The San Diego Traveler

Cold Stone Confessions

by Carole A. Lane on April 22nd, 2007

It’s time for a confession.  There are certain areas in which I cannot be trusted to be objective. 

Example: I’m absolutely certain that my children are the most beautiful and brilliant creatures on earth.  You won’t talk me out of this conviction, and producing evidence to the contrary will only cause me to dig my heels in and prove you wrong.

Today’s article is about another such topic, and as much as I’d like to provide an impartial review, I must ‘fess up that I’m writing about another one of my other true loves, so anything I say should be judged as a mother describing her child, with all of the blind affection expected of such a relationship.

It’s ice cream.  In the interest of true disclosure, I have to report that I have never met an ice cream I didn’t like.  In fact, I’ve gone so far as to create my own “ice cream tour,” sampling from ice cream parlors large and small all the way up and down the coast of California, in search of the best ice cream made.  All I could tell you at the end was that I loved them all, with the possible exception of pumpkin ice cream (but I might have to try it again to be sure).  I’m less fond of my mother’s favorite, black licorice ice cream, only made by Baskin-Robbins each October;  in a pinch, yes, I’d eat it too.

 My love of ice cream goes back to some of my earliest memories, sharing cones with my cat,  Squidget.  A trip to Fosselman’s when I was young, or Farrell’s when I was a teen, remained just as exciting and delicious as my first visit. 

Since then, it seems that every decade of my life has a special ice cream memory to mark it.  

• In high school, a good friend introduced me to the pleasure of bites of vanilla ice cream alternated with bites of a large dill pickle (not just for the preggers anymore); although it sounds horrifying, we loved it as much as the strange looks we drew while eating it. 
• In my twenties, I took my first trip to Europe and ate rum raisin in the Coliseum in Rome; it’s been one of my favorite flavors ever since.
• A few years ago, I was invited to a conference in Canada to receive a writing award, and Jerry Greenfield (of Ben & Jerry’s) was the keynote speaker at the conference.  His speech was one of the most memorable I’ve ever heard, and he even provided the ice cream afterward!

At this point, you probably won’t be surprised to learn that, since having a family of my own, I’ve organized the July 4th ice cream socials for my neighborhood.  What might shock you is that I’m only on my second ice cream maker.  That’s primarily because I didn’t allow myself to own one until a few years ago, due to a real fear that if I started making ice cream, I might eat nothing else.  (You’re in awe of my self-restraint right about now, aren’t you?)

This all brings us to Cold Stone Creamery.  You’ve guessed it - I’m a big fan.  When I learned that Cold Stone Creamery has a Girl Scout Patch Program, I couldn’t wait to sign up.  No, I didn’t start a troop just so that I could go on this tour (although I can see how you might think that); I’m already a Brownie troop leader, so it was a perfect opportunity.

Owner/Manager Clair Bigbee greeted us at the Main Street, Vista location, explaining that Cold Stone makes all of its own ice cream, which is why they’re a creamery rather than an ice cream store.  She took us into the small back room and demonstrated their ice cream maker, which fluffs the creamy mixture for nine minutes, during which time my Brownies asked all about the process, with a great deal of interest in how they do their recycling at Cold Stone.  (It’s Earth Week, so recycling is fresh on the minds of these excited first-graders.)  Bigbee was very sweet, and patiently answered all of their questions; she was a Girl Scout too, after all!

We learned that the ice creams are made in a particular order from lightest color to darkest.  They are all made in this same machine, which is cleaned and sanitized daily.  One batch of mixture makes two trays, which are then placed in a freezer that lowers its temperature to make it rock hard.  The next freezer raises the ice cream’s temperature until it’s ready to be served.

After our ice cream lesson, we were escorted back to the front of the shop, where the girls lined up to have their hands washed.  Then they selected their ice cream flavor and “mix-in” and were allowed to make their own delicious concoctions.

One of our Brownies is lactose intolerant, but that didn’t spoil her day.  Bigbee helped her select a sorbet, which she mixed with fruit to make her own yummy treat. 

What makes Cold Stone Creamery different?  

Cold Stone makes the richest ice cream I’ve ever eaten.  There’s nothing “light” about this confection, but that’s what makes them distinctive.  (They do sell “Healthy Indulgences” such as sorbet, as noted above, Sinless light ice cream, and so on, but I wouldn’t know anything about those.)

 Cold Stone calls their servings Creations, offering the sizes Like it (approximately 6 oz.), Love it (approximately 10 oz.) and Gotta Have it (approximately 14 oz.).  My teenage son always orders a Gotta Have It (and finishes it), but that much Cold Stone ice cream would fill me up for at least eight hours.  This is more due to the richness of the ice cream than the size;  I can easily finish a similar size from other ice cream stores. 

On one wall, you’ll find a menu of Cold Stone Originals that they’ve already dreamed up for you, such as Monkey Bites (banana ice cream with pecans, coconut, crunch bar and banana), Cookie Doughn’t You Want Some (french vanilla ice cream with chocolate chips, cookie dough, fudge and caramel), and Our Strawberry Blonde (strawberry ice cream with graham cracker pie crust, strawberries, caramel and whipped topping).

If you’d rather dream up your own Creation, they have many flavors and “mix-ins” to choose from.  Simply tell the crew member what size you’d like, what flavor, and what ”mix-ins” you want.  The same crew member will help your whole group, allowing the next crew member to go on to the next group.

You should be warned that if you select more than one flavor for your creation, they will be mixed together, rather than stacked, as they would at other ice cream parlors. 

Once you’ve placed your order, the crew member will put the ingredients on a granite stone chilled to 16 degrees Fahrenheit, and using large paddles, mix it all together before placing it in the cup or cone of your choosing.

In addition to Creations (sundaes),  Cold Stone Creamery offers ice cream cakes, smoothies and shakes.  I hope to try those all someday, but it’s the ice cream that I can’t resist. 

Cold Stone has grown quickly from the first store, opened in Tempe Arizona in 1988 to more than 1,350 stores, mostly within the U.S.  You can use their Find a Store online feature to locate their nearest locations.

If you’d like to learn more about Cold Stone, go to The Cold Stone Creamery Story where you’ll learn more about the company, their products and their franchise opportunities.  If you decide to open a Cold Stone Creamery of your own, please drop me a line.  I’ll be happy to help you invent new Creations, provide quality control, or just help get rid of the leftovers.  Leftover ice cream - what a concept!

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POSTED IN: Cooking & Cuisine