By Lorrie Baumann

Sophisticated flavors, clean labels and high-quality ingredients are persuading Millennial foodies that ice cream isn’t a pleasure they need to leave behind with their childhoods. At this year’s International Dairy Foods Association’s annual Innovative Ice Cream Flavor Competition in Fort Myers, Florida, it was fun and fruity flavors that took top prizes.

Signature RESERVE Brazilian Guava Cheesecake Ice Cream, entered by Albertsons Companies; Spicy Mango Raspberry Fiesta Ice Cream, submitted by SensoryEffects Flavor Systems; and the Pomegranate and Sweet Potato Medley Bar, submitted by Perry’s Ice Cream Company, Inc. were named the most innovative ice cream products at the competition. The competition, held each year during IDFA’s Ice Cream Technology Conference, showcases the creativity of U.S. ice cream makers and flavorings suppliers and captures upcoming flavor trends in the ice cream and frozen dessert industry.

“Fruit was the name of the game in this year’s contest, and contestants showed off their expert ability to pair fresh, tropical fruits with almost anything, including spices, vegetables and decadent deserts,” said Cary Frye, IDFA Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs. “Ice creams featuring cookie doughs and butters, as well as salty nuts, were also highly favored flavors in this year’s lineup.”

The Albertsons Companies entry earned first place in the most innovative ice cream flavor category. It is a sweet-and-sour, super-premium cheesecake ice cream balanced with ribbons of tart guava puree and contains bites of cheesecake crust pieces. Spicy Mango Raspberry Fiesta Ice Cream was named the most innovative prototype flavor. It is a mango and red-pepper ice cream with a sweet swirl of raspberry. Perry’s Ice Cream’s Sweet Potato Medley Bar took top honors in the most innovative novelty category. It’s a frozen dessert bar made with real fruit and vegetable juice.

This year’s conference set records for number of entries in the competition, as well as attendance. More than 160 ice cream industry professionals attended the event, where they tasted, judged and selected the winners from a record total of 40 flavor entries.

The best ice cream tasted by this year’s sofi™ Award judges was Humphry Slocombe‘s Black Sesame. It’s one of a dizzying array of flavors offered by San Francisco, California, entrepreneurs Jake Godby and Sean Vahey, co-Founders of Humphry Slocombe. Godby, a pastry chef by training, is also the company’s Chef, while Vahey, who has a background in food and beverage management, also serves as its Marketing Director.
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The packaging for Humphry Slocombe’s retail pints includes a little of Godby and Vahey’s story, and there’s a quote on every carton. “It’s about staying true to ourselves….You’re still getting that experience. It doesn’t get lost in translation,” Vahey says. “Of course it’s super fun to come into our store, but we want you to have that when you pick up a pint of our ice cream too. At the end of the day, it’s about the ice cream. It’s a unique high quality ice cream that we want you to remember.”

The Black Sesame flavor that won this year’s gold sofi Award includes toasted black sesame seeds with sesame oil added to amp up the flavor even more. The rest of the current lineup includes flavors like POG Sorbet, which combines passion fruit, orange and guava in a nondairy sorbet; Matchadoodle, an ice cream made with green tea from Kyoto and snickerdoodle cookies made in-house; Blueberry Boy Bait, which offers brown sugar streusel stirred into a blueberry ice cream and Dirty Chai, a chai ice cream with espresso in it. The adult-oriented flavors were Godby’s idea, Vahey says. “We didn’t necessarily pigeonhole it as ice cream for adults,” he said. “We just happen to have adult tastes.”

That same combination of adult tastes and training as a pastry chef informs the ice cream sandwiches made by Too Cool Chix. The New York City-based company is led by CEO Sharon Monahan and her co-Founder Michele Elmer, a pastry chef trained by the Culinary Institute of America. “She really has pulled from the flavors she discovered being a chef,” Monahan said. The Beauty Bar, one of her company’s flagship products, is made from a lavender ice cream and lemon cookies. “It’s definitely a customer favorite,” Monahan said. I Dream In Chocolate depends on chocolate from Hispaniola in an indulgent small-batch chocolate ice cream paired with a dark chocolate cookie.

The entire line is built on high-quality ingredients, all natural and locally sourced, with organic ingredients used when possible. The ice cream is made with locally sourced milk, cream and cage free eggs – no gums are added; it’s stabilized with egg yolks. The lavender and vanilla are organic, and the cocoa is fair trade. “The clean label thing was there from the beginning,” Monahan said. “We took a look at what’s in a lot of other ice cream brands and said we’d like to see what we can do with cleaner ingredients. Our sandwiches have one tenth the amount of sugar as some of the other leading brands and one fourth of the sodium, so you really taste the flavors instead of just the sugar.”

Tea-rrific! Ice Cream, which won the bronze sofi Award in this year’s competition, also emphasizes a clean ingredient deck in its super-premium ice creams infused with freshly brewed loose leaf and herbal teas. Masala Chai, the flavor that won this year’s sofi Award, is made from a freshly brewed blend of Assam black tea, rooibos herbal tea, cardamom, ginger, clove, and several other spices and peppercorns. The chai is then added to a sweet cream base along with an extra helping of Tea-rrific!’s own mix of spices for good measure and balance.

In 2015, the company’s Chamomile flavor was a finalist in the sofi competition. For this flavor, Tea-Riffic! brews Egyptian chamomile flowers, which offer notes of apple and honey. The floral notes of this caffeine-free herbal tea, which is known for its soothing effects, combine perfectly with a luscious sweet cream base to create the flavor that won over the judges. “We are very excited to be once again recognized by the sofi judges,” said Souvannee Leite, CEO and co-Founder of Tea-rrific! Ice Cream, “It is truly wonderful when those who see and sample the best of the best on a regular basis choose your product as one that stands out among our many worthy peers.”