Coming To the Ice Cream Aisle Near You
Are people going to try Hidden Valley Ranch ice-cream?
This is an actual limited edition flavor that is coming to U.S. Wal-Marts on March 20. Van Leeuwen is partnering with Hidden-Valley to bring this unprecedented concoction to ordinary ice-cream eaters. What will it taste like, really? Does ranch dressing really fit well in a sweet and creamy frozen cheat treat? Ranch’s ingredients do include multiple types of dairy products — including buttermilk, sour cream, or even mayonnaise. But then you throw in herbs like parsley or garlic plus black pepper. Not really the type of blends you find at a Baskin Robbins or Dairy Queen.
There are numerous ice cream blends that at least match the weirdness of ranch ice cream to some degree. An ice-cream shop in Japan sells “pet-bird” flavors — not really feather-filled but including ingredients to share with flying pets like seeds and nuts. A shop in New York serves an enchanted brand of the popular breakfast cereal ice cream. Other vintage ice-cream shops around the world serve all too unimaginable flavors like buttered lobster, ghost pepper, and corn on the cob. These certainly make ranch-flavor seem a little less out-of-the-box.
Ice cream dates back thousands of year. During China’s T’ang period, Chinese rulers would have dozens of staff on hand to concoct the special treat of heated, fermented milk, ice, flour, and camphor. Even further back in Ancient Greece, Alexander the Great was known to enjoy snow and ice flavored with nectar and honey. To parallel, buttermilk is rumored to have gone back to Ancient Egyptian times where it was considered sacred. Mayonnaise in some form is believed to have also originated in the same place, even though the version as we recognize today did not occur until the 18th and 19th centuries in Spain then France. Ranch dressing then came into play in the mid-20th century. Given the constant advancement of culinary concoctions and flavors all over the world, we should not be surprised such a flavor has been announced. Although the new flavor may seem outlandish to many, others are certainly saying “well it’s about time.”
