New flavors

Some people consider the winter season too cold to be thinking about ice cream, but that’s not the case for two University of Missouri graduate students. The food science majors are creating new ice cream flavors just in time for the holidays.

During the chilly winter months, business is usually slow at this ice cream shop, but two students stay busy.

Laura Ortinau
MU food science student

"We get about 10 people in the shop when it's below 32 degrees outside, so it equals a lot of spare time to mess around with flavors in the back, trying to develop new things that maybe no one else has really thought of yet."

Liz Fenner
MU food science student

"We kind of volley flavor ideas off of each other and throw out some of the ones we don't like and experiment with the rest we do like.”

Their customers are trying out the new flavors. key lime cheesecake complete with graham crackers and white chocolate peppermint for the holidays. Fenner says the white chocolate peppermint is the most popular.

“I kind of got the idea because my family and I, we used to make white chocolate with crushed up peppermint for the holidays and give it to all our friends and stuff, so it's kind of a traditional thing for me."

The two students put their food science skills to the test trying to create the perfect treat.

"You can over-whip it, you can temperature abuse it and cause it to get sandy and gritty, there's a whole bunch of things that can go wrong while making ice cream."

The students are also working on a new flavor, no-bake cooki,. peanut butter, dark chocolate and oatmeal.

“Everyone likes to try something new at least once, if they come back again bonus.”

The students work at buck’s Ice cream on the MU campus. the most popular flavor sold to customers is Tiger Stripe.