March 01--Graeter's Ice Cream just revealed its annual mystery flavor today, so prepare yourself for... cheese crown flavored ice cream?!
The small-batch Cincinnati ice cream maker started way back in 1870, and has slowly expanded around the Midwest. But unless you grew up around the company's hometown of Cincinnati, you probably have no idea what a cheese crown is. Even my sister, who lives a few hours away in Columbus, claims the item is unheard of in central Ohio.
Usually when food brands release new flavors to the public, they make some awkward attempt at staying current in the culinary world, which explains how we ended up with sriracha potato chips. Instead, Graeter's went with a kind of pastry unheard of outside the southwestern Ohio region, and which was invented nearly 50 years ago.
So, what the hell is a cheese crown?
I called a couple bakeries in Cincinnati to get the scoop, but that didn't help as much as I hoped. "It's like a muffin, but it has cinnamon on the bottom and cheese in the middle," one hurried employee of a bakery replied. When asked what kind of cheese, she admitted she had no idea.
From various snooping online, I'm almost positive the cheese crown is a kind of danish baked in a muffin tin that has cinnamon streusel on the bottom, a cheesecake filling, and icing on top.
Fortunately, you don't have to have much of an idea what the cheese crown is to enjoy the new flavor. The creamy cheesecake flavored ice cream is punctuated with crispy cinnamon sugar pastry pieces and small bites of fondant icing flakes.
In a quick taste test, one member of our Food Dining team said it reminded her of the flavors of an Ann Sathers cinnamon roll. It honestly reminds me of slurping the bottom of bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal, and I mean that as a compliment.
The new flavor is available today at Jewel, Mariano's, Sunset Foods, Treasure Island Foods, and at Graeter's own store in Northbrook. Look for it to cost between $4.99 and $6. For store information, visit www.graeters.com.
