State of Great Taste: Weigh in on Private Selection’s Next Ice Cream Flavor

L to R: Coleen (Pretty Prudent), ME! (Once a Month Mom), Heather (Heather’s Dish), Sara (Our Best Bites) Kate (Our Best Bites), Tessa (Handle The Heat), Christy (Southern Plate), Kelley (Mountain Mama Cooks), Kristy (Sweet Treats and More), Nicole (Baking Bites). You might remember me mentioning a couple weeks ago how excited I was be invited by Kroger and Private Selection to Traverse City, Michigan (a city on my “must see one day” list) but to also be amongst some of my favorite food bloggers. Contrary to popular belief, we food bloggers don’t know each other in real life (most of the time) and only occasionally get the opportunity to be in the same room together, no less the same kitchen. It was a magical trip. Great memories, great people, great scenery, great friends and great food (all Private Selection I might add). The trip centered around Traverse City, Michigan because it is the Cherry Capital, and it just happened to be the onset of the harvest season. And Private Selection, of the Kroger family high end food brands, recently released their limited edition Michigan Cherry Cobbler ice cream into the market. The backdrop turned out to be a stunning array of orchards, dinner tables fit for a bridal magazine reception shoot and a culinary school kitchen. The real task, after the cherry viewing, was for each blogger to create an ice cream flavor representative of their home state. Private Selection’s (and the Kroger company’s) mission is to create ice cream flavors that the customer wants, but also to travel to the various regions for which the ingredients originate and get ingredients at their finest hour. Hailing from the great state of Ohio, I found myself a bit boxed in with regional ingredients. The more I thought about it, the more I just came landing back at soybeans and corn. Not exactly your typical ice cream flavors, right? So I expanded my search a little bit, hoping to find some other answers to what we Ohioans are known for. Yea. I just landed right back at corn and soybeans. But in that research I did discover that the Reds were the first professional baseball team. Actually, after reading that fact, it dawned on me that I already knew that. After all, my grandparents spent many an evening taking me to watch Barry Larkin, Pete Rose and the rest of the Big Red Machine in my youth. And what is more all-American and “baseball” than some peanuts and crackerjacks? Not much – I dare say! So I went back to my roots of corn and settled in for a flavor combination. I began dreaming up my recipe for a sweet corn cream base, a caramel swirl and a mix in of roasted peanuts, and Carmel Peanut Pitch was born! I’m not the only one coming up with a regional flavored ice cream. The other great bloggers who attended this event with me also came up with their very own. And lucky for you, you get to see them all as part of Kroger Private Selections Great State of Taste campaign (#greatstateoftaste). Over the course of the next eight weeks you are encouraged (please, please, please) to vote on the NEXT Limited Edition Private Selection ice cream flavor due out next spring/summer! That’s right – YOU decide. There is no catch. The ice cream flavor with the most votes at the end of the voting period WILL be put into production for the rest of America to purchase. How cool is that? I don’t know about you, but I would LOVE to see a recipe a blogger friend of mine created. I am giddy with excitement. OF COURSE, I would love for you to vote for yours truly’s flavor, BUT I love each and every one of these bloggers and their creations. So really, I WIN as long as you VOTE. I LOVE that. So vote for your favorite flavor creation, vote for your favorite blogger, vote for your home state. Just go VOTE! And yes, I will be reminding you often. Disclosure: My accommodations were arranged and taken care of by Private Selection, but I was not obligated to write about this promotion. I loved it so much I couldn’t NOT write about it. All the opinions in this post are mine, want to know more about how I facilitate reviews, view my full disclosure policy!