Ice Cream Store's taste testing contest results announced

Nearly 1,000 people sampled 21 new flavors and voted for their favorites at the recent The Ice Cream Store’s Fifth Annual Ice Cream Social and Taste Testing Contest, and the results are in.

Crack Ice Cream won by a landslide, earning almost 25 percent of all first-place votes. Tasters describe owner Chip Hearn’s combination of Brown Shugah Vanilla ice cream base with pasteurized egg yolk, butter and sea salt as a perfect smooth and creamy blend of tastes, like old-time homemade vanilla. Many say they were immediately addicted, and hooked by the egg flavor.

“This is definitely a keeper,” said Hearn, amid speculation that Crack has him leading the race for another National Ice Cream Retailers Association award for the best vanilla ice cream in the country.

Four flavors came within three votes of each other to vie for second place. Tasters described Peanut Butter Oreo as a gorgeous flavor, and Traffic Jam’s strawberry/African vanilla base with peaches, cranberries and black cherries had people raving about the different textures of the fruit and the “very berry good taste.” Some claim Chocolate Red Velvet Brownie to be the best red velvet they ever had; and blue raspberry ice cream-based Zombie, with its bloody strawberry swirls, cut up gummi fingers, marshmallows and gummi eyeball topping, promises to be the newest favorite for children and those who are children at heart.

Not far below them, the next three flavors were separated by only two votes: Blood Orange, Chocolate Hazelnut, and Authentic Butter Brickle.

Based on the results, Hearn will be adding at least nine of the new flavors to The Ice Cream Store’s extensive list of ice creams that have been nationally recognized for taste and originality. Included will be the novel Ghost Pepper Ice Cream that is made with three extreme hot sauces.

Ghost Pepper is a concoction so hot that people must sign a waiver before tasting it. Only 63 people did so. While most chile heads say it is a great-tasting fun flavor, some lament that it is not hot enough. For others, it has too much heat. One taster writes, “I now have hair on my chest!”

“This event is about two things,” Hearn said. “Awesome ice cream and fabulous people. They tell me what they like and want, and that is what we give them.”

Located on Rehoboth Avenue at the Boardwalk, The Ice Cream Store opens daily at 11 a.m., and will be opening at 8 a.m. on weekends and during the summer season. For more information call 302-227-4609 or go to RehobothIceCream.com.