Adventures in Ice Cream

Photo

Fri, 24 May 2013 12:29:33 -0400

The making of flavor #86, Elote Step 4: Pack each pint by hand.

Sat, 11 May 2013 11:00:18 -0400

The making of flavor #86, Elote

Step 4: Pack each pint by hand.

The making of flavor #86, Elote Step 3: Churn a LOT of corn ice...

Fri, 10 May 2013 11:05:59 -0400

The making of flavor #86, Elote

Step 3: Churn a LOT of corn ice cream. The milk from the corn kernels produced a really velvety texture.

The making of flavor #86, Elote Step 2: De-cob all the corn. All...

Thu, 09 May 2013 09:30:09 -0400

The making of flavor #86, Elote

Step 2: De-cob all the corn. All the corn. Alllll of the corn. (This was a rather laborious project, if you didn’t catch our drift.)

The making of flavor #86 Elote Step 1: Husk all of the corn....

Wed, 08 May 2013 10:55:00 -0400

The making of flavor #86 Elote

Step 1: Husk all of the corn. Ever.

Corn isn’t yet in season here in NYC, so we’ve teamed up with some responsible farmers in Florida for this flavor. It’s corn ice cream. Spiced up and seasoned like Mexican street corn — you know.. mayo, cojita cheese, cayenne?

This is seriously the sweetest, juiciest, even milkiest(!) corn we’ve ever had. We ate it off the cob, raw. It’s from the Sunshine Sweet Corn Exchange, a collective of family-run farms in Palm Beach County. That means it’s non-GMO corn. Non-GMO corn, you ask? Is it possible in today’s world? Yes. It’s real, and it’s awesome.

We caught up with Caroline, the collective’s rep, to get some deets on, basically, how is it so darn good.

MM: Okay so how your corn so darn good?
SSCE: A lot of it is in the breeding – we have worked hard to develop varieties that are sweeter and sweeter longer for a better shelf life. We take every step to ensure that what you get at the super market is the sweetest and freshest corn it can be.

MM: You say it’s naturally bred to be the sweetest corn you’ve had. How?
SSCE: Well, the birds and the bees… just kidding. If you can remember anything about Mendel and his sweet peas from high school - selecting recessive and dominant traits and breeding for them over several generations - it honestly doesn’t get much simpler than that. Basically, over generations of sweet corn we have identified and then selected and bred for the characteristics we wanted. A lot of the farmers that we work with are second and third (and on) generation sweet corn farmers, so there’s a lot of knowledge and experience that’s been passed down.

MM: How many farms comprise the collective?
SSCE: The Florida Sweet Corn exchange is a voluntary organization of shippers and growers who work together to market fresh sweet corn in the spring. Most people don’t know that Florida is actually the biggest producer of sweet corn in the country and our sweet corn comes into peak season during April and May. Most people don’t think Florida when they think corn and there’s a stubborn perception that corn is a Summer vegetable when, in fact, for most of the country, fresh corn is really at its peak in the spring! So we work together to try to make sure that more people get to experience better corn!

MM: How do you compete with larger, GMO-laden farms?
SSCE: The GMO corn you read about is mostly in the processing and feed industry – meaning the stuff that’s grown to be made into corn syrup and other processed food products and fed to livestock. There is very little sweet corn grown from GMO seed and none in Florida.

MM; When we think of corn, we think of the Corn Belt in the midwest. How does Florida Sweet Corn compete?
SSCE: We don’t like to think of it as a competition because no one else produces Sunshine Sweet Corn! The varieties that we have developed that fall under that Sunshine Sweet name are unique to The Florida Sweet Corn Exchange so that’s a pretty big distinction. The other big difference is our spring season – we’re really the only ones producing sweet corn in any significant volume during April and May. The producers in the “Corn Belt” in the Midwest have a different season than us so they’re sending their product to market a time when we’re really not competing.

The making of flavor #85, May Margarita Step 3: Churn the...

Wed, 08 May 2013 09:00:00 -0400

The making of flavor #85, May Margarita

Step 3: Churn the ‘scream, pack up the pints.

The margarita (as we learned this weekend) is the most popular drink in the country. But its origin highly debated. The earliest reference to a “Margarita” was as Esquire’s Drink of the Month in 1953.

“She’s from Mexico, Senores, and her name is the Margarita Cocktail—and she is lovely to look at, exciting and provocative.”

But long before the Margarita lived the Tequila Daisy, a very similar cocktail, wich was ubiquitous in the 1930s. It’s basically the same thing, just sub cointreau for grenadine. So in honor of the OG margarita, the Tequila Daisy, we added a floral hint to ours this month.

The making of flavor #85, May Margarita Step 2: TEQUILA TIME. We...

Mon, 06 May 2013 12:32:00 -0400

The making of flavor #85, May Margarita

Step 2: TEQUILA TIME. We add the tequila to our fresh-lime base.

Our tequila is from Tanteo Tequila - it’s their Jalapeño blend. See, you know how we always use local ingredients? Well sometimes we just can’t - tequila isn’t tequila unless it’s made in Tequila, Mexico, you know? BUT, we did find the next best thing - an awesome product that’s produced responsibly and founded by folks local to New York. Fits right into our Partners Manifesto. Ergo, Tanteo.

We caught up with the men behind Tanteo at their showroom in SoHo, Casa Tanteo. Over a margarita. (Okay, it was two.)

MM: What was the inspiration for starting a tequila company?
TT: We started Tanteo after my partner Jonathan and I got addicted to jalapeno margaritas in a craft cocktail bar. It’s still all about the spicy margarita, which is really catching on now. So the jalapeño infusion is our best seller of our three craft tequila infusions.

MM: What makes Tanteo unique? The tequilas, the business model, etc.
TT: What makes Tanteo unique in our industry is our use of whole fruit maceration to infuse the tequilas. The rest of the industry uses flavors from flavor houses, the kinds of flavors that go into everything from sodas to. Food hamburgers. Tanteo uses thousands of kilos of jalapeños from a local farm. Ours is a very different approach.

MM: Can you tell us how you ensure quality and environmental/social responsibility?
TT: We try to take care of the environment, too. We chose to make recyclable bottles, unlike the non-recyclable frosted bottles that are common in our industry.

MM: Your showroom is rad. Can you talk about its furnishings?
TT: Casa Tanteo in Soho, Manhattan serves our office and cocktail research facility. We brought up from Mexico the furniture from an old Mexican apothecary, and it provided the centerpiece for us to manifest the Tanteo brand in the four walls.

The making of flavor #85, May Margarita Happy Cinco de Mayo....

Sun, 05 May 2013 16:00:22 -0400

The making of flavor #85, May Margarita

Happy Cinco de Mayo. This is how we’re celebrating. Making our May Margarita ‘scream.

Did you know the margarita is the most popular cocktail in the US. On average we consume 185,000 an hour. An HOUR. Wonder how many are consumed per hour today…

flavor flavor of the day: Mint Julepfresh mint ice cream with a...

Sat, 04 May 2013 17:58:00 -0400

flavor flavor of the day: Mint Julep
fresh mint ice cream with a shot our bourbon

Happy Derby Day! To celebrate, we crafted up some of our Mint Julep ice cream — made with fresh spearmint and Tuthilltown’s Baby Bourbon.

To celebrate further, we catered our first (!) wedding. These MilkMade minis will be served at our member’s wedding in Philadelphia tonight. Congrats Ward & Kate!

The making of flavor #85, Margarita Ready for the weekend? Ready...

Fri, 03 May 2013 11:00:12 -0400

The making of flavor #85, Margarita

Ready for the weekend? Ready for Cinco de Mayo? Ready to sip down a refreshing margarita on a warm(ish) early evening? Ready to juice hundreds of limes and hand-craft pint after pint of Margarita ice cream? Oh.. no? Well luckily we are. Happy weekend everyone. Stay tuned for our step by step on our first flavor of the month - May Margarita.

Now announcing our May Flavors of the Month! #85 May...

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:00:14 -0400

Now announcing our May Flavors of the Month!

#85 May Margarita
margarita ice cream infused with elderflower
For us, spring’s herald is a margarita sipped on the sidewalk in the breeze of an early evening. On the 5th of May to be exact. Naturally, we wanted to turn that evocation into ice cream. So we did! With the latest addition to our line of Cocktails in a Pint, our May Margarita ice cream. We’re making ours with Tanteo Jalapeno Tequila, fresh lime juice, and plenty of salt from our new pals at Amagansett Sea Salt co, plus a little spring fling with a floral hint.

#86 Elote
mexican street corn with all the fixings
There’s nothing quite like an ear of corn, grilled, husked, and dressed up with all the fixings. This is one of those “hm, can we turn THIS into ice cream?” flavors. And we’re telling you - yes. we. can. With fresh spring corn from family-run farms from the Florida Sweet Corn Exchange, and a dash of our secret spice blend, and some mayo (yes, mayonnaise) from the incredible mayo duo, Empire Mayo, this is our mexican sweet street corn in a pint. It’s best enjoyed with a fresh margarita. Or a pint of fresh margarita ‘scream. Or both!

milkmade flavor of the day: Sakura (aka Cherry Blossom Ice...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 14:58:32 -0400

milkmade flavor of the day: Sakura (aka Cherry Blossom Ice Cream)
cherry blossom ice cream served over the cherry blossom leaves

Spring sprung this weekend in New York and it sure was gorgeous. We were able to pay a trip out to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. After a little hanami - the act of enjoying the beauty of cherry blossom flowers - at the park, we snagged some felled blossoms, took them home, and turned them into ice cream. Of course we did!

See, in Japan the flowers and leaves of the cherry blossom tree are preserved and eaten — either salted and pickled, or used in tea, or wrapped around mochi to make sakuramochi or other candies. Now, we present, Sakura Ice Cream. How does it taste, you ask? It’s smooth, milky, delicious, and oddly enough, tastes a bit like coconut.

milkmade flavor of the day: Ramps!ramps are wild leeks that are...

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 11:00:00 -0400

milkmade flavor of the day: Ramps!
ramps are wild leeks that are found in the northeast during a short window of spring. they taste like half-onion, half-garlic, and garner quite a frenzy when they appear at the greenmarkets this time of year. we partook in the frenzy and sweetened ‘em up to make a ramps ice cream.

Ramps are back at it and so are we. This one is just such a fun unexpectedly good flavor — we released it to members May 2011, flavor #37, as a THIRD OPTION in our normal two flavor-of-the-month offering. Only like 8 people opted in. One of whom said, and we quote “That Ramps ice cream…. is insane.. I love it.” Not bad for an onion-y, garlic-y ice cream! Thanks MilkMade Member, Aaron G!

Want to get your hands on a pint? Ping us if you’d like to pick one up next week from our LES kitchen.

Great day for a pint photoshoot. (via instagram @milkmadescream)

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:55:25 -0400

Great day for a pint photoshoot. (via instagram @milkmadescream)

We set up a little ice cream social earlier this week at the...

Wed, 17 Apr 2013 10:51:01 -0400

We set up a little ice cream social earlier this week at the Kingpins of Silicon Alley bowling competition. Flavor #28, The Dude Abides, made a comeback.

It’s a White Russian Chocolate Chip ice cream — Stumptown coffee infused base with a shot of Kahlua and a dash of Tito’s Vodka, plus chipped chocolate from Mast Brothers. We’re told it’s a knockout.

FYI - Nobody really got the reference. Do you?

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake Step 5: We like to serve...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 13:03:00 -0400

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake

Step 5: We like to serve our Yellowcake flavor in a lemon. We think it’s a nice touch..

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake Step 4: Pack ‘em up,...

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 10:53:08 -0400

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake

Step 4: Pack ‘em up, hand-deliver them out.

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake Step 3: Then we churn those...

Sun, 14 Apr 2013 10:00:17 -0400

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake

Step 3: Then we churn those lemons into ice cream, and add in chunks of Robicelli’s cupcakes.

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake Step 2: Yep, we squeeze and...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 14:00:17 -0400

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake

Step 2: Yep, we squeeze and hand-zest every lemon.

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake Step 1: Our lemon ice cream...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 10:00:00 -0400

The making of flavor #84, Yellowcake

Step 1: Our lemon ice cream is made with real lemons. A lot of them.