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Kurald Galain
2009-03-02, 12:06 PM
There has been much talk of strawberry ice cream lately, and how this might be used as an actual dessert. So it is time for the forum to have an objective and balanced guide on which ice cream to eat, for optimal dining pleasure.

Many kinds of ice cream exist in the world, but only two are relevant to the discussion at hand. These are strawberry ice cream, and chocolate ice cream. I will now objectively compare the two of them, and list the strong and weak points of each. Remember, anybody who disagrees with me is just voicing some opinion.


Strawberry ice cream is known to be kind of gross and of smelly, and it has the texture of a withered grapefruit. Some people who eat strawberry ice cream are obese, or said to be flatulent, or kick little puppies.

And on the other hand, we have chocolate ice cream, which, in the words of one highly intelligent character, is Totally Yummy. Also, it contains more calories per square inch than any other known kind of ice cream, and many highly intelligent and attractive people eat chocolate ice cream, and you should be able to buy it at your local supermarket. If not, sue your supermarket.


Mind you, these are scientific facts, as determined by a recent Nobel Prize winner that I can't remember the name of just now. Many highly erudite dissertations have been written on the subject; just google them up. They are certainly not opinions. True, I do have an opinion about which ice cream to eat, but I wouldn't be so crass as to display that in an objective thread such as this one, which is objective.

So now that I've all chocolate educated you on the chocolate advantages and disadvantages of chocolate various kinds of ice cream, I chocolate encourage everybody to make his own informed chocolate choice, and I welcome further chocolate discussion in this thread.

No flaming please! It melts the delicious ice cream!

lesser_minion
2009-03-02, 12:25 PM
I have to admit that skewing the discussion in favour of chocolate ice cream by banning discussion of ALL other nice flavours (Baileys' and cream; vanilla or even double chocolate for example) is a little bit of a fallacy. I mean, vanilla rocks (as categorically proven by a recent Field's medallist whose name I am unable to recall)

One other problem - roleplaying games forum??!? Ice cream??!?? Can you even get strawberry ice cream of inflict serious wounds and vanilla ice cream of mass heal now?

It is an awesome topic otherwise.

DISCLAIMER: Ice cream purchased from supermarkets is a poor basis for comparison. Please try some real ice cream

Myshlaevsky
2009-03-02, 12:32 PM
One other problem - roleplaying games forum??!? Ice cream??!?? What, the clerics now make Strawberry Icecream of inflict serious wounds and Vanilla icecream of mass heal?

It is an awesome topic otherwise.

Those are sub-optimal choices. Clerics should always choose pistachio. That's right, I'm not going to kowtow to the OP's arbitrary restrictions just because they can't handle the real flavours.

Total win, Kurald Galain.

chiasaur11
2009-03-02, 12:38 PM
Chocolate is optimized itself. Frankly, the World Class Chocolate prestige class just wrecks what little balance there was left.

And don't get me started on Gelato...

lesser_minion
2009-03-02, 12:54 PM
Those are sub-optimal choices. Clerics should always choose pistachio. That's right, I'm not going to kowtow to the OP's arbitrary restrictions just because they can't handle the real flavours.

Total win, Kurald Galain.

OK, a few points:

Strawberry is so disgusting, vile, morally reprehensible, evil and twisted that it grants a huge bonus to any damaging spells with which it is enchanted. In fact, the strawberry ice cream is more likely to be a strawberry ice cream of Destruction, Mass!

And somehow I don't see the pistachio ice cream of mass heal. It might be worth a Mass Cure Serious wounds though, but I've always had a soft spot for vanilla. OK, for vanilla based ice creams like chocolate chip, honeycomb, toffee and pistachip (IIRC). OK, so yes, pistachio does work.

Starbuck_II
2009-03-02, 12:58 PM
Strawberry ice cream is known to be kind of gross and of smelly, and it has the texture of a withered grapefruit. Some people who eat strawberry ice cream are obese, or said to be flatulent, or kick little puppies.

And on the other hand, we have chocolate ice cream, which, in the words of one highly intelligent character, is Totally Yummy. Also, it contains more calories per square inch than any other known kind of ice cream, and many highly intelligent and attractive people eat chocolate ice cream, and you should be able to buy it at your local supermarket. If not, sue your supermarket.



Come on, only the vilest of people don't kick puppies.

And have you seen those Chocolate lovers: they are cazy. Look at homer Simpson!
He ate a man because he was made of choclate. Can't trust them.

I even have the support of a local Physic scientists that I can't name riht now who shows very clearly that too much chocolate will cause a black hole.
So obviously, Chocolate can't be good.

Strawberry for life, yo!

Assassin89
2009-03-02, 01:02 PM
Why is this thread even in Roleplaying Games? Although ice cream does make a good snack for RPing, it is completely irrelevant to the topics in this section of the forums.

lesser_minion
2009-03-02, 01:19 PM
It's best not to fight the madness...

Although, yeah, it is a slightly odd place for the thread.


Come on, only the vilest of people don't kick puppies.

And have you seen those Chocolate lovers: they are cazy. Look at homer Simpson!
He ate a man because he was made of choclate. Can't trust them.

I even have the support of a local Physic scientists that I can't name riht now who shows very clearly that too much chocolate will cause a black hole.
So obviously, Chocolate can't be good.

Strawberry for life, yo!

And we also have a nobel prizewinner and a fields medallist both declare that strawberry is completely and utterly wrong. Especially the one with bits in it. Just look at my account of what happened when I tried to make strawberry ice cream of inflict minor wounds - trust me, there is a reason that Destruction, mass is not a spell!

Honeycomb ftw!

ghost_warlock
2009-03-02, 01:27 PM
Chocolate...strawberry...I'm the guy with the irish cream ice cream. :smallamused:

Thane of Fife
2009-03-02, 01:37 PM
Strawberry ice cream is known to be kind of gross and of smelly, and it has the texture of a withered grapefruit. Some people who eat strawberry ice cream are obese, or said to be flatulent, or kick little puppies.

And on the other hand, we have chocolate ice cream, which, in the words of one highly intelligent character, is Totally Yummy. Also, it contains more calories per square inch than any other known kind of ice cream, and many highly intelligent and attractive people eat chocolate ice cream, and you should be able to buy it at your local supermarket. If not, sue your supermarket.


Wait a minute. You can put chocolate syrup on strawberry ice cream, and then it's just as good as chocolate, if not better. After all, now it has chocolate and strawberry.

Temp.
2009-03-02, 01:45 PM
Wait a minute. You can put chocolate syrup on strawberry ice cream, and then it's just as good as chocolate, if not better. After all, now it has chocolate and strawberry.

You've fallen into a common trap. Chocolate syrup cheapens the already weak strawberry and it smells of cardboard.

If you want your ice cream to even have a chance of thriving in a real dessert following a real supper, the only choice is chocolate. And that only works if you maximize your chocularity with fudge and perhaps a dabble of caramel.

No, Strawberry is worth little more than a dollop in some of your more advanced Neopolitans.

lesser_minion
2009-03-02, 01:46 PM
Wait a minute. You can put chocolate syrup on strawberry ice cream, and then it's just as good as chocolate, if not better. After all, now it has chocolate and strawberry.

The sheer cosmic horror implied by the thought of chocolate syrup on strawberry ice cream leaves people with lower SAN scores than me a gibbering wreck. I am now eternally traumatised. Have a cookie.

MCerberus
2009-03-02, 01:48 PM
I like to multiscoop dark chocolate and mint. People tell me this is sub-optimal, but I have fun with it. Of course that combination can get really powerful if you allow Marble Slab as a source.

Knaight
2009-03-02, 02:06 PM
Mint and Chocolate seems suboptimal, but if you add in a swirl of caramel it synergizes really well. Then toss in some chunks of fudge, add chocolate sprinkles, and if your really fancy, throw in some berries. No strawberries though, thats disgusting. Raspberries synergize well with the fudge and caramel. Of course, this is all moot if you buy your ice cream from the supermarket.

Severedevil
2009-03-02, 02:07 PM
I'm gonna have to echo Assassin89 here- you're all talking about frozen dairy products, when the Flavors As Written don't even have rules for lactose. (And lactose-free builds take at least three Splatscoops or they're useless against soy.)

You're free to use homemake ice cream, I guess, but then we're not speaking the same flavor.

The Glyphstone
2009-03-02, 02:27 PM
http://www.sugarsays.com/.a/6a00e54ff18131883401053497806b970b-800wi

Saint Nil
2009-03-02, 02:34 PM
(parody thread ya'll:smallwink:)

Anyway, there are various homebrew recipes that make strawberry icecream just as good as chocalte icecream. Also, not everyone likes chocalte. Some people just like eat Strawberry.

Anyway, we all know that chocalte-chip icecream is far superior anyway, so t his argument is irrevelevent.

Temp.
2009-03-02, 02:42 PM
Anyway, there are various homebrew recipes that make strawberry icecream just as good as chocalte icecream. Also, not everyone likes chocalte. Some people just like eat Strawberry. Bah. There's no room for homebrew here, just the overwhelming goodness of dedicated cho****ude.


On an unrelated note, are Fruit Brute and Count Chocula still in production? I swear I haven't seen those in ages. I miss them in an odd sort of way.

MCerberus
2009-03-02, 02:54 PM
So what are the thoughts about frozen coffees here?

Sure early on they were a bit odd, both weak and couldn't be defended by anyone using normal scoops, but they have since found their niche. A lot of people just auto-ban frozen coffees out of fear.

Reaper_Monkey
2009-03-02, 03:14 PM
Citrus all the way, any sort, but it has to be citrus... I'll except vanilla though. At the end of the day chocolate is overly hyped because everything insists on taking a level dip into it, but after the first few levels its really not worth it. Strawberry is okay but its pretty underpar overall, it can be made okay with a few overpowered feats, but anything reliant on that method clearly isn't worth it on its own. Citrus has a better mechanic and integrates well with other flavour a lot of the time, while vanilla is a good base for a lot of prestige classes so I'll accept it as a valid option.

What?

Fenix_of_Doom
2009-03-02, 03:38 PM
Bah. There's no room for homebrew here, just the overwhelming goodness of dedicated cho****ude.


I completely agree, just because your mommy can make the bestest strawberry icecream in the world, doesn't mean my mommy can, we can only objectively discuss icecream which is sold in the stores!!!!111!

Evil the Cat
2009-03-02, 03:42 PM
I have to agree with those who are outside the strawberry/chocolate box. I always like to go with something more unusual. Rocky Road is a good one. It has all the advantages of chocolate, but isn't quite so one-dimensional.

Personally, Phish food is my top choice, but not everyone allows third-party sources. I also love Thin Mint, but that's really an obscure one.

chiasaur11
2009-03-02, 03:52 PM
Bah. There's no room for homebrew here, just the overwhelming goodness of dedicated cho****ude.


On an unrelated note, are Fruit Brute and Count Chocula still in production? I swear I haven't seen those in ages. I miss them in an odd sort of way.

Chocula, I think so. Saw some at Grocery Outlet recently, at any rate. Fruit Brute, however, is less fortunate.

Saint Nil
2009-03-02, 04:02 PM
Personally, Phish food is my top choice, but not everyone allows third-party sources. I also love Thin Mint, but that's really an obscure one.

Phish can be way broken if properly optimized. Plus, if we start using thrid party sources, this is no longer a competition. Chocolate wins handsdown.

Totally Guy
2009-03-02, 04:06 PM
What's the point in arguing over something so common as ice cream?

We culturally elite folk would take any fine sobet over that flavoured muck from the teat of a cow.

Just face it. Until you've savoured at least four sorbets served in the frozen skin/shell of the fruit it represents there is no way you can hold an appreciable opinion.

OverWilliam
2009-03-02, 04:13 PM
I think chocolate is a pretty cool guy. eh cures cancer and doesn't afraid of anything.

Weezer
2009-03-02, 04:14 PM
When I first started truly exploring the advantages and disadvantages of different ice creams I thought that neapolitan was superior, but I was very wrong. I thought that since chocolate was amazing, vanilla was good and strawberry was mediocre the combination of the three would be amazing, it turns out that neapolitan was not well thought out in the design phases and turns out weak, not fulfilling any of the flavors that it was intended to emulate.

I must conclude that chocolate is the superior flavor in every way.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-02, 04:15 PM
Personally, I prefer waffles and meat and other hot foods to ice cream.

Though there are certain problems with the bacon being overpowered compared to chicken, it is spelled out in the Meat & Munching manual that it can be so and that chefs should take care to watch orders that include too much bacon and not enough chicken.

I mean, when was the last time Ice Cream & Insanity presented something as "potentially overpowering"? Even chocolate?

Totally Guy
2009-03-02, 04:23 PM
We all scream for mainstream!:smalltongue:

kalt
2009-03-02, 04:37 PM
God forbid you ask for anything else besides chocolate ice cream or you will be reminded constantly that this is not the way to go. Heck, I thought that was half the fun of making a sundae with vanilla ice cream was to try to make it better than chocolate ice cream.

MCerberus
2009-03-02, 04:44 PM
I heard that they made chocolate less tasty in the new super market so that people try other ice creams. Unfortunately they don't have fudge swirl yet, and that was one of my favorite flavors.

Flickerdart
2009-03-02, 04:52 PM
When I first started truly exploring the advantages and disadvantages of different ice creams I thought that neapolitan was superior, but I was very wrong. I thought that since chocolate was amazing, vanilla was good and strawberry was mediocre the combination of the three would be amazing, it turns out that neapolitan was not well thought out in the design phases and turns out weak, not fulfilling any of the flavors that it was intended to emulate.

I must conclude that chocolate is the superior flavor in every way.
Oh, please. Neapolitan is a perfectly viable ice cream. All you've gotta do is shift the sprinkles to the strawberry, then get a Polymorph Any Flavour cast on you to make yourself into a Fudge Sundae. If anything, this shows how powerful the strawberry flavour is as an option.

Kurald Galain
2009-03-02, 04:53 PM
We culturally elite folk would take any fine sobet over that flavoured muck from the teat of a cow.

Are you telling me to graduate my dairy?

mostlyharmful
2009-03-02, 04:54 PM
Don't go down the newfangled Chocolate route, it's a half thought through hare-brained scheme of the evil Ben and/or Jerry thouse diabolical machiavelliean conspiritors to do away with the dilicious Strawberry.

Although real conisourers remember the days of the raspberry ripple, indeed many of us still have not gone over to the overly e-numbered Strawberry on base principle.

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-02, 04:58 PM
Are you telling me to graduate my dairy?

Hey, admittedly, that dairy could use better marketing, but I enjoy its taste better than mundane ice cream.

Draz74
2009-03-02, 05:53 PM
http://www.sugarsays.com/.a/6a00e54ff18131883401053497806b970b-800wi

Now, that I will have to keep in reserve for future reference. :smallbiggrin:

Bryn
2009-03-02, 06:16 PM
Why is this thread even in Roleplaying Games? Although ice cream does make a good snack for RPing, it is completely irrelevant to the topics in this section of the forums.
Read any 4e thread. Now read this thread again. Seem familiar? :smallamused:

Anybody who likes chocolate ice cream clearly doesn't understand the point of ice cream. Indeed, anyone who thinks they like chocolate ice cream is deluding themselves, and really they prefer strawberry ice cream!

That's a fact, and it's obvious to anyone who understands ice cream.

This thread is awesome.

Starbuck_II
2009-03-02, 06:20 PM
Read any 4e thread. Now read this thread again. Seem familiar? :smallamused:

Anybody who likes chocolate ice cream clearly doesn't understand the point of ice cream. Indeed, anyone who thinks they like chocolate ice cream is deluding themselves, and really they prefer strawberry ice cream!

That's a fact, and it's obvious to anyone who understands ice cream.

This thread is awesome.

Nah, Vanilla with the Kids Next Door Prc is all powerful. But since I figured few stores carry such broken material I go with strawberry.

Collin152
2009-03-02, 06:53 PM
I'd heard bad things about strawberry before, and thought about trying it, but after reading this thread, I think I'll save myself the trouble. Thanks, Kurald!

Flickerdart
2009-03-02, 07:02 PM
Read any 4e thread. Now read this thread again. Seem familiar? :smallamused:

Anybody who likes chocolate ice cream clearly doesn't understand the point of ice cream. Indeed, anyone who thinks they like chocolate ice cream is deluding themselves, and really they prefer strawberry ice cream!

That's a fact, and it's obvious to anyone who understands ice cream.

This thread is awesome.

Really? I thought it was a parody of the Fighter vs Wizard threads...

The Rose Dragon
2009-03-02, 07:05 PM
Really? I thought it was a parody of the Fighter vs Wizard threads...

It is a parody of everything. I inserted a comment about M&M as well as Exalted's "Graduate Your Game" fiasco into the thread.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-03-02, 07:16 PM
Strawberry ice cream is known to be kind of gross and of smelly, and it has the texture of a withered grapefruit. Some people who eat strawberry ice cream are obese, or said to be flatulent, or kick little puppies.

And on the other hand, we have chocolate ice cream, which, in the words of one highly intelligent character, is Totally Yummy. Also, it contains more calories per square inch than any other known kind of ice cream, and many highly intelligent and attractive people eat chocolate ice cream, and you should be able to buy it at your local supermarket. If not, sue your supermarket.


My god, what blatant strawmanning! :smallsigh:

The sheer amount of fallacies engendered in these statements is staggering - particularly the fallacy that chocolate is delicious. I am unsurprised to see these tired old strawman arguments being trotted out by the strawmanning classes that favor cocoa-based ice-creams instead of being willing to try the deeper and more complex flavors that you can find in sherbet.

Strawman.

NecroRebel
2009-03-02, 07:30 PM
My god, what blatant strawmanning! :smallsigh:

The sheer amount of fallacies engendered in these statements is staggering - particularly the fallacy that chocolate is delicious. I am unsurprised to see these tired old strawman arguments being trotted out by the strawmanning classes that favor cocoa-based ice-creams instead of being willing to try the deeper and more complex flavors that you can find in sherbet.

Strawman.

Bah. Clearly it is not strawmanning. Strawmen like strawberries, obviously. They both have "straw" in their name, therefore they must be related. Since Kurald is advocating an anti-strawberry agenda, he must not like strawberries. Since he doesn't like strawberries, he clearly isn't a strawman.



On a completely unrelated note, the older kinds of strawberries are clearly superior to the newer varieties. The newer ones, like California berries, were designed for mass-market consumption to many people around the world, but a true connesiuer will always seek the older, sweeter, and more flavorful varieties, like Oregon berries. Clearly, the new editions are inferior to the older ones because the new ones are just to pull in the videogame generation... Somehow.
Yeah, I have no idea where I was going at the end there. It's supposed to be like people calling 4E videogamy, but I wasn't sure how to use fruit in the metaphor...

Yukitsu
2009-03-02, 07:41 PM
It's times like these that I really wish I didn't get violently ill after eating delicious delicious icecream. :smallsigh:

Colmarr
2009-03-02, 07:41 PM
Wait a minute. You can put chocolate syrup on strawberry ice cream, and then it's just as good as chocolate, if not better. After all, now it has chocolate and strawberry.

I call Oberoni!

chiasaur11
2009-03-02, 07:55 PM
Personally, I prefer waffles and meat and other hot foods to ice cream.

Though there are certain problems with the bacon being overpowered compared to chicken, it is spelled out in the Meat & Munching manual that it can be so and that chefs should take care to watch orders that include too much bacon and not enough chicken.

I mean, when was the last time Ice Cream & Insanity presented something as "potentially overpowering"? Even chocolate?

Hey, Bacon's nigh omnipotent in real life. They were just trying to be realistic there.

FoE
2009-03-02, 07:56 PM
I never warmed up to chocolate. Yeah, it sure can be tasty, and there's a wide variety of different brands selling chocolate ice cream, but like 90 per cent of those brands sell terrible ice cream. And some of the higher-priced flavours were just ridiculous.

I like strawberry better because it's much easier for me to buy strawberry ice cream for my friends. True, there's only a few brands of strawberry ice cream compared to chocolate and people say they're all the same anyways, but I think strawberry is plenty tasty on its own.

RebelRogue
2009-03-02, 08:53 PM
Strawberry? Why don't you use a scoop of unarmed vanilla/sage?

Ascension
2009-03-02, 08:54 PM
Wait a minute. You can put chocolate syrup on strawberry ice cream, and then it's just as good as chocolate, if not better. After all, now it has chocolate and strawberry.

Wait, gestalt ice cream? In a regular game? At least the Neapolitan Prestige Class ensures that you won't get 9th level spells in vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry, but when you start getting syrups involved... you might as well just throw balance out the window. Pretty soon you'll have ice cream that completely dumped cocoa wildshaping into the darkest chocolate you ever did see. And that's only the beginning, my friend... only the beginning. No, do not go down that dark path.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-03-02, 08:59 PM
I call Oberoni!

Oberoni? More like Oberweis! (http://www.oberweisdairy.com/web/icecream.asp)

Fishy
2009-03-02, 09:13 PM
You know what bothers me about these threads? All of you people who are saying 'chocolate' when you really mean one specific kind of Belgian dark chocolate with fudge chunks.

Yes, okay, 'obviously' some kinds of chocolate are 'superior', but that's forgetting that when you get some chocolate ice-cream, there are actually a lot of decisions involved. Cone or cup? Chips or peanut butter swirl? Heck, even that soft-serve Tasty Freeze junk is technically chocolate, even if no one eats it.

And when you're new to ice cream, (Which we all were, once), a lot of those look awfully similar. It's easy to make irreversible mistakes.

Whereas Strawberry, for all its faults, is simple. You put it in a bowl, you eat it with a spoon, and there are strawberries in it. Nothing to it! Sure, chewing on frozen fruit bits sometimes gives you painful headaches, but there's none of all that work involved.

So, stop hating on Strawberry when it's obviously designed with beginners who are too stupid to tie their own shoelaces in mind.

Belobog
2009-03-02, 09:35 PM
Both flavors have merit. Strawberry has a simple, clean flavor that doesn't overstay its welcome, but can get a bit tedious after a while. Chocolate is complex and you can really do anything with it, but sometimes it's just too complicated and leaves a bad aftertaste if it's too dark.

Then again, my favorite is a nice lime-lemon sorbet, but that was a simpler time back then, before the wholesale move to dairy.

Signmaker
2009-03-02, 10:13 PM
Personally, I'm a major fan of mint chocolate chip. While it only has the barest hints of the valuable and delectable chocolate ice cream, I personally prefer to explore variety than stick with the stock amazing.

I love Kurald-odies. Makes my stay at GitP entirely worth it.

ericgrau
2009-03-03, 12:10 AM
True, strawberry and chocolate are the only viable options, and chocolate is the obvious choice out of the two. But some of us pick flavors because we want to try something different even if nothing does taste as good as chocolate. And I have chocolate ice cream eating friends who will tone back their enjoyment while I eat my cookies and cream so I don't feel bad in the presence of their choclatey goodness.

Zaq
2009-03-03, 03:32 AM
What kills me about these endless chocolate supporters is the whole "Schrodinger's Topping" problem they all have. I mean yes, we all know that a properly optimized and prepared chocolate can defeat just about anything else in the freezer without even trying, but the simple fact is that not every chocolate will be able to prepare in the right way for every bowl. You have to prepare chocolate ahead of time, choosing your cashews or your marshmallows or whatever, and you can't always assume you have every topping in the pantry at your disposal at all times. That's what makes chocolate different from vanilla, after all. Poor vanilla. It's always one level behind chocolate in getting the good toppings, so no one thinks it can keep up, but any topping it has, it has right now. Chocolate doesn't have that luxury, as much as some posters around here think it does.

I mean yeah, they both beat a straight-up strawberry, but I do wish that people would realize that as powerful and awesome as chocolate is, it still is not an automatic win button.

MCerberus
2009-03-03, 04:00 AM
At this point it would be good to point out that the fruit flavors are brought back into some semblance of equality with some flavors (not vanilla and chocolate though) by using the Book of Toppings. A lot of people complain that the flavors get too "eastern", but it's really the only way to have good fruit flavors in a dessert dominated by chocolate. Using only grocery flavors and toppings, even vanilla can do strawberry's job better than strawberry.

Sebastian
2009-03-03, 04:32 AM
One other problem - roleplaying games forum??!? Ice cream??!?? Can you even get strawberry ice cream of inflict serious wounds and vanilla ice cream of mass heal now?


Sorry for going OT but ice cream would be an awesome idea for a variant of potions.

Mmhhh, Ice cream. :smalltongue::smallsmile:

Ravens_cry
2009-03-03, 04:53 AM
I like my ice cream to be effective, but not overly complex. I don't need a multiflavour Chocolate7/Fudge4/Banana2/Mint6 with a dip in Coconut. I will eat straight vanilla, and even be happy with it. Why? Because it's my ice cream. Maybe I will say the beans were harvested in some deep underground vanilla mines, and the cream actually comes from an obese ugly cow with hygiene problems, the ice stolen from destitute penguins. It changes nothing mechanically about the ice cream, but I have made the ice cream my own, even though it's just plain old vanilla.

RMS Oceanic
2009-03-03, 05:01 AM
I enjoy utilizing simple Vanilla, especially the 99 build. Equip it with a +5 Flake of Cadbury and enjoy the simple but effective flavour. If your ICM allows it, dip into the Double Cone Prc for twice the fun!

The_Snark
2009-03-03, 05:25 AM
I'm not going to get into the Strawberry vs. Chocolate argument, but I will say that it was better when it was just vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. These days every store you go into has like 30 flavors. I remember trying to get a friend of mine interested, and he was so overwhelmed by all the options that he never managed to get started.

All of the later ones are ridiculously overflavored, too: Caramel Raspberry Swirl, variants like French Vanilla and Chocolate Fudge, and those ridiculous multicolored fruit flavors. (Seriously, is there anybody who likes those who isn't a kid? No real hairice cream looks like that.) Neopolitan was broken enough, but those just ruin the whole system. Now everybody takes a dip of this flavor, a dip of that; I hardly ever see anybody eating plain vanilla or chocolate without using toppings or spoonfuls from later supplements. And we never needed them, too—the Big Three are still better!

It was better when we just had three flavors, that's for sure. Those are the only sources I allow.

Oracle_Hunter
2009-03-03, 06:24 AM
It was better when we just had three flavors, that's for sure. Those are the only sources I allow.

This brings up a very important point - ice cream had a much better origin story back in the day.

Why, I remember back when ice cream stores had little hand-cranked churns that let them make the ice cream fresh in the store. You knew that people were really thinking seriously about what went into the ice cream, making sure all the flavors made sense even in complex ice creams. If you wanted to know how the ice cream was made you could look it up in any number of books, each of which approached the process from a different perspective - one book on the history of ice cream, another on the mechanical process of making it, and then a whole set detailing the theory of how ice cream is formed and why it is so tasty.

All that detail made homebrewing a cinch; all you needed was the core ice cream making system, a good knowledge of the backstory of ice cream and a ready supply of ingredients and inspiration! You could play around with your own flavoring and suit everything to your own taste. Sure, you could make some terrible flavors, but that's why the best ICMs (Ice Cream Masters) were the ones who really threw themselves into the discipline. Those guys were legends - it was an honor to be able to taste whatever they were serving up.

Today though? Now all the ice cream comes from a few big companies that flood the stores with their products. They construct these elaborate machines that sure can make ice cream easily, but you or I aren't ever going to be able to figure out how they do it; homebrewing is next to impossible, if you go in for these "modern ice cream makers." And the flavoring! They all use some obscure chemical formula to make new flavors - if you want to make a new flavor, you're going to have to a big library of chemicals and hope for the best.

No, modern ice cream killed the elite ice cream makers of the past; you kids don't know what you're missing out on. I'm just glad I kept my first edition ice cream maker around, so that I can try to get a taste of the good old days, even if nobody else is interesting in trying it.

Charity
2009-03-03, 06:38 AM
I find it's best not to eat icecream and simply read what my peers have said and use their tastebuds to determine my preference.

Roderick_BR
2009-03-03, 09:04 AM
One other problem - roleplaying games forum??!? Ice cream??!?? Can you even get strawberry ice cream of inflict serious wounds and vanilla ice cream of mass heal now?

Maybe in that CandyLand game.

Starbuck_II
2009-03-03, 10:31 AM
I like my ice cream to be effective, but not overly complex. I don't need a multiflavour Chocolate7/Fudge4/Banana2/Mint6 with a dip in Coconut.
I will eat straight vanilla, and even be happy with it. Why? Because it's my ice cream. Maybe I will say the beans were harvested in some deep underground vanilla mines, and the cream actually comes from an obese ugly cow with hygiene problems, the ice stolen from destitute penguins. It changes nothing mechanically about the ice cream, but I have made the ice cream my own, even though it's just plain old vanilla.

Coconut! That is too sci-fi for my tastes. I perfer vancian ice cream. Coconut has too terrible of a tastes to me.

Radar
2009-03-03, 11:58 AM
Coconut! That is too sci-fi for my tastes. I perfer vancian ice cream. Coconut has too terrible of a tastes to me.
That and IMHO putting together coconut bananas and mint is just too much multi-flavoring. Sure, some people like it, but one looses all the advantages of going through with one flavor (or two/three that have some synergy).

Personally i am a bit surprised, that nobody mentioned walnuts yet. It's a solid base flavor and if you look through the avaliable variants, you can get whole walnuts in your ice cream, which is a real kicker. :smallbiggrin:

Ascension
2009-03-03, 12:38 PM
Personally i am a bit surprised, that nobody mentioned walnuts yet. It's a solid base flavor and if you look through the avaliable variants, you can get whole walnuts in your ice cream, which is a real kicker. :smallbiggrin:

Walnuts? Blech. Butter Pecan can do everything Walnut is capable of, and has butteryness on top of its nuttiness. Since Butter Pecan was published, Walnut has been obsolete. In fact, they oughta print a new PHB with Butter Pecan in place of Walnut so no n00bs will get tricked into trying to play one of those flavors.

Worira
2009-03-03, 12:49 PM
At this point it would be good to point out that the fruit flavors are brought back into some semblance of equality with some flavors (not vanilla and chocolate though) by using the Book of Toppings. A lot of people complain that the flavors get too "eastern", but it's really the only way to have good fruit flavors in a dessert dominated by chocolate. Using only grocery flavors and toppings, even vanilla can do strawberry's job better than strawberry.

It's this nonsense about flavours being somehow too "eastern" that really ticks me off. It's like they think the only flavor that's come out of the east is dragonfruit tea. Sure, some of the flavours sound a bit ornate, but it's not like you have to shout out the name of whatever you're eating. And even a basic chocolate could be made into a huge production if you shouted "Five Bean Food Of The Gods Forastero" whenever you took a lick of your cone.

Weezer
2009-03-03, 12:52 PM
Oh, please. Neapolitan is a perfectly viable ice cream. All you've gotta do is shift the sprinkles to the strawberry, then get a Polymorph Any Flavour cast on you to make yourself into a Fudge Sundae. If anything, this shows how powerful the strawberry flavour is as an option.

Ahh, but you are overlooking the fact that pure chocolate with sprinkles on it is clearly superior. If you go straight chocolate then you can cast Polymorph Any Flavor at any time so you are a Fudge Sunday most of the time but if you ever really need that extra burst of flavor you can turn into the vaunted 'Banana Split' allowing two full flavors at once with no drawbacks. By using Neapolitan you are in truth restricting your options by decreasing the amount of chocolate, the most versatile flavor.

lesser_minion
2009-03-03, 01:25 PM
You wouldn't believe some of the builds you can get out of vanilla - have you tried coming up with a honeycomb build? Trust me, 6th level toffee spells are nothing to sniff at.

The pistachio build isn't too bad, but I find it too complicated for my tastes. Strawberry is just plain overflavoured - my ICM bans it from all of his campaigns. If you try the blueberry variant, though, you will find it's a lot more subtle, and captures the fluff behind the flavour much better as well. I mean, who thought Chemical Flavour was a good idea?

Radar
2009-03-03, 01:47 PM
Walnuts? Blech. Butter Pecan can do everything Walnut is capable of, and has butteryness on top of its nuttiness. Since Butter Pecan was published, Walnut has been obsolete. In fact, they oughta print a new PHB with Butter Pecan in place of Walnut so no n00bs will get tricked into trying to play one of those flavors.
I don't have the source for Butter Pecan, but it does sound a bit over the top - like one of those waffle bowls (which grant you all the benefits of a cone and a bowl with barelly any drawbacks).

Ice cream are not about picking always the best flavors - it's about enjoing your dessert. It's not like you can't have fun eating ice cream that are plainly good only because there are some better ones.

Ascension
2009-03-03, 01:55 PM
Ice cream are not about picking always the best flavors - it's about enjoing your dessert. It's not like you can't have fun eating ice cream that are plainly good only because there are some better ones.

Oh-ho-ho... you try playing an unoptimized walnut in a party with a butter pecan and then try telling me that again!

Sebastian
2009-03-03, 02:19 PM
This thread is awesome.

Tasty, too. :smallbiggrin:

Telonius
2009-03-03, 02:48 PM
Ice Cream? Why bother with ice cream? Seriously, try some frozen custard. It might take a little getting used to, but it's a superior treat.

Rockphed
2009-03-03, 02:52 PM
This happens every time! People go on and on about Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry, but they completely forget about Pumpkin! Sure, it has an unassuming exterior, but once you really look at it, it gets even more powerful than chocolate. Seriously, haven't you ever heard of Pumpzilla?

Zaq
2009-03-03, 02:56 PM
This happens every time! People go on and on about Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry, but they completely forget about Pumpkin! Sure, it has an unassuming exterior, but once you really look at it, it gets even more powerful than chocolate. Seriously, haven't you ever heard of Pumpzilla?

Please. We all know that Pump-Pump is a theoretical exercise and that no sane ICM would allow it on his table. Let's get back to the real discussion, please.

Radar
2009-03-03, 03:40 PM
Oh-ho-ho... you try playing an unoptimized walnut in a party with a butter pecan and then try telling me that again!
But taking a similar flavor twice in a party wouldn't make much sense. Also if pecan is buttery on top of being nutty, doesn't it make vanilla fudge ripple redundant as well?

If optimisation is that important, then why i have never seen anyone having a chocolate ice cream with chocolate chips and sauce? Because it would hog all the good stuff and leave nothing for the others. That's why i don't think it would be wise to pick any of those "perfect" flavors.

Yukitsu
2009-03-03, 03:50 PM
The pistachio build isn't too bad, but I find it too complicated for my tastes.

This reminds me of a character I had named Jo Pistachio. Was the most complex character I've ever played. :smalltongue:

chiasaur11
2009-03-03, 03:58 PM
Please. We all know that Pump-Pump is a theoretical exercise and that no sane ICM would allow it on his table. Let's get back to the real discussion, please.

Hey, I managed to play it back when it was a chocolate peanut-butter ripple varient once (with those little footballs) and I gotta say, they weren't kidding on the boards when they said it was delicious. I mean, the guy eating plain old chocolate just sat there slackjawed.

Roland St. Jude
2009-03-03, 04:11 PM
Sheriff of Moddingham: Please keep this discussion civil and within the Forum Rules. This forum has broad definitions of flaming and trolling, and do not permit posters to insult each other for any reason, including preferred flavor-profiles. While discussions of others' comments are acceptable, personal attacks on other posters or comments intended to incite flames (which, as the OP noted, will melt the ice cream) are never permitted.

Also, remember discussions of bananas are an inappropriate topic on this forum. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5349828#post5349828)

Dogmantra
2009-03-03, 04:19 PM
Sheriff of Moddingham: Please keep this discussion civil and within the Forum Rules. This forum has broad definitions of flaming and trolling, and do not permit posters to insult each other for any reason, including preferred flavor-profiles. While discussions of others' comments are acceptable, personal attacks on other posters or comments intended to incite flames (which, as the OP noted, will melt the ice cream) are never permitted.

Also, remember discussions of bananas are an inappropriate topic on this forum. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5349828#post5349828)
Best. Mod post. EVER.

As for me, I like the less-played flavours. Of course you can go ChocoZilla, but where's the fun in that? Enjoyment of the flavour you pick, not optimisation, is the point of ice cream. I mean, yes you'd like to have Pecans rather than Walnuts, but if Pecans don't fit your sundae concept, then you're screwed. Besides, I heard a new Ice Cream edition was coming out soon, and they've addressed the balance issues between some of the flavours.

Myshlaevsky
2009-03-03, 04:38 PM
Besides, I heard a new Ice Cream edition was coming out soon, and they've addressed the balance issues between some of the flavours.

You will be disappointed, I assure you. While they've managed to fix a standard scoop size and placed some heavy restrictions on cone length, the only flavour available is vanilla. I mean, sure, you can have some chocolate or strawberry sauce on it (and there are really a lot of sauces available) but all the famous combo-scoops and maniac sundaes are a thing of the past.

Lycar
2009-03-03, 06:52 PM
Man, that's too good to pass up! :smallbiggrin:


Besides, I heard a new Ice Cream edition was coming out soon, and they've addressed the balance issues between some of the flavours.

Bah, let me tell you one thing:

The golden age of ice cream was back then when there were just 3 flavours.

Chocolate, Vanilla, Strawberry.

And when it comes down to it, these are, to this day, the only real iconic flavours. Everything else is just variants. Of these base flavours.

Let us examine them in detail:

Vanilla is the still a well-liked flavour these days, it doesn't need improving to be good. It is a rich flavour, all without being overpowering. It goes well with any other flavour.

Strawberry. Well, to be honest, it probably is a bit controversial. Either you love strawberry, or you hate it. Back then, before they managed to refine the process, you would always have some pips and fruity bits in your ice cream. But hey, for some people that was the very reason they loved it!

Taste wise it is, admittedly, a bit plain. But the right sort of ICM can still turn it into something made of awesome (and strawberries)!

Chocolate is a bit controversial too. Sure, good chocolate is of a deep, rich flavour, very powerful. But therein lies the problem: Chocolate is a very jealous taste and does not tolerate other flavours beside it.

My advice would be to taste chocolate in small quantities, else it would spoil your enjoyment of the less-powerful flavours, especially strawberry.

Even chocolate lovers agree that a bit of vanilla goes very well with chocolate, and a few brave sould even like to have bits of fruit in their ice cream bowls too.

Unfortunately, there is a crowd of of people, who have fallen to the dark side of chocolate. Their senses have been dulled by the power of the flavour, and their tastebuds are dead to the joys of vanilla or strawberry!

Those poor souls crave nothing more then the next kick of chocolate. But plain chocolate is no longer good enough for them, oh no! Now they require chocolate sprinkles on top, bits of actual dark chocolate liberally intermixed with their cream, or otherwise plain chocolate, as powerful as it is by itself, will taste like cardboard to them!

Some of the damned even know about the deep pit of despair they dug themselves by their gluttony, but do they try to pry themselves from the dark molasses?

No! Misery loved company, and like the damned of hell themselves, they will stop at nothing to ridicule those who venerate vanilla or evn *gasp* strawberry! Maybe it is the painful reminder of more innocent days, those fiends find the mere mention of strawberry to be blasphemous!


But back to the golden age of ice cream. Back in those days, it was almost blasphemous to even consider mixing any of the 3 great flavours.

But it could be done, and who does not agree that strawberry and vanilla go well together? Some intrepid explorers even mixed all three flavours and found it to their liking.

Of course, since back then, serving sizes were all the same, mixing your flavours meant getting less of them in a single serving. So your overall taste-experience accumulated much slower then if you would just stick to a single flavour serving.

Then there is also the fact that you just can not eat as much chocolate in one session before being full then, say, strawberry. So a strawberry-lover would accumulate taste-experience at a much higher rate.

That was okay though. Strawberry wasn't (and isn't) so terribly overflavoured, although you could (and can) do a lot with it.

And nowadays?

With all the hate-speech from the damned of the chocolate, strawberry has lost a lot of appeal to the younger generations.

"Only babies eat strawberry," they say, "real man eat chocolate! Nothing but! Everybody who disagrees is clearly insane!"

*sigh* :smallsigh:

One has to admit though, the influx of new variants of strawberry (well, technically of fruit flavour really. But since strawberry was the one and original fruit flavour, we should honour it by refering to all fruit flavours as variants of strawberry), has improved the situation somewhat.

Cherry, pineapple (or even apple (although that's not a fruit really)!), grape... there is a bit of everything for those who look for a 'different' fruit flavour.

Of course the influx of new, more exotic fruits (dragonfruit has been mentioned for example), has caused a shism between the proponents of a more 'traditional' fruit flavour and those who embrace the new tastes, but seem to forget about the old classics.

Certainly, some of the later newcomers have a flavour that threaten to rival the strength of even chocolate. But they are nowhere as overpowering, and they go surprisingly well with other flavours, especially vanilla.

Yes, I would even go so far as to say: Vanilla is the true survivor of the flavour war. While chcolate has gone too far to the dark side (70% cocoa! Madness! Where will it stop?!) and strawberry struggles to remain viable amongst all the other fruity flavours, vanilla has endured unchanged.

Seriously, look at it: Sure, there is pistaccio, mint, hazelnut and all that, but everybody agrees that everything goes well with vanilla.

Heck, even some die-hard, dyed-in-the-wool chocolate fanatics can agree that a bit of vanilla makes everything better.

*sigh* What can I say? I'm a romantic, a dreamer. I wish for a world where you could eat chocolate, vanilla or strawberry, without being branded a heretic. Or even mix them, without chocolate drowning out all the other tastes.

Don't get me wrong: I like chocolate, I really do. But if eating chocolate means, I won't be able to enjoy strawberry or vanilla anymore, then I have to say: No chocolate for me!

What would be even better was if we could find a new, improved chocolate. Maybe less cocoa, more... milk? Coconut? Just as long as we get that accursed addicting qualities out of it.

The world has already too many chocolate-junkies as is.

But I have heard conflicting rumours about those new brands of flavours on the market, maybe someone has already sampled them?


Lycar

Knaight
2009-03-03, 07:22 PM
Strawberry has served its purpose. It was there long enough for Raspberry to grab foothold. Now it needs to get out of the way. Chocolate works fine, as does Vanilla. But what of the forgotten ones? French Vanilla. Coffee. Both incredible tastes, mixing well with anything. You can take French Vanilla, throw on some berries, crumble a candy bar inside it, smash up some chocolate cookies and toss them in, then add caramel syrup and it is amazing. Coffee can be added to chocolate, but it can also serve as a base, tossing in caramel, toffee, mint chunks, and putting it in a waffle cone. Coffee needs a waffle cone. People put up restrictions on Coffee for a reason, Coffee in a sugar cone is just stupid. French Vanilla works in a sugar cone, Blue Moon(honestly, I don't know what goes into this. If you have a Kilwin's nearby, go ahead and taste it, but you probably won't get all that close unless you are really good at identifying taste) works in a sugar cone. Even chocolate works in a sugar cone. But Coffee, and Raspberry don't. They are waffle cone. End of Story.

Cones make the ice cream. You have to go way sideways, away from mainstream ice cream, and focus on the cone. The cone is critical. Your raspberry coffee ice cream with whipped cream, caramel, and a scoop of French vanilla is nothing if you put it in a sugar cone.

Ascension
2009-03-03, 08:06 PM
Cones make the ice cream. You have to go way sideways, away from mainstream ice cream, and focus on the cone. The cone is critical. Your raspberry coffee ice cream with whipped cream, caramel, and a scoop of French vanilla is nothing if you put it in a sugar cone.

But the cone rules weren't even in first edition! They weren't introduced until 2E's Unearthed Recipes, and even then they were just variant rules. They shouldn't be considered part of the core Ice Cream experience!

Kurald Galain
2009-03-04, 04:27 AM
You are all a bunch of {scrubbed}! I totally want to {scrubbed} now.

Chocolate.

Eldan
2009-03-04, 10:28 AM
You people really need to calm down a little.

Let me tell you a little story. For quite a long time, I had never eaten ice cream. I've heard people talk about it here and there, and even tried a few other frozen things, but it took quite some time.
But then, I got a few new friends in a new school, and we had long lunch breaks, up to two hours and nothing to do. So we started talking and then ice cream came up. We decided to try it.
Well, we took the basic flavours, I took vanilla, my friend took chocolate and the third person in our group, who liked cracking nuts in real life took hazelnut.
It was a fun thing to do. Then I started looking around in the Ice cream parlour, because I was interested in new flavours and after some time, I came upon Fruitscape. I immediately loved the idea, even if the company that had made it was no longer in business. I managed to get my hands on a few fan-copies. They were good, but a little bland compared to the real stuff. Of course, many people never liked fruit, but I didn't care.

Now, when suddenly the big ice cream companies announced that they would ditch the remaining fruit flavours, since they were confusing new customers who had never tasted real Fruitscape, I was enraged. Of course, they promised us that much of the stuff we loved would still be around, but I never saw the coconut and banana and raspberry I loved. Instead, they tried to sell me chocolate with bits of dried fruit in it.

Not my thing. Now, of course, as always, the entire Ice cream parlour was already talking about it. Listening to them shout at each other, however made me realize one thing:

While I never liked chocolate and prefered fruit, I understood people who did. I would probably never share their tastes, but we could still sit together and each eat our own bowl or cone, after all, we all loved ice cream.

I'm not some strange person who only eats moldy fruit they found under the stars, as some other claimed, nor were they stupid kids who had half-dead tastebuds which couldn't taste anything other than chocolate. They were just people who enjoyed their ice cream.

And that is what this is about: it's not about what flavour you like. It's about getting together with other people and enjoying your dessert.

Telonius
2009-03-04, 12:11 PM
Strawberry? Never. I'm allergic to it anyway, and chocolate is better in a cone.

Still no takers on the frozen custard possibility? Come on, even the ice cream makers realized what a great idea it was. The entire Soft Serve system was set up to cash in on FC's success. While Soft Serve does appeal to many, it's a pale imitation of the real thing.

Kris Strife
2009-03-04, 12:39 PM
This thread made me loose San and I was already so far in the negatives I'd gone sane.

Also: Why has no one discussed milk shakes? They totally make strawberry the superior choice.

Eldan
2009-03-04, 01:04 PM
Well, we could include milkshakes in the discussion, but honestly: discussing milkshakes and frozen custard on a forum dedicated to an ice cream webcomic? Also, strawberries might well be fun in one kind of dessert, but they usually have little in common, besides the common basic ingredient.

I, myself, don't have much experience with other desserts apart from Ice Cream. I mean, I have read the recipe book for Mustards&Mastercakes, sure, and I thought the ideas were good, and once one of my friends started a round of Gamma Whirl, but apart from that...

Also, there are all those annoying White Cream types, who claim to be superiour flavour-mixers.

Riffington
2009-03-04, 02:19 PM
I know some of the people on the Other Board were talking about a Marscapone cone. I was worried that it might be too cheesy for my ICM to allow, but it sounds so sweet! How do I get this one past him?

Eldan
2009-03-04, 02:24 PM
The first step in convincing an ICM is to tell him that you are not in it for the flavour, but for the texture. Telling him a lenghty tale about the history of your Mascarpone will take you far in convincing him that you can handle it wihtout making it too cheesy.

horseboy
2009-03-04, 03:16 PM
My god, what blatant strawmanning! :smallsigh:

The sheer amount of fallacies engendered in these statements is staggering - particularly the fallacy that chocolate is delicious. I am unsurprised to see these tired old strawman arguments being trotted out by the strawmanning classes that favor cocoa-based ice-creams instead of being willing to try the deeper and more complex flavors that you can find in sherbet.

Strawman.Exactly, the rules don't even accommodate the amount of detail needed for the complexity of dreamsickle.


Strawberry? Never. I'm allergic to it anyway, and chocolate is better in a cone.

Still no takers on the frozen custard possibility? Come on, even the ice cream makers realized what a great idea it was. The entire Soft Serve system was set up to cash in on FC's success. While Soft Serve does appeal to many, it's a pale imitation of the real thing.Uh, no. Soft Serve was created because an ice cream delivery guy's truck broke down on the side of the road and he was selling his ice cream off cheap rather than having to throw it all away. It came out quite earlier than FC, which is just plain nasty. I swear kids today have no respect for what it was like in Gygaxian ice cream stores.

chiasaur11
2009-03-04, 03:53 PM
Exactly, the rules don't even accommodate the amount of detail needed for the complexity of dreamsickle.

Uh, no. Soft Serve was created because an ice cream delivery guy's truck broke down on the side of the road and he was selling his ice cream off cheap rather than having to throw it all away. It came out quite earlier than FC, which is just plain nasty. I swear kids today have no respect for what it was like in Gygaxian ice cream stores.

Yeah. I mean, didn't one out of four cones back in the day contain laxatives?

I mean, they made them nasty in that era.

lesser_minion
2009-03-05, 05:55 AM
OK, first point: this thread rocks. The 'flame' earlier just makes everything even sweeter. (Nooooooooo! You'll melt the ice cream!)

I'm still trying to remember what level you had to reach before your ICM teaches you real Ice-Cream-Craft. I mean, that would be awesome.

Eldan
2009-03-05, 06:19 AM
It depends: actually, one of the reasons the englightened think that strawberry is still limited is because the ICM teaches you fruitcraft at level 6, while you learn real choclomancy only at level 10.

Starbuck_II
2009-03-05, 10:12 AM
Hey, any one ever homebrew?
My brother got that Ice Cream maker toy when he was younger (way back then) and we could make our own ice cream.
We made a couple different ones too.

I found I liked Ice Cream much more when we made it... except Strawberry, that one still wins for me.

Ascension
2009-03-05, 11:59 AM
I'm still trying to remember what level you had to reach before your ICM teaches you real Ice-Cream-Craft. I mean, that would be awesome.

Holy Pelor! Real Ice-Cream-Craft?!? Weren't you paying attention when your local cleric warned you of the dangers of making ice cream? May Ehlonna forgive you for such perversion of nature! Milk is meant to remain in its natural state, you pagan!

Chick preserve us! I think all Ice Cream-related books should be burned before this corruption spreads! Who's with me?!?

Eldan
2009-03-05, 12:08 PM
Oh, please. Next thing you'll be talking about those "ice-cream related" suicidies back in the eighties.
You crazy Polytheists blame something else every few years. I mean, back then it was ice cream, tomorrow it's probably something else that's completely natural and normal, like soup. I mean, I saw those propaganda movies from the fifties when they went wild about salad.

BRC
2009-03-05, 12:14 PM
Can I just say that while I find standard Ice cream plenty enjoyable, I prefer alternate forms of Ice cream, like milkshakes, or floats, or frozen custard.

OOTS_Rules 2
2009-03-05, 08:35 PM
I have discovered a well-known sourcebook for Vanilla, the Book of Nine Cookies. The Vanilla alternatives are absurdly tasty, ESPECIALLY Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Cookies and Cream.

lesser_minion
2009-03-06, 05:02 AM
I never thought vanilla was really in that much need of fixing though. Strawberry definitely needed work, especially after the Doughnut Manuals II and III came out - before that, the worst a strawberry could turn into was a jam doughnut, which wasn't really too dangerous. The ones that turned into doner kebabs were pretty scary though.

Eldan
2009-03-06, 05:11 AM
I always said the same thing to my players: no Döner Kebap in my Icecream, please.

lesser_minion
2009-03-06, 05:29 AM
Then there is the choice of settings - which published one does everyone prefer? Cake, Fruit Salad, Cup, Chewy Cone, Wafflecone, chocolate cone or coffee? Or did you homebrew your own settings?

Khatoblepas
2009-03-06, 05:52 AM
Then there is the choice of settings - which published one does everyone prefer? Cake, Fruit Salad, Cup, Chewy Cone, Wafflecone, chocolate cone or coffee? Or did you homebrew your own settings?

You know, I always liked the more obscure settings. The worldspanning Ice Cream Parlor was my favourite. Unfortunately, the updated setting removed Baked Alaska and Yorkshire Pudding from the possible arrangements, which really made me sad. I love icecream filled yorkshires.

But then there was the Colourings they added, too. You could have the same icecream, but make it look like chocolate or strawberry, or even bubblegum! It made icecream look more exciting, but really it was the same flavour underneath.

I would like to try other systems of dessert, too. Custom Holistic Original Creation Ice Cream Enjoyment is one, but I've found it way too complicated, especially when youtry to do any kind of delicately timed thing like Alaska. It seems better to avoid it altogether, even in the Light version.

Not to mention the other one, RIPPLE I think it was. Totally unbalanced, it makes Raspberry Choc Chip Mega Sundae Floats from an obscure recipebook the best one, I hear.

Totally Guy
2009-03-06, 07:20 AM
Who still supports the Local Friendly Neighbourhood Ice Cream Vans?

They're too expensive round here.

I get my soft ice cream cones ordered online so I receive them through the post now.

horseboy
2009-03-06, 07:26 AM
Yeah. I mean, didn't one out of four cones back in the day contain laxatives?

I mean, they made them nasty in that era.

Oh man, ever have an ICM that actually used the "Unhygienic worker" rules, rather than skip over them like "nice" ICMs. I mean really, sure it's a little more realistic, but why would I want to have to deal with finding a used band aid in my imaginary ice cream? What's fun about that? Good Humor doesn't make me worry about finding random blood splatter on their frozen desserts. Heck, they've even got a more "realistic" system, complete with dreamcycles and ice cream headaches.

But no, the real worst was the ICM who made extensive use of Cursed Creams. Oh man I hated that who scene. You'd get something labeled Snozberry. It looked like snozberry. Smelled like snozberry. You take a bite and what do you get?

:smallfurious: Beaver anus! :smallfurious:

Oh ha ha. I'm stuck with beaver anus flavored ice cream. Is there a reason for beaver anus flavored ice cream other than just to make the ICM cackle like a deranged howler monkey? No? I mean, why did someone even make it? Back then ice cream was a huge investment of time and resources that few people ever would make. Not like now a days, where they're just custom blend it right up for you. Someone had to purposefully set out to waste a portion of their life making something incredibly nasty. Oh, they were crazy? Isn't that what you said about the fish wang flavor last week? And that's another thing, why does it have to be something so sophomoric? Couldn't it be something like brains flavor? I'd not want to eat brains flavor, have no use for it, but at least I'd understand why it was around. Somebody got the fever for the flavor of human brains (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9BRUe4yToQ) Maybe some necromancer wanting to treat his minions who were good all week. Get them a frozen treat. Except Toothy, he didn't finish his adventurer.
That's why I became an ICM. I made a pact with my Paying Customers that if it said chocolate, looked like chocolate and smelled like chocolate it would be some kind of chocolate. And there was much rejoicing.
Now, of course, it's come full circle and people are all "Presentation doesn't matter, only flavor", "Kool-Aid doesn't restrict itself to the same old WYSIWYG of color/flavor combination, why should we?" Why? because with that attitude you're only half a step away from a big old hearty helping of beaver anus flavor.
It's no wonder prior editions of ice cream left such a bad taste in my mouth.

Lycar
2009-03-06, 07:30 AM
I have discovered a well-known sourcebook for Vanilla, the Book of Nine Cookies. The Vanilla alternatives are absurdly tasty, ESPECIALLY Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Cookies and Cream.

See ? See ? And that is just the problem! Chocolate! They couldn't leave vanilla well alone, oh no, they had to cave in to the demands of the chocolate-fanboys. :smallfurious:

Mark my words: This is just the beginning! Sure, at first you think 'Hey, a few chocolate chips add nicely to the flavour, where's the harm?'. But that, my friend, is a slippery slope! Soon you will feel the temptation to add even more chocolate chips to the mix. Or even, ugh, fudge!.

And one day, you will find that you are staring at nothing but chocolate and wonder where your vanilla went... :smalleek:

Cookies and Cream is pretty tasty though. :smallcool:

Lycar

ericgrau
2009-03-06, 12:07 PM
I have discovered a well-known sourcebook for Vanilla, the Book of Nine Cookies. The Vanilla alternatives are absurdly tasty, ESPECIALLY Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and Cookies and Cream.

But now you're just introducing chocolate into vanilla, which seems to say that you can't truly eat vanilla at all and still enjoy it. I beg to differ, as some of us actually like vanilla and would prefer to see it improved. There is, for example, french vanilla which does a wonderful job of this. Some say it's still worthless when compared side to side with chocolate, but I like it. And come on, chocolate in vanilla? That's so unrealistic.