Bubblegum

Bubblegum, as it's name suggests and entails, is all about superficiality. But while your eyes glaze over as you read this text, ready to abandon thoughts of pursuing such a flavor, you must realize that it's superficiality is not derived from vanity. Quite the opposite. The whole concept of bubblegum is to sardonically remark upon the effervescent and non-fluid nature that culture derives. Bubblegum is the taste of an existential crisis... a pure and heartfelt reflection upon the willingness for a 'complex' ice cream, something society as a whole yearns for, begging beneath the stars for some grand allusion to the core ideas of existence. Alas, such begging is fruitless and foolhardy, and entails a deeper disillusion.

What distinguishes bubblegum from the rest of it's modern peers is a sense of craft located in the sweet spot between willful amateurism masking incompetence and not gumming things up with bells and whistles. It's immediate and substantial, but initially, it can seem distracting that the flavor is built more for sweetness than complexity. Yet this isn't a concept that needs anchors-- as much as the sweetness allows the flavor to play counterpoint to modern concepts of ice cream, it's held back by this goal as well. Overall, the gist of the flavor is appropriately unaffected, working in tastes that almost feel like 45-degree angles-- exact, acute, and just right. Because this style of taste doesn't attempt to align itself with any others it creates a new vista, taking an already strong slant to a higher plateau.

But as with any conceptual idealism towards adroitness, one wonders if the idealism outweighs the actual material, or if they are equal. Take, for instance, Duchamp's Fountain. The same ideas are in play here, is the fact that the ice cream itself is a overly sweet and trite mess antecedent to the transcendental metaphor of society being as trite as the flavor aims to convey? Or worse, would it be accepted not as a metaphor or statement but the ideal in and unto itself?

As I sit here, fingers softly brushing across the keys, I stare out my window, rain softly glazing the ground as a fresh steam awakens from a cold and dead earth. It is the same with Bubblegum, it is not a creation, but a byproduct of hubris unknown. The rain is picking up as I sip my tea with honey, feeling safe inside my home. If you close your eyes, the storm can carry you with it, and make you realize how truly you are nothing compared to it. But the truth of the matter is that the storm will pass, and you will remain... but the same you does not remain, you are forever marked with the change brought by the sweeping of the dark storm across the brittle and uncaring sky. I watch the pine trees darken with the sky. I realize this: that bubblegum is the storm, it changes you, makes you realize what ice cream truly means... but can be so easily ignored as many would choose. However, there will always be those who understand what storms and bubblegum truly are, and this ineffable truth cannot be corrupted.

Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream

A complete contrast to the trite degredation of popular society that conists of all things that vanilla aspires to become, Homemade Vanilla Ice Cream (hereto referred to as Homemade) distinguishes itself from its contemporaries in that by attempting to go back to its roots, it makes a transcendent journey which truly encompasses the ideas that Vanilla so forlornly attempts, and makes good on their promises. Hailing generally from a similar region as that of Strawberry, Homemade is a fighter, taking its own title of Vanilla and changing what that truly means. When you taste it, you truly believe it was made in a home, and hell, it may have even been made in your home. It reminds me of my harsh years of growing up in the suburbs of Massachusetts, only going to Europe every two years, tormented by my contemporary high schoolers. However, that is far in the past, I (as you know) am making my way between the states and her more melodious counterpart, Europa, quite frequently now. But still, this ice cream, this beautiful ode to all ice cream, Homemade, truly reminds me of a dejected youth, and his violet subjugation of the societal system by way of using common social norms to destroy the boundaries of what is and is not Vanilla.

Thinking of what truly ice cream means to the world, it does sadden me that not all ice creams can be seen through this veil of rebellion, and thus I must reluctantly return to why Homemade is different from Vanilla at all. If both are indeed to be considered Vanilla, why is Homemade such a hallmark and important work, whereas Vanilla is so entry-level and bland? Is it the rebel spirit that construes the true nature and essence of Homemade, making it what it is? If so, it seems that rebellion is a quality to be sought and cherished.

One significant difference between Homemade and Vanilla is that the latter, especially early in its career, was willing to please palettes that would even listen to the radio. For better or worse, Homemade is not intended to be a popular flavor-- that's just not what it does. So I don't want to overstate this flavor's accessibility. A few samplings here, especially longer ones like combining it with organic self-roasted fair-trade Columbian espresso and other such tastes, approach the winding density that marked the death of Vanilla. On these, the structure of the components is elusive-- at any given moment you're not sure if you're tasting the ice cream, the coffee, or a combination of both. The ingredient sheet helps a bit, but with two cups of Homemade to digest, you won't feel too guilty about using different flavors here and there, or digesting the flavor in pieces. Helpfully, returning to the most immediate flavors causes their charm and appeal to bleed into the ingredients that surround them-- so the flavor seems to grow and change as you enjoy.

I specifically use enjoy over consume due to the context which consume places upon most ice creams, for you do not truly consume ice cream, unless one doesn't understand ice cream or society et all.