In search of
the ideal
ice cream
Ice cream Smooth, cool, creamy ice cream It’s the one thing
besides springtime that makes living in Eugene worthwhile.
You see, Eugene has more than its share of ice creameries, with a
variety of flavors and styles Depending on one’s tastes, the Ideal Ice
Cream could be found in a .number of places, from the high tech pink
plastic chain restaurant to the “new kid on the block,’’ an “authentic
Italian" ice cream place with Italian top-40 songs on the stereo
Although the specific flavor and
qualities of the Ideal Ice Cream is a
hopelessly individual choice, we at
distractions wanted to establish an
objective comparison, some sort of
overall ranking of some of the local
ice cream shops Also, it was a hot
evening and we were hungry
Because of the limited size of our
pocketbooks and our stomachs, we
were forced to limit our study to
shops in the general area of the
University campus Because flavors
vary from shop to shop, and because
you will never find two people who
agree on their favorite flavor, we felt it
necessary to sample a variety of
flavors At the same time, each shop
has its specialties, so we also or
dered what the friendly scoopers
recommended as the most popular
flavor Then we remembered that
many people go for ice cream
especially for sundaes, while other
people only like cones, so we had to
take that into account
In the end, we ordered a hot fudge
sundae and two cones (one our
choice and one which the friendly
scooper suggested as the most
popular flavor) from each ice
creamery Our four judges then not
ed the serving size, texture, flavor,
appearance and overall enjoyability
One judge also tested the ice
creams' ability to stick to his clothes
Although we had intended to
go through our list alphabe
tically, a lack of communica
tion and some confusion
about the alphabet led us to our first
stop Gantsy's.
Gantsy's is sort of like the old time
soda fountains you’ve seen pictures
of. only aged slightly, and with
luminous yellow and green paint.
They sport an extremely long list of
flavors — we stopped counting at 78
Some of the flavors are a bit exotic,
like Moolky Wayee and the
now-defunct Chicken Ripple, but no
one can say they don't have a good
selection Our choice was Irish Cof
fee The friendly scooper recom
mended German Chocolate
"I get a slight refrigerator
flavor . . ” started Refrigerator
Mouth
‘ Yeah,” agreed the Quiet One,
“like it's been
‘Stored!" finished Conehead
Slurp, slurp, chomp, slurp Drip
’It's very milky, rather than
creamy Thin, very light and milky,
with little ice crystals."
"That's because it’s been stored,"
deduced Conehead triumphantly
"But it’s still ice "
“I just got a strand of coconut
about an inch long!” announced
Banana Hater
"Are you sure? You sure it's not
something else?”
Banana Hater paled slightly. Slurp,
slurp, chomp, slurp.
“This cone stinks! Can you smell
that?” said Conhead
"Awww, you just don’t like plain
cones It smells nice and cone
ish.”
Slurp, slurp, chomp, slurp.
After ascertaining that the sundae
was topped with a real maraschino
cherry (not a red grape) and with real
continued on page 4