Tillamook Ice Cream is Tasty

I’ve eaten well over 1,000 cups of frozen desserts over the course of my life. I consumed the common flavor trifecta – vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate. I had the chance to enjoy well-known toppings such as chocolate chip and cookie dough. I’ve had Dreyer’s, Breyer’s, and Edy’s ice cream. I helped myself to some frozen yogurt from Yogurtland, incorporating a variety of toppings like brownie bits and Fruity Pebbles into my yogurt. I’ve had ice cream sandwiches, ice cream bars, and frozen fruit bars.

With that in mind, one frozen dessert brand that hits a home run in my tongue is Tillamook ice cream. This brand of ice cream is so rich and flavorful. How do I know this? I tried Tillamook’s old-fashioned vanilla ice cream. You know a brand of ice cream is excellent if its most rudimentary flavor captivates your taste buds. Normally, vanilla ice cream is, well, vanilla (plain). It’s not bad, just “meh.” Whenever I ate any brand of ice cream besides Tillamook, I hardly ever went for the plain vanilla flavor. I always got the topping-based flavors to get a kick from the treat. In contrast, Tillamook makes vanilla ice cream decadent enough to be eaten without any toppings.

What makes Tillamook ice cream the bomb that melts in your mouth? How is ice cream even created? There are no shortage of websites and videos that thoroughly explain the entire process of producing ice cream on a massive scale for a demanding populace. That said, the process of creating ice cream will be digested (no pun intended) more simply by learning about homemade ice cream. One recipe that seems like it would be delicious is posted in a New York Times article. It calls for only five ingredients: heavy cream, whole milk, sugar, fine sea salt, and egg yolks. After some mixing, churning, and cooling, you will have created an enjoyable frozen treat.

So then, what ingredients does Tillamook put in its old-fashioned vanilla ice cream? There are nine: cream, skim milk, milk, sugar, pasteurized egg yolks, vanilla extract, tara gum, guar gum, and natural flavor. It’s likely the cream that makes this brand of ice cream a creamy delight. Cream has a lot of fat in it. Fat is a flavor enhancer. Tara gum is an additive that serves as a thickener, hence the heavy texture of the ice cream. Guar gum is also a thickening agent.

Some foods need only a few enhancers. Take dark meat, for example. Put chicken legs or thighs in a baking pan. Add salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning. Bake the meat. Whola! You just made a tasty dinner entrée. As a bonus you can pat the chicken dry (after rinsing) before placing them in the pan, add tiny pieces of butter from a stick on top of each piece of chicken, and cover the pan with aluminum foil before baking. The less water and more fat in the pan, the better. The foil will trap the fat droplets in the pan, which will make the skin juicier. Water dilutes chicken, while fat augments chicken. Fat makes food tastier. Everyone knows this.

Other foods need lots of addons and spices; for example, black beans. If you buy a bag of black beans, soak them in water overnight, boil them afterwards, then attempt to eat them, your eyes will squint as you try to find the “goodness” in bland beans. However, mix the beans with some BBQ and other ingredients, and you now have a mouth-watering side dish. The famous fast-food chain El Pollo Loco does this with their beans (you can even make said BBQ beans in the comfort of your own home).

With respect to addons, ice cream is like chicken. You need only one or a few toppings for it to be good. Practically speaking, everyone likes ice cream. I looked forward to eating ice cream as long as it had at least one topping of my liking. Formerly, I believed that Tillamook sold only cheese. This could not be further from the truth. Once I found out that the company sells ice cream as well, and tasted their vanilla ice cream for the first time, I was stunned. I never imagined that plain Jane vanilla ice cream could be so good.