Coconut Chip is by far my favorite flavor at the Creamery, it's vanilla ice cream with coconut flakes and chocolate chips. It's sort of an unfortunate favorite to have though. Every time a customer asks what my favorite flavor is in order to help them make their decision, I always say Coconut Chip and people always make faces at me. It hurts my feelings to the extreme. I'm very serious about my ice cream.
It's such a good flavor, that is if you like the taste of coconut, and is really easy to scoop. Sometimes too easy to scoop, making it slightly soup-like. The average scoopability would have to be a 2. Not so bad! It's pretty hard to find an ice cream that's a perfect three, believe me.
Even though customers tend to not enjoy my favorite flavor, my fellow members of the "Cream Team" (yeah, we call ourselves the Cream Team. It's a really ridiculous place to work, in case that wasn't already clear. My coworkers are actually all insane.) enjoy it. I like that I'm not alone and can share the flavor I love with my coworkers. If you ever order it, you should get it in a shake! It's delicious!
Speaking of Coconut Chip! I did have a bonding moment with a customer on Saturday Night (Thon weekend) about our mutual love for the flavor. Ice cream can really bring people together! The power of ice cream never ceases to amaze me :)
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Valentines and Ice Cream
Monday was a pretty depressing night at the Creamery. And not just because I was at work instead of spending time with my "sweetie".
It started out as a normal winter night. Meaning, no one was there and all of the employees were standing behind the counter doing the crossword. The few people that did trickle in during the early hours were mostly single guys buying milk (boys in athletic clothes always buy milk, it's just what they do I suppose).
These single guys didn't have the same attitude as the usual milk-boys did though. Each one had a sad look on their face and when I would give my typical "Have a good night!" at the end of the transaction, all I got was a shrug in return. Not even a smile or a "Right back-atcha".
One boy responded to my "Have a good night!" with a "How can I, it's Valentine's Day and I'm alone." Talk about depressing. I stopped working the register after him.
The Creamery was a wasteland of depressed singles sitting at tables the whole night. Up until around nine when all of the people who DID have Valentines finished their dates and came in for some dessert. These couples could not keep their hands off each other! The sight was a like a slap-in-the-face that I was at work and not with my boyfriend, while at the same time being completely revolting.
Let's be real here, high school kids work at the Creamery. They don't need to see your PDA.
So between depressed milk-boys and overly loving couples, I am able to draw out this conclusion:
Creamery + Valentines Day = Disaster
It started out as a normal winter night. Meaning, no one was there and all of the employees were standing behind the counter doing the crossword. The few people that did trickle in during the early hours were mostly single guys buying milk (boys in athletic clothes always buy milk, it's just what they do I suppose).
These single guys didn't have the same attitude as the usual milk-boys did though. Each one had a sad look on their face and when I would give my typical "Have a good night!" at the end of the transaction, all I got was a shrug in return. Not even a smile or a "Right back-atcha".
One boy responded to my "Have a good night!" with a "How can I, it's Valentine's Day and I'm alone." Talk about depressing. I stopped working the register after him.
The Creamery was a wasteland of depressed singles sitting at tables the whole night. Up until around nine when all of the people who DID have Valentines finished their dates and came in for some dessert. These couples could not keep their hands off each other! The sight was a like a slap-in-the-face that I was at work and not with my boyfriend, while at the same time being completely revolting.
Let's be real here, high school kids work at the Creamery. They don't need to see your PDA.
So between depressed milk-boys and overly loving couples, I am able to draw out this conclusion:
Creamery + Valentines Day = Disaster
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
Milkshake Hate
I decided for this week's post that instead of focusing on a single ice cream flavor, I'm going to write about a form of ice cream that I hate. Milkshakes.
Don't get me wrong, I love drinking (eating, slurping?) milkshakes, but making them is another story all together.
Any ice cream flavor at the Creamery can be made into a shake (except for "no sugar-added" flavors because they have an artificial sweetener in them that make people sick if they eat too much, and milkshakes have a lot of ice cream in them). This means that all of the flavors that are just TOO hard can be made into shakes. And as I said before, there's a lot of ice cream in a shake.
So after the ordeal of scooping the ice cream, it is likely that the scooper will be unlucky enough to have to make the shake. Though sometimes there's a designated "Shake Person" who will make all of the scooped shakes, but you have to be really lucky for that to happen.
First, a little cup of milk is added to the ice cream in the metal shake container. After the shake is put onto the "Shake Machine." It takes about two, two and a half minutes to complete the shake. Which means two minutes of constant twisting of the cup, which freezes your fingers, and a horrible screeching sound that happens when the cup gets too close to the metal blender.
Most of the time I don't have to make shakes, because I find something else to keep me busy (dishes, register, mixing sprinkles). But when I do it's quite a miserable time.
The worst thing about milkshakes though is that someone, or a group of someones, will ALWAYS come in and order them five minutes before we close. This means that:
Moral of the story is: milkshakes are delicious and people love them, and we love to make them for you as long as it's not five minutes until close :)
Don't get me wrong, I love drinking (eating, slurping?) milkshakes, but making them is another story all together.
Any ice cream flavor at the Creamery can be made into a shake (except for "no sugar-added" flavors because they have an artificial sweetener in them that make people sick if they eat too much, and milkshakes have a lot of ice cream in them). This means that all of the flavors that are just TOO hard can be made into shakes. And as I said before, there's a lot of ice cream in a shake.
So after the ordeal of scooping the ice cream, it is likely that the scooper will be unlucky enough to have to make the shake. Though sometimes there's a designated "Shake Person" who will make all of the scooped shakes, but you have to be really lucky for that to happen.
First, a little cup of milk is added to the ice cream in the metal shake container. After the shake is put onto the "Shake Machine." It takes about two, two and a half minutes to complete the shake. Which means two minutes of constant twisting of the cup, which freezes your fingers, and a horrible screeching sound that happens when the cup gets too close to the metal blender.
Most of the time I don't have to make shakes, because I find something else to keep me busy (dishes, register, mixing sprinkles). But when I do it's quite a miserable time.
The worst thing about milkshakes though is that someone, or a group of someones, will ALWAYS come in and order them five minutes before we close. This means that:
- the dishwasher has to wash the scooper(s) and milkshake cup(s) (when the dishes were already done)
- the person making the shakes can't do their other job (cleaning glass, wipe down of freezers, etc.)
- the person who just finished cleaning the shake machine five minutes ago (and believe me, that is a job that takes a lot of time) has to clean it all over again
Moral of the story is: milkshakes are delicious and people love them, and we love to make them for you as long as it's not five minutes until close :)
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Chocolate Flakes, Pieces and Swirl
I've got a confession to make: I HATE chocolate ice cream. I know it's a weird thing to hate, believe me every time I tell someone they look at me like I'm crazy and then of course they ask me why. But the truth is, I just think it tastes bad. And the whole brown color thing? Yeah, not appetizing at all. So this will be the first, and last time I talk about chocolate ice cream in this blog.
Since I'm only doing one week of chocolate (and the creamery probably has 20+ chocolate flavors alone) I had to choose the one that causes me the most pain. Ironically, the name of the flavor is Death by Chocolate.
Death by Chocolate could not have anymore chocolate in it if the Creamery people tried. Not only is it chocolate ice cream, but it also has chocolate flakes AND fudge pieces AND chocolate swirl, aka, my worst nightmare. The sight of it repulses me, but clearly I am alone in this because it has got to be one of the most popular flavors. It reaches all age demographics. Little kids, college kids, parents, and super old people all enjoy the flavor. I guess being a chocolate-lover starts at a young age, I wouldn't know. So because everyone loves this flavor, it is ordered all the time which means it has to be scooped all the time, which is a task that I actively avoid.
When an ice cream is ordered at the Creamery, it is the person at the first (out of three) freezers job to "call out" what was ordered so that whoever is closest to the flavor can scoop it. To simplify the calling, the Caller (that's what we call them, because we're super creative) abbreviates the ice cream flavor and then adds "dish" at the end, if the ice cream is in a dish, if it's a cone, just the flavor is called. So in a case where Death by Chocolate is ordered, which, as I said, is all the time, the Caller yells "Death" or "Death Dish". Of course, every person who orders this flavor finds that hilarious and laughs and then turns to the person next to them and says something along the lines of "I knew my family was trying to get rid of me! A Dish of Death!" Man people are clever.
After these annoying comments are made, it never fails to happen, it's time for the ice cream to be scooped. If I am the one unfortunate enough to have to do it, I instantly am in a bad mood. It's a justified bad mood though, because Death by Chocolate on the scoopability scale? Yeah it's a 5. Terrible! I know, but it gets worse! As I struggle to get the scooper to break into the hard-as-a-rock ice cream, my arms become COVERED in chocolate sauce from the sides of the three gallon. You may be thinking: man that's disgusting and how can this happen all the time? Well yes, it is disgusting, but don't worry, no one eats the stuff that's stuck on the sides. It goes in the trash when the three gallon is empty. And how can I always get covered in it? I honestly have no idea. But every single time I scoop the deathly flavor it is at least half-way gone so the sides are just begging me to have my arms squish into them.
I'm truly sorry if I offended anyone with my hatred of chocolate ice cream, or repulsed anyone by telling them my arm gets covered in their favorite flavor. All I can say is, ice cream is delicious...unless it's chocolate.
Since I'm only doing one week of chocolate (and the creamery probably has 20+ chocolate flavors alone) I had to choose the one that causes me the most pain. Ironically, the name of the flavor is Death by Chocolate.
Death by Chocolate could not have anymore chocolate in it if the Creamery people tried. Not only is it chocolate ice cream, but it also has chocolate flakes AND fudge pieces AND chocolate swirl, aka, my worst nightmare. The sight of it repulses me, but clearly I am alone in this because it has got to be one of the most popular flavors. It reaches all age demographics. Little kids, college kids, parents, and super old people all enjoy the flavor. I guess being a chocolate-lover starts at a young age, I wouldn't know. So because everyone loves this flavor, it is ordered all the time which means it has to be scooped all the time, which is a task that I actively avoid.
When an ice cream is ordered at the Creamery, it is the person at the first (out of three) freezers job to "call out" what was ordered so that whoever is closest to the flavor can scoop it. To simplify the calling, the Caller (that's what we call them, because we're super creative) abbreviates the ice cream flavor and then adds "dish" at the end, if the ice cream is in a dish, if it's a cone, just the flavor is called. So in a case where Death by Chocolate is ordered, which, as I said, is all the time, the Caller yells "Death" or "Death Dish". Of course, every person who orders this flavor finds that hilarious and laughs and then turns to the person next to them and says something along the lines of "I knew my family was trying to get rid of me! A Dish of Death!" Man people are clever.
After these annoying comments are made, it never fails to happen, it's time for the ice cream to be scooped. If I am the one unfortunate enough to have to do it, I instantly am in a bad mood. It's a justified bad mood though, because Death by Chocolate on the scoopability scale? Yeah it's a 5. Terrible! I know, but it gets worse! As I struggle to get the scooper to break into the hard-as-a-rock ice cream, my arms become COVERED in chocolate sauce from the sides of the three gallon. You may be thinking: man that's disgusting and how can this happen all the time? Well yes, it is disgusting, but don't worry, no one eats the stuff that's stuck on the sides. It goes in the trash when the three gallon is empty. And how can I always get covered in it? I honestly have no idea. But every single time I scoop the deathly flavor it is at least half-way gone so the sides are just begging me to have my arms squish into them.
I'm truly sorry if I offended anyone with my hatred of chocolate ice cream, or repulsed anyone by telling them my arm gets covered in their favorite flavor. All I can say is, ice cream is delicious...unless it's chocolate.
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