesce during whipping. A common emulsifier is lecithin, found in egg yolks. Lecithin is a generic term that refers to a group of molecules that consist of long chains of fatty acids linked to a glycerol molecule, along with choline and a phosphate group.

Chemical structure of a type of lecithin called phosphatidylcholineLecithin inserts itself between the fat globules, which helps the fat globules to clump together and, as a result, the air bubbles that are present in the mix are trapped by this partially coalesced fat. This adds firmness and texture to the ice cream, enabling it to retain its shape.

Closely related to emulsifiers are stabilizers, which make the texture creamy. Stabilizers have two roles: First, they prevent large crystal formation. In the presence of stabilizers, ice cream contains small ice crystals that are easier to disperse and, therefore, they melt more slowly than larger ice crystals would. Second, emulsifiers act like a sponge by absorbing and then locking into place, any liquid in the ice cream.

Common stabilizers are proteins such as gelatin and egg whites. Guar gum, locust bean gum, and xanthan gum can also be used. Look for carrageenan and sodium alginate on the ingredient label of your ice cream container. Both are derived from seaweed! Without these stabilizers, ice cream might look like a milkshake.

Once you get all of the ingredients together in a mixture, you need to freeze the mixture to form ice cream. The dissolved solutes (mostly sugar) in the liquid portion of the mixture lower its freezing point. A freezing point depression of 1.86

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°C occurs for every mole of solute added to 1 kilogram (kg) of water. In other words, if you dissolve one mole of sugar in 1 kg of water, water will no longer freeze at 0 °C, but rather will freeze at –1.86 °C. Freezing point depression is a colligative property, meaning that the effect is observed regardless of the specific identity of the solute—all that matters is how many moles are dissolved. A typical batch of ice cream will freeze at -3 °C (27 °F), due to the presence of all the dissolved solutes.

A recent trend is ice cream made with liquid nitrogen. One shop in San Francisco, Calif., aptly named Smitten Ice Cream, has a viewing area where customers can watch ice cream being made with liquid nitrogen, accompanied by the impressive plume of fog that is released. Liquid nitrogen, which boils at –196 °C, will freeze ice cream almost instantly. Because the ice cream freezes so quickly, the size of the crystals is small, resulting in a creamy texture. And because it boils when it hits the mixture, the ice cream is aerated during the process. The popular Dippin’ Dots are also made using liquid nitrogen.

It is no exaggeration to say that ice cream made with liquid nitrogen is the coolest ice cream around! Softserve ice cream, frozen custard, and frozen yogurt. What is the difference?

Regular ice cream is typically served at –12 °C, while soft-serve ice cream is served at –6 °C. This higher temperature is responsible for a softer product. Soft-serve ice cream, or soft serve, for short, contains less fat and more air than regular ice cream. Soft serve with insufficient air will have a yellowish color. The whiter the soft serve, the better the quality. As ice cream melts, you may have noticed this yellow color, which is simply the actual color of the ingredients used to make it. By adding air and fluffing it up, ice cream is better able to reflect white light, producing the white color.

This is because the molecules in ice cream are large enough to reflect visible light (whereas, for example, water molecules are too small to reflect visible light, because the size of a water molecule is smaller than the wavelengths of visible light).

Frozen yogurt is making a huge comeback these days, with self-serve frozen yogurt shops offering a plethora of toppings popping up seemingly on every corner. Frozen yogurt is viewed as a healthier alternative to ice cream, unless you top it off with a generous helping of gummy bears! It does contain less fat, but that means you can eat more without feeling full. And to compensate for less fat, often a lot of sugar is added. The biggest difference is that instead of cream, yogurt is added as the primary dairy product. From there, the process is similar to making regular ice cream.

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Ice cream refreshes the soul and life. Some say, ‘I’m going out to get a fresh air’. Eat ice cream and fresh up your life.

—Rajani LaRocca

1

Margaret Thatcher, former prime minister of England, helped to develop the formula for soft-serve ice cream before she entered politics, while working as a chemist in the food science industry.

2

Soft-serve ice cream was born on Memorial Day in 1934 when an ice cream salesman broke down and had to sell his melting ice cream, which was a big hit.

3

Modern-day ice cream was accidentally discovered in 1782 by Martha Washington, wife of the first U.S. president, who left a bowl of cream on the back steps of her home one night, and in the morning found it had hardened into ice cream.

4

The infamous Roman emperor Nero had slaves bring ice from the mountains so he could enjoy chilled desserts by pouring fruit juice and honey over the ice.

5

Ice cream sundaes were invented in the late 1800s in New York to circumvent the law prohibiting the serving of ice cream on Sunday, hence the name.

6 7

The Eskimo pies were originally called “I Scream Bars.”

Explorer Marco Polo was the first person to bring ice cream to the New World, bringing the recipe from China.

8

The ice cream cone was invented in 1904 during the St. Louis Exposition when an ice cream vendor ran out of bowls and substituted rolled up waffles instead.

9

The ice cream sandwich was invented by Earl of Sandwich, in England.

ANSWERS 1:F, 2:T, 3:F, 4:T, 5:T, 6:T, 7:T, 8:T, 9:F

Frozen custard differs from ice cream in that it contains at least 1.4% egg yolks. The egg yolks are made of lecithin, an excellent emulsifier. The result is a product with a smoother, creamier texture. Another difference is that custard contains much less air than ice cream. No air is mixed during its manufacture; instead, air is introduced during mechanical agitation as the frozen custard is being made. It is churned more slowly during its manufacture to minimize the amount of introduced air. Less air leads to a thicker, denser product. Frozen custard is typically made fresh each day in the store. It is frozen quickly to prevent large crystals—of water, lactose, or any added sugar—from forming.

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HOW ICE CREAM W RKS Ed Grabianowski | How Stuff Works Whether it’s being made in your kitchen with a hand crank, at a local homemade ice cream shop with a stand-alone ice cream maker, or in a factory that cranks out thousands of gallons of ice cream every day, the process of making ice cream is basically the same. The only difference is the scale of the operation.

whipped. In a factory, this happens in a giant tube surrounded by pipes. The pipes contain chemicals such as ammonia that freeze the tube, but the ammonia never comes into contact with the ice cream. The ice cream mix is pumped through the tube, where it gets cold very quickly. A dasher, or blade, turns inside the tube. This whips the mixture, introducing the air bubbles that help give ice cream its structure. The dasher also scrapes the sides of the tube, clearing off ice crystals that form there. This prevents large ice crystals from ruining the flavor and texture of the ice cream. All the elements of this process are carefully monitored and controlled by computers.

Most homemade ice cream shops use a batch freezer for this step, where the same process happens on a smaller scale.

This step can be accomplished at home with a rock salt/ice mixture for freezing and a hand or electric cranked dasher to mix and scrape off the ice crystals.

Homemade popsicle made from yogurt, berries, and frozen. (Daniel Oberg)

First, you need ice cream mix. You can buy commercially made ice cream mix that is set to a certain milk fat content.

Ice cream factories usually make their own mix by combining milk, cream and sugar in a 3,000 gallon vat, with the proportions and mixing controlled by computers. The mix is then pasteurized, or heated, to kill any harmful bacteria. If you were to make your own mix at home, you could pasteurize it by cooking it in a double boiler, or use an egg substitute or pasteurized egg product. This step is important, because otherwise people who eat your homemade ice cream could get sick due to salmonella contamination. According to the Centers for Disease Control, those most at risk include the elderly, very young children, and people with compromised immune systems.

The next step in production is adding flavor to the mix. There are thousands of varieties of ice cream, so just about any combination of flavors is possible. From vanilla to cinnamon, chocolate to triple chocolate fudge brownie, it all gets blended into the ice cream mix. In a factory, this step takes place in vats that hold hundreds of gallons of ice cream, while giant steel paddles do the mixing. In your kitchen, a large bowl and a food mixer will work, or even a wooden spoon and muscle power if you want some exercise. Solid chunks such as pieces of fruit, chocolate chunks, marshmallows, and candy are added later.

Once the ice cream has come out of the ice cream maker, the process isn’t finished. At this point, the mixture is frozen, but still soft. Large chunks of candy and other goodies are now added. Then the ice cream is placed into containers. Factory machines pour it straight into cartons or buckets, or it can be extruded into shapes that have wooden sticks placed into them for individual treats.

Now the ice cream needs to be reduced to a very low temperature, zero degrees Fahrenheit or below. Factories make it even colder since they need the ice cream to stay frozen while it is packaged and loaded onto trucks. It needs to be very cold to freeze the ice cream quickly and prevent the formation of large ice crystals. This process is known as hardening. “Soft-serve” is often simply ice cream that has not gone through this process.

Handcrafted ice cream topped with various sweets and goodies. (Ho Hyou)

The next step is where an ice cream making machine comes into play. The mix has to be simultaneously frozen and July 2020 15

WHAT MAKES SO ?

Lisa Drayer | CNN Ahhh ... just thinking about why ice cream is so “addictive” brings with it cravings for the sweet frozen treat. Even as a nutritionist concerned with healthy eating, ice cream is one food I can’t give up.

Maybe it has something to do with the way the coldness hits my mouth on a hot summer day. Or the creaminess of every bite. Or the chunky chocolatey chips.

Or maybe it’s that the thought of ice cream evokes happy memories of special times shared with my family in Sag Harbor, New York, where enjoying ice cream after dinner while walking along a pier lined with boats is a weekly ritual.

Whatever the reason, I know I’m not the only person that has regular cravings for ice cream. According to the International Dairy Foods Association, the average American consumes more than 23 pounds of ice cream per year. That’s more calories than we’ll ever want to know.

It even shares one key resemblance to other addictions.

According to one recent study, the more often we eat ice cream, the more of it we may need to satisfy the craving.

Aroma, as one’s mouth warms the ice cream, melts the ice and releases volatile components of any given flavor.

Acidity, or tartness, that can positively influence a fruit flavor or negatively influence a non-acid flavor such as vanilla.

Taste, as in is the ice cream sweet, salty or savory, or some combination of these?

Texture, as in is the ice cream smooth and creamy, coarse, icy or gritty?

Temperature, as hard-pack ice cream should be pliable to allow scooping and ready for consumption, between zero and 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

Paying careful attention to temperature during delivery is key, because if ice cream melts and refreezes during distribution and storage, this can damage the air cell structure and create large ice crystals, which can negatively affect the texture of ice cream, Young explained.

The ultimate appeal of ice cream, he explained, is anything that positively influences what he calls the “F-factor,” or “flavor.” And he breaks that down into the perception of any ice cream flavor as a complex combination of six variables:

The No. 1 driver of ice cream cravings is its sweetness, explained Gail Civille, founder and president of Sensory Spectrum, a consulting firm that helps companies learn how sensory cues drive consumer perceptions of products. Ice cream should not be “cloyingly sweet -- so you can eat more of it,” Civille said.

Appearance, or visual appeal of a flavor, which sets you up for what you are about to taste.

The amount of fat is important, too. To even be called “ice cream,” a product must contain at least 10% milk fat, also

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taste’ -- clean dairy notes without any extraneous off-taste or off-flavors,” she said. If a dairy case is lit with LEDs, for example, oxidation in milk may occur, which can make milk taste like plastic, she explained.

So there are many factors that go into an ice cream’s flavor, sensory appeal and ultimate enjoyment. “It’s a complex dance,” Young said. “People agonize over the things we are talking about here.”

Close-up Photo of Person Holding Assorted-flavor Ice Cream on Cone. (Lukas)

called butterfat. Premium ice cream tends to max out around 18% milk fat, which can come from milk, cream or butter.

Here’s where ice cream’s complexity gets even more interesting: Young explained how you can have all the formula and flavor specifics of the very best-selling ice cream, and yet there’s no guarantee that another ice cream meant to “copy” that very same best-seller would taste the same. In other words, there’s something uniquely consistent about what any given brand produces, what it sells and “how it eats” -- a technical term that refers to how the ice cream behaves while it is warmed during chewing.

Because of this, Civille goes as far as dividing ice cream “addiction” into two parts: One is, you can be “addicted” to the frozen treat -- all of its general flavor attributes, including creaminess and sweetness. But you can also be “addicted” to a particular brand.

“The more butterfat, the better the mouthfeel,” said Deanna Simons, the quality manager of Cornell’s Dairy Bar, which produces premium ice cream on campus, including flavors such as Kahlua Fudge and Triple Caramel Bliss. Having a lower overrun, a term that refers to the amount of air incorporated into ice cream, also contributes to an appealing mouthful, according to Simons.

An ice cream lover might be “addicted” to a fun and funky Ben and Jerry’s flavor like Blondie Ambition, with chunks of blondies and butterscotch toffee flakes, whereas someone else might prefer Häagen-Dazs’ smooth and creamy vanilla.

So, sweetness -- which contributes to the taste variable -- and fat -- which contributes to texture and triggers that you’ve eaten something substantial -- are key players in the likability of any particular ice cream. But Civille also points to another interesting food characteristic that plays a very important role in an ice cream’s appeal: control over melt.

Or maybe not. After all, the pleasure we get from slowly savoring a mouthwatering scoop of ice cream on a sweltering summer day counts for something, right?

Perhaps we’ll feel a little less guilty about the large portions of ice cream we actually consume.

The melt should be “not too fast” and “not too slow,” which can make an ice cream feel gummy, according to Civille.

To better understand the concept of melt, thinks of “mix-ins,” such as chocolate chips or nuts. “The ice cream acts as the lubricant,” Civille explained. “The ice cream matrix needs to melt slowly enough so you can get at the pieces and chew them and get rid of them before the ice cream is gone.”

Ice cream companies have perfected the concept of melt by adding a minimum amount of fat, or thickeners and gums, which can mimic the effects of fat if done properly.

Aside from sugar, fat and melt, companies may use differing amounts and types of ingredients to affect the different flavor variables. For example, a manufacturer might use egg yolk in an ice cream recipe, which may contribute a yellowish color and custardy or “eggy” flavor to ice cream.

Irresistible ice creams are also made with high-quality ingredients. For example, making ice cream with good milk (the source of milk fat and milk solids) is a very important, explained Stelick. “The milk should have a ‘very light sweet

Portrait of moose tracks and chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone. (Elza Kurbanova)

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CAN ICE CREAM BE HEALTHY Jesse Hirsch | Consumer Reports Ice cream is one of America’s most popular desserts. Almost 90 percent of people surveyed by the market research firm Mintel said they had purchased it in the previous 6 months. As a cool finale to a Memorial Day cookout or a special sidekick to go with apple pie, it’s hard to beat. For health-conscious eaters, though, the high fat, sugars, and calorie counts prevent ice cream from being a regular snack—even during the dog days of summer.

But now, companies that make the “better for you” frozen treats that populate supermarket freezers want you to be able to dig into a pint of the creamy stuff every day without worrying about weight gain or other health consequences.

With labels touting more protein, fewer calories, and less sugar, these cold treats sound downright nutritious. And consumers are scooping them up. In fact, Halo Top, an early leader in the “healthier” ice cream field, surpassed HäagenDazs and Ben & Jerry’s to become the best-selling pint in the U.S........ in 2017. Get the scoop on vegan ice creams, below.

Wisconsin-Madison. “Now we have ice cream alternatives with a very different range of ingredients and calories, fats, and sugar content,” he says. (There are also flashy flavors, such as caramel macchiato and glazed doughnut.) Ice creams can include gums, thickeners, protein concentrates, sugar substitutes, and even added fiber. Ingredients like those are meant to give low-calorie, low-fat products a taste and texture similar to regular ice cream. But in some cases, their presence allows manufacturers to make claims about lower calories and more protein and fiber.

That may sound like a good thing, but “it’s an example of a way to reduce nutrients you should limit, such as calories and saturated fat, by adding processed ingredients that may have minimal nutritional value,” Keating says.

Consumer Reports recently tested 13 of these frozen treats—a variety of “light” and low-fat ice creams, frozen yogurts, and nondairy frozen desserts, and one “traditional” full-fat ice cream. Each product was rated for taste and texture along with healthiness—including nutrition and ingredients— or the lack of it.

We found some decent options. “I still wouldn’t advise eating any of these every day,” says Amy Keating, R.D., a CR nutritionist and food tester. “But you can feel better about eating some of these products than others.”

Lower-calorie ice creams and frozen yogurts have been around for years, but the newer crop of treats boasts a more drastic reduction in calories, fat, and sugars. In fact, some “healthier” ice creams have about the same calorie count in a whole pint as just a half-cup of premium ice cream, such as regular Häagen-Dazs.

Prominently displaying the number of calories (some with less than 300 per pint) sends the message that you can plow through that container of ice cream in a single sitting without a serving of guilt on the side. And in case you don’t get the hint, the labels encourage you to “go for it” (Enlightened) or “stop when you hit the bottom” (Halo Top).

But just because you can down the whole pint doesn’t mean you should. “Eating oversized portions isn’t a healthy habit,” says Keating. “It encourages you to override your natural hunger and fullness cues, and distorts your idea of what a reasonable serving is.”

In its simplest form, ice cream has just four ingredients: milk, cream, sugar, and flavoring, such as vanilla. For many years, there were limited options in overall ingredients, composition, and flavor, says Scott Rankin, Ph.D..., a professor and chair of the department of food science at the University of

Ice Cream topped with whipped cream and strawberries (Jennifer Pallian)

CR’s tests focused on vanilla-flavored frozen desserts, the most popular flavor in the U.S. We chose 13 products that reflect the growing market. Four were dairy-free and made with coconut milk. (For more on these, see “The Scoop on Vegan Ice Creams,” below.) We also included a regular ice cream and some frozen yogurts and light/low-fat ice creams that included “eat the whole pint” varieties. “We wanted to see how these newer products stood up to ice cream and frozen yogurt, both from a flavor and a nutrition perspective,” Keating says.

It turns out, not so well. At the top of our ratings are a frozen yogurt (Blue Bunny Vanilla Bean) and a traditional ice cream (Breyers Natural Vanilla) with the highest combined scores for flavor and nutrition. Both are recommended and are CR Best Buys.

“Personally, I’d rather have a small amount of traditional ice cream,” Keating says. “But these lighter products can help you cut back on calories and sugars. Still, you should stick to a reasonable serving size.”

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When I’m no longer rapping, I want to open up an ice cream parlor and call myself Scoop Dogg.

—Snoop Dog

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