I scream for ice cream
For students watching their figures, Donald McMahon has some advice on how to incorporate Aggie Ice Cream into their diets:
“Just get one scoop instead of two, and that will reduce the calories by half.”
Ice cream seems to be one of Utahns many vices, as people can be seen buying cones from the Aggie Ice Cream store as early as 9 a.m.
“Oh yeah. People love it,” said McMahon, the director of the Gary H. Richardson Dairy Products Laboratory, where Aggie Ice Cream and cheese are made. “The thing that’s most special about Aggie Ice Cream is its tradition is part of Utah State going back to the 1800s.”
Aggie Ice Cream has about 30 flavors now, but it’s production began shortly after the university’s founding on a small scale in the dairy creamery in the basement of Old Main, which primarily made butter and cheese. McMahon said in 1922 equipment was purchased that first enabled the mass production of ice cream, and it has since become an integral part of Cache Valley.
Richard Justis, who works at the Cache Valley Visitor’s Bureau, said Aggie Ice Cream is “a major attraction.” Justis said the dairy store is a featured stop on the bureau’s self-guided Cache Valley Food Tour and is one of the first attractions mentioned to visitors at the bureau.
“Ice cream is a very representative symbol of the dairy industry in this part of the country, in Cache County,” Justis said. “If that stuff ever went away, there would be significant weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
Julia Spencer, a student at Logan High School, said she got hooked on Aggie Ice Cream when she attended Edith Bowen Elementary.
“I used to walk by the ice cream store every day on the way to school. I would buy ice cream every day,” Spencer said.
She said her mom gave her and her brother the daily ice cream money, and now she still comes about once a week.
The legacy of Aggie Ice Cream has rubbed off on other local ice cream companies as well, as the founders of ice cream shops Farr’s, Casper’s and Snelgrove’s all learned their techniques from the USU food sciences program.
Blake Ure, a junior majoring in American studies whose family owns Farr’s in Ogden, has been around ice cream all his life. He now works at the dairy processing laboratory, making Aggie Ice Cream and said it’s interesting to see the process of how ice cream is made.
“Each one of (the flavors) has it’s own personality, and it’s interesting to see how they come out,” Ure said. “The thing that surprises me the most is how much material we put into it – how much sugar and stuff – and how little comes out.”
According to McMahon, Aggie Ice Cream produces as much as 2,000 gallons per week in the summertime. The milk comes from the university dairy farm, and McMahon said the ice cream is ready to sell about three days after production, which keeps it fresh. The ice cream contains about 12 percent milk fat, which McMahon said puts it in the federal standard for “premium.”
The proceeds from the sales of the product all go back into research, teaching and maintenance of the dairy processing lab, McMahon said.
Ure said there is no flavor that’s really difficult to make, but Aggie Blue Mint is somewhat harder because of all the different ingredients involved. Aggie Blue Mint, which was developed in a student contest to create a new flavor, is also the most popular.
McMahon said the flavor, which is a mint ice cream with white chocolate and cookie pieces, has remained popular since its introduction. He said people say they prefer the mint taste in Aggie Blue Mint, even though it’s the same flavoring that goes into the other mint ice creams.
“It may be the white chocolate coming through, lending it a different flavor. And colors have a big impact on how we perceive taste,” McMahon said.
He said the distinctive color was difficult to achieve because they had to find a blue food coloring that wouldn’t dye the lips and tongue blue.
Kelsey Jackson, of Colorado, tried the flavor when her friend Holly Fry, a graduate student in health education, brought her in for an introductory taste of Aggie Ice Cream.
“I think it’s great. I like the Aggie Blue Mint. It’s different but really good,” Jackson said.
McMahon said there are plans to unveil a new flavor, Aggie Bull Tracks, for the summer, as well another flavor in April to celebrate the university development plan, but he was reluctant to reveal more.
“It wouldn’t be a surprise,” he said.
He said instead of replacing an old flavor, some flavors will probably be rotated seasonally to accommodate the new ones. McMahon said it’s important to balance keeping some of the more old-fashioned flavors like lemon custard and caramel cashew around for the alumni and making new flavors for students such as cookie dough and Aggie Blue Mint.
“We like new foods, and we like to have different experiences,” McMahon said. “We have enough people coming in that are alumni asking for those (old-fashioned flavors) that we continue to make them.”
Jennifer Powell, a USU alumna, said she and her husband come to Aggie Ice Cream about once a week.
“There’s a wide choice of flavors, and you get a whole lot for your money. One scoop is huge,” she said.
Jake Powell, a junior majoring in landscape architecture, said he thinks the coolest part of Aggie Ice Cream is that it’s made from ingredients produced by USU students, but he said he wasn’t sure if he liked it better than other ice cream.
“I eat a lot of ice cream. I have pretty low standards for ice cream,” he said.
-jenbeasley@cc.usu.edu