Ice cream is frozen deliciousness. It is one of the favorite desserts of most people and for good reason: cream, sugar, smooth texture, the temperature of a mid-winter’s night, what’s not to love? It can cool you off on a hot summer’s day; although, I prefer to eat ice cream on snowy, winter days. There is something of the snow outside that puts me in the mood to have something equally cold, perhaps as a way to experience both the wonderful snow and contrasting warmth of my house.

There are many flavors and companies seem to be forever coming up with new ones, yet classics tend to hold strong and wonderful. I personally find cookies and cream to be my favorite. It has a unique balance of all of the sweetness I love with the flavor of vanilla ice cream complemented by the chocolate of the cookies and enhanced by the oreo cream that is the sweetness of childhood. Other combinations of ice cream flavors with cookies, brownies, caramel, and chocolate tend to be my preferred flavors, though it is unlikely you will find me unwilling to eat an ice cream. It is delicious freshly scooped but even better when stirred into a soft, semi-liquid. You can add toppings and stir-ins to up the decadence of the experience. It is a great complement to other desserts and it goes well alone.

Ice cream holds memories frozen with its flavors for me, and most of them are good. Biking to Ft. Tuthill to get big ed ice cream sandwiches (made with two chocolate chip cookies), and having gelato breaks in Rome between sessions of Latin class are two of my strongest and best memories that have centered entirely around eating ice cream. Lately it is an intermittent chance to catch up with a friend and coworker and let some of the steam from work be frozen into the gelato as we play the game “hipster or Italian?”.