Into The Weeds

So, a few months ago, a Cold Stone Creamery opened up across the street from my apartment. I ate there once or twice, but generally I find the ice cream to be of sub-par quality — too sweet, not enough “ice-creamy” flavor, and of a somewhat gooey consistency. Cold Stone has actually opened up a few stores in the Boston area, and it seems like it might be a bit of a challenging market for them. For example, while there may be a Cold Stone right across the street, there’s an Emack and Bolio’s right downstairs. They actually sell freshly made, all natural ice cream — and it tastes much better.

Now, our neighborhood curmudgeon, Scott, likes to rail on about the grossness of Cold Stone ice cream. In this case, I whole-heartedly agree with him. Feel free to peruse (if you dare!) the ingredient statements(pdf). Yummy….sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, cellulose gum and artificial flavors!

And while we’re on the subject, let’s talk a bit about eggs. Now, I’m not a big fan of eggs (as many of you may already know). However, even I must pause to acknowledge the awesome technological achievement that is the Egg McMuffin. But, do you know what the egg thing in an McMuffin is actually made of? Really, it’s just 100% egg. No crazy fillers, flavorings, preservatives and stuff. It’s just egg poached in a novel form on the skillet. Let’s contrast that to the “Folded Egg” that just about every other fast food breakfast uses, and is present in some of McD’s other sandwiches:

Folded Egg: Pasteurized whole eggs, food starch-modified, soybean oil, natural flavors (botanical source), sodium acid pyrophosphate, carrageenan gum, flavor enhancer [salt, maltodextrin, natural flavor (plant source), spices, herb, turmeric (color)], monosodium phosphate, citric acid, soy lecithin. Prepared with Liquid Margarine: Liquid soybean oil, water, partially hydrogenated cottonseed and soybean oils, salt, hydrogenated cottonseed oil, soy lecithin, mono- and diglycerides, sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate (preservative), artificial flavor, citric acid, vitamin A palmitate, beta carotene (color). CONTAINS: EGG, SOY LECITHIN

Yum! You know when you need that many nested parentheses in an ingredient listing that it must be good.

McDonalds Ingredients Listing
Cold Stone Creamery Ingredient Statements
Why Scott hates Cold Stone