Martha Gail Stafford brandished two silver spades, grabbed a small wad of white cream and smoothed it out on a black countertop before sprinkling brown specks over the cream.
“Chop, chop, fold, fold,” she said.
She hacked the spades down into the cream, peeled it off the countertop, rolled it into a ball and plopped it into a small red paper cup labeled “Cold Stone Creamery.”
Here was a freshly made “Like It”-sized serving of sweet cream-flavored ice cream flecked with chocolate shavings.
Since the summer will be upon us in less than three weeks, Stafford, who is general manager of the store, off Highway 12 in Starkville, is sure to be mixing a whole lot more ice cream at the store in the coming months.
As popular as the store may be, though, it”s far from the only place in the Golden Triangle where people can purchase ice cream; such places abound, and each has its quirks, just as consumers and vendors of the cold snack do. Flavors are a constant topic of discussion.
What”s your flavor?
Some people prefer vanilla over any other flavor. At the Bop”s Frozen Custard on Highway 12 West in Starkville, Brittany Brooks slid one window open and poked her head out. A self-described “Bopette,” she goes for vanilla sundaes before anything else.
“I”m kinda plain,” she said. And she may not be the only one: The store uses containers full of vanilla custard twice as fast as they do chocolate, she said.
Meanwhile, behind the counter at Beans & Cream, located in the Brickerton shopping area in Columbus, employees Allyson Rutherford and Madison Walker had a moment Friday after they named the same flavor as their favorite: Edy”s double fudge Brownie. “I love it,” said Walker, whose father, Bill, founded the store with Mary Nell Smith in 2004.
Regina Edmonds, deli manager at Baskin Robbins inside the Mobil at the corner of Highway 12 and Stark Road, can”t keep a straight face when thinking of some of the more unusual flavors the shop offers.
Take wild ”n reckless, a red, blue and green blur of a sherbet. She looked at it, sitting in a cardboard container in a freezer, and laughed: “A lot of people like that.”
And then there”s the lime daiquiri ice, which is blended with the flavor of rum.
Latasha Brown, who is manager of River Hill Chevron, on Main Street in Columbus, stole a glance at the Blue Bell ice cream selection in a freezer and had no trouble naming her preference. “I know my favorite”s butter pecan,” she said.
“That”s my favorite,” said a woman as she strolled by Brown.
Age-specific preferences
But the flavor might not appeal to people of all ages. Up the block, at Mississippi Coffeehouse, co-owner Anne Griffin said of the Breyers flavors the store carries, younger customers tend to go for the cookies-and-cream style of Oreos, while most of the older customers request butter pecan.
The SpongeBob SquarePants bar, which comes in the form of a Popsicle, is a safer bet for youth. A father of two girls once treated each of them to a bar, and when he went back to the coffeehouse, he told Griffin, “You made me king for the day.”
Kids also tend to visit The Front Door/Back Door, on Main Street in Columbus, for ice cream. All-purpose employee Kit Swindle was surprised to have a visitor at 8:30 a.m. Friday. She thought it might have been 3- and 4-year-olds from a local church hoping to purchase ice cream.
Sometimes, she said, supervisors at the church call ahead and ask if ice cream will be ready around 10 a.m. the next day. Then they”ll come by with kids to pick up the cold stuff.
“Because we”re downtown, it”s really convenient,” Swindle said. “They just walk the children downtown.”
But kids are not the only clientele at the establishment. On some afternoons, social clubs come in for dessert — “ice cream socials,” Swindle said.
A different take on a cold mainstay
For more sophisticated tastes, Beans & Cream sells as its long-running special frozen bananas dipped in chocolate.
But not everyone wants the special. One man who came into Beans & Cream last week asked for orange sherbet with pineapple on top. “That was a pretty odd choice,” Rutherford said.
How does she react to such peculiar requests?
“I say, ”All right. Let me get that for you. We”re happy to accommodate you,”” she said.
And then there are people who just want ice cream, no matter what flavor it is. At the River Hill Chevron, pints of ice cream sell faster than bars and cones. The pints were on sale, two for $3, Friday. “Pints are the biggest seller, whether it”s on sale or not,” Brown said. “It sells regardless.”
But ice cream sales is not a constant. Brown, of River Hill Chevron, has noticed people tend to buy ice cream there in the evening and into the night. And so, to satisfy customers” demand, River Hill Chevron is open 24 hours a day on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
And at Beans & Cream, Rutherford said, people come into the store to buy ice cream year-round. And business, of course, does pick up in the summertime.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 37 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.