This winter Haggan Daz had a contest for the new ice cream flavor. I myself love ice cream, as do my children. Camden Maine has 3 ice cream stands and New England is the ice cream vacation place. Every little village and town along the coast of New England has quaint ice cream shops or stands. There is a store in Bar Harbour that sells Lobster Ice Cream, they say the taste is disconcerting, but thousands each year feel compelled to buy it. This contest caught my attention and in my spare time I would dream up ice cream flavors. My children would often be my sound boards & tasters for my ideas and they were always supportive of my ideas. My first creation, which I tagged as "Camden Cream" was an interesting mixture. I wanted to mix elements of our coastal village and create a cream that screamed Camden. I went to Maine Gold to look for ideas. Since there are so many creams already out there, I had to push to be different. I bought a bottle of Maine Gold's cranberry chutney with walnuts (sounds good doesn't it?). To me this was going to bring color, flavor and original ingredients. My husband could only say "Isn't chutney what you put on pork?" I did not let his doubt deter me from the ultimate Camden Cream. I made a vanilla ice cream from scratch, added my chutney and froze. The next day I let my assistants have a taste. As you may have guested, no one, not even our labradoodle dog liked it. It tasted like it should be on pork, not mixed with cream. Try 1 shot down. I have to say that experience has deterred me a little in my quest to make the best Camden Cream. Although I do from time to time try to think up new ingredients for my Cream. The contest has closed and I think Sarah Moultin is deciding between 3 flavors for the new Haggan Daz flavor. Needless to say, non of those flavors include lobster or chutney.
