Scooper Bowl 2010...oh how we already miss you!

From the desk of Bethany: 

I think it would be kind of cool for both Tina and I to wrote a little about the Scooper Bowl and since I am on the couch relaxing and catching up from the Annual Ice Cream Party (more to follow) I thought I would take a bit of time to write my post.


For me, the Scooper Bowl always kind of kicks off the summer for me, even though the weather this year was kind of dreary and overcast and chilly to say the least...


This was a pretty cool Scooper Bowl though. A month or so ago we got an email from Russell over at Ice Cream Geek (your super awesome source for the science behind the ice cream making...) saying he'd be in Boston (from Dallas) for the Scooper Bowl this year. I have to admit, T and I were both slackers about replying and then when we did reply, we suggested we meet at the end or even after because the usual Scooper Bowl craziness seemed a little tough for meeting a new ice cream friend. But it turned out the Scooper Bowl was a little emptier thanks to the dreary weather and we ended up meeting Russell and his lovely wife Kathey in the confines of the Bowl's fences. (That's me, Tina, and Russell above.) What fun people! We had a nice time talking ice cream (favorite flavors of the day, the science behind ice cream -- the kind of stuff people with an ice cream obsession might talk about...) Tina had to get back to work but I had some time before my next meeting downtown. I joined Russell and Kathey for lunch at Wagamama (a favorite of theirs from their days in Sydney -- and, we come to find out, all three of the United States locations are in Boston so they just had to go!) Anyway, conversation continued to follow with talk of ice cream (well, duh) and some recommendations of Boston tourism. We really had a great time and hope to see them at next year's event!

From the desk of Tina: 

I agree with Bethany that Scooper Bowl is such a kick off to the summer and an event that really gets us excited to launch into our busy blogging season. It gets us chatting about all the different brands and flavors and how we might be able to do it better (no all the time of course but we try!). So since I work right around the corner in the city we usually do an ice cream lunch and I have one precious hour to hit up all the flavors or as many as I can handle. It's not as easy as you think to have 30 scoops in one hour. Really have to be selective. And this year it was even more exciting as Bethany mentioned we hooked up with another ice cream blogger whose wife labels him "The Alton Brown of Ice Cream"...seriously he truly knows the science of ice cream...so cool chatting with another person so into the art. So B and I did our rounds then went for seconds with Russell and Kathey before I had to unfortunately go back to my desk and try not to fall into an ice cream coma (very difficult by the way). 

As you can see below we had some favorites. Each year we see many of the same flavors but I am always excited for what's new. My favorite from the "what's new" category was Ben & Jerry's Bonnaroo Buzz. LOVE the coffee and malt ice cream and then the whiskey caramel swirl was as they say in Boston Wicked good! Others worth noting from me....Brighams' Peppermint Stick, Ciao Bella's Key Lime Graham Gelato, Haagen-Dazs Caramel Cone, and Gifford's Chocolate Lover's Chocolate.

All in all this event never disappoints even if the weather didn't work on our behalf (actually the rain helped us...so much less elbowing for scoops) and I want to thank Dana for supplying us with tickets to raffle off to our lucky winner Laurie (we'd love to hear all about your visit Laurie!). I can't believe I have to wait another year for this but it really got me excited for what's ahead during these next couple hot months.

Of course, a Scooper Bowl post wouldn't be complete without some flavor reviews, so we've posted below all the flavors and our comments...


The list below is copied from the Scooper Bowl site, and is the ranking from their "Text Your Favorite" -- our comments are next to it each (if we tried it). Bethany in orange, Tina in pink...

Ben & Jerry's® Boston Cream Pie	10.40% I had actually already tried this one the day before, but I LOVE it. I LOVE the custard (pudding?) swirls...Definitely a favorite of the day.
Ciao Bella Gelato® Key Lime Graham Gelato	9.30% Yum. Tina's recipe might be better though! Discovered this in NYC a couple years back and its always been at the top of my list...super creamy, refreshing and full of flavor.
Häagen-Dazs® Caramel Cone	9.30% I love anything with Caramel in it but this one is awesome..
Baskin-Robbins® Wild 'n Reckless Sherbet	7.00% Wow. I don't know about this one. Purple, blue and green and super sweet. Certainly not refreshing as many sherbets are. (pictured in top photo)
Ciao Bella Gelato® Mango Sorbet	7.00%
Baskin-Robbins® Superfudge Truffle	5.70% Um, yum if you love chocolate and lots of it. (pictured in top photo)
HP Hood® Fenway Fudge	5.70%
Ciao Bella Gelato® Blood Orange Sorbet	4.70% LOVED this. SO refreshing and wonderful. And wonderful color! Wasn't my favorite but tons of flavor and refreshing.
Breyer's® Cherry Vanilla	3.50% Breyers is local and I feel badly saying this, but I have never been the biggest fan of Breyers. That being said, I might have to change my mind, I LOVED this.
Brigham's® Cookie Dough	3.50% Pretty good. Nothing special.
Ben & Jerry's® Bonnaroo BuzzTM	2.30% I tasted Tina's. Probably would have liked it more if I liked alcohol and coffee flavoring. LOVED it! Probably my favorite new flavor I tried. I love coffee ice cream and malt flavor so that with the whiskey caramel swirl was awesome. B&J never disappoint.
Ben & Jerry's® Milk & Cookies	2.30%
Breyer's® M&M Vanilla	2.30%
Edy's® Birthday Cake	2.30% Always a favorite. I am a birthday cake ice cream nut! I love how Edy's swirls in frosting into their version. This is a fave of mine from Edy's.
Garelick Farms/Gifford's® Cherry Amaretto Chocolate	2.30% Oh, yum! It was just okay for me but I am not a huge cherry fan.
Garelick Farms/Gifford's® Chocolate Lover's Chocolate	2.30% Very rich. Now I know why this one got "the world's best chocolate ice cream" at the World Dairy Expo....rich and awesome.
Garelick Farms/Gifford's® Maine Lobster Tracks	2.30% This was good, but I got no lobsters in my entire scoop!
Häagen-Dazs® Bailey's® Irish Cream	2.30% Super smooth and flavorful. Could probably only eat a little due to the strong flavor but do like it.
Häagen-Dazs® Lemon Sorbet	2.30%
Baskin-Robbins® Premium Churned Light Mint Oreo®	1.20% Not fair I missed this one and Mint is my favorite.
Ben & Jerry's® Hannah Teter's Maple Blondie	1.20% So not a fan. This was either too maplely or too fake tasting. I am leaning towards the latter because I LOVE the maple ice cream I make that uses an entire cup of dark amber maple syrup per quart, tastes so yummy, and doesn't taste like this ice cream.
Ben & Jerry's® Phish Food®	1.20% Probably my favorite B&J flavor...the light version is just as good too.
Breyer's® Chocolate	1.20%
Breyer's® Strawberry	1.20%
Brigham's® Mocha Chip	1.20%
Brigham's® Peppermint Stick	1.20% (pictured in top photo)
Ciao Bella Gelato® Malted Milk Ball Gelato	1.20% Good, but again, Tina's might be yummier. She'll need to share her recipes! Good but I think I liked mine better with dark chocolate chunks in it and a little stronger malt flavor.
Edy's® Maxx Chocolate Cookies & Cream Collision	1.20%
Edy's® Maxx Chocolate Peanut Butter Chunk	1.20%
HP Hood® Rainbow Sherbet	1.20%