After spending the past few months pouting because I couldn’t find any of the fabulous sounding flavors from 2nd Street Creamery, I finally found a supermarket carrying some of their products. Granted it took a Styrofoam cooler and five pounds of ice, I successfully transported a few pints back to my house a few hours away. Offerings like Cannoli Di Nonni and Can’t Tell Me No! Cookie Dough had all received high marks via Reader Reviews, but the combination of caramel ice cream with caramel ribbon and sea salt caramel fudge truffles referred to as Copper Kettle Caramel had really peaked my interest. My expectations were heightened even further after looking over their website and learning a little more about their operation. These sentences in particular really hit home for me, “Our mission is to bring experience back to ice cream. We are more than just flavor, we are a physical and emotional journey that will transform your day from ordinary to extraordinary. As craftsmen, our goal is to create something new, something relevant and something desirable that will set you on a journey that begins with ice cream and ends with complete personal satisfaction. Personal passion and experience come together to create flavor combinations that surprise, intrigue and delight. Our flavors are developed with expert care by skilled craftsmen who have an undying love for incredible ice cream. Our goal is to enhance your ice cream experience whether you like the simple, the complex or the unusual.”
Considering this company prides themselves with the stories behind each of their flavors, Copper Kettle Caramel pays homage to local, homemade candy makers in Le Mars, Iowa. 2nd Street shares, “Because everyone can’t live in Le Mars, we wanted to share one of the tastiest and best kept secrets in town. Known for their home-made candy sales, among other delicious confections like chocolate candies and fudge, the women of the Hospital Auxiliary are famous for a little delicacy known as the Auxiliary Caramel. Available ONLY during the winter holidays – and sometimes for Valentine’s Day – this little treat, hand made and hand cut then wrapped in squares of waxed paper are sold by the piece or by the pound. Nothing melts the heart or thrills the palette quite like biting into a Hospital Auxiliary Caramel. Our goal was to pay tribute to these ladies’ handiwork by creating a flavor that not only captured the essence of those melt-in your mouth caramels we crave, but also to pay homage to the oh, so good fudge and chocolate candies that sell alongside the caramels. Copper Kettle Caramel is about as close as you are going to get to the home-made flavors of the Hospital Auxiliary Candy Sales.”
To bring the full eating experience to their customers, 2nd Street utilizes a super-premium ice cream, thick flowing swirls and tons of substantial mix-ins. This results in flavor boasting a hearty 310 calories per serving, which is higher than most of the other salted caramel variations currently available. The first layer looks luscious and fully displays all three of the distinct ingredients. The slow-melting, high butterfat base is sweet, velvety and incorporates the slightest bit of salt on the backend of each bite. This results in a full-bodied, well-balanced ice cream that exemplifies everything we love about caramel. Despite the fact that this would be impressive all on its own, 2nd Street was far from finished. The next component comes in the form of a caramel ribbon that careens through the entire pint in a quantity I’ve never seen before. These golden ribbons of caramel are thick, sticky and full of a buttery, richness that further enhances the ice cream surrounding it.
The final piece pays tribute to the other confections sold from the fine ladies at Hospital Auxiliary. 2nd Street Creamery takes copious amounts of their sea salt caramel fudge truffles to fill the empty space that the swirl manages to miss; so many in fact, that most bites are filled with more than one. These small squares are coated in rich chocolate that hides the candy sitting inside. The coating chips off easily to expose a soft, salty center that effectively rounds out the trio of caramel and a bite containing all three ingredients results in pure ice cream euphoria. My first experience with 2nd Street Creamery, and their Copper Kettle Caramel in particular, lived up the hype and even exceeded my lofty expectations.
Where I Found It: Harris Teeter
Grade: A
