During Ice Cream Month, Why Not Try Some Wine Ice Cream

Red Raspberry Chardonnay pints being packaged at Mercer's.

BOONVILLE — In 2003, the folks at Mercer’s Dairy came up with a bright idea.
 
Problem was, they couldn’t get it to work.
 
The idea was wine ice cream. Not the wine-flavored variety, mind you; that’s nothing new.
 
The folks at Mercer were talking about rich dairy ice cream that contained 5-percent-alcohol wine.
 
“We were at the annual Farm Day in New York that Sen. (Hillary) Clinton revived,” said Roxaina Hurlburt, Mercer’s marketing director. “While there, we were set up next to some wineries. We were giving out cups of our vanilla ice cream, and some people were putting their samples of wine on top of it. Jim Trezise (president of the New York Wine and Grape Foundation) said to me, ‘why don’t you make wine ice cream?’”
 
Fast forward to today, and Mercer’s wine ice cream is a treat known worldwide. Mercer’s Dairy, which has produced premium 12.5 percent butterfat ice cream since the 1950s, sells its wine ice cream in France, the Netherlands, Dubai, China, Aruba, Canada, Singapore, Ukraine, Estonia, Haiti, Japan and its newest entry — Cambodia.
 
Hurlburt said his team is working with Australia, Cypress, Malta and Mexico to get the product into those countries.
 
“People from Mexico came up and toured our plant recently,” she said.
 
The difficult thing about making wine ice cream was developing just the right process so that the ice cream stayed creamy and frozen while the wine maintained its alcohol content and taste. Certain wines didn’t work — not enough flavor, Hurlburt said — or didn’t taste right in the ice cream.
 
“We probably worked a whole year on it,” she said. “We weren’t even sure it was going to work.”
But work it did — finally.
 
“It’s a unique taste,” said Mercer’s wine ice cream lover R. Patrick Corbett, of Rome. “You know that you are eating ice cream, but the wine taste comes through crisply. You have to try it to understand.”
He said his favorite flavors are Cherry Merlot, Port and Chocolate Chardonnay.
 
Officials would not say which vineyards supply the wine, but they do try to buy from the same wineries to maintain consistancy in taste in the ice cream. And they try to buy from only New York wineries.
 
Mercer’s is one of only two establishments in the nation that make ice cream containing alcohol. The other is a Los Angeles-based company making frozen ice cream bars called BuzzBar. Those bars have from 0.65 of a percent to 2.81 percent alcohol, while Mercer’s ice cream contains 5 percent alcohol.
 
Because of the alcohol content, Mercer’s had to work with the New York state Legislature to pass a law so that the wine ice cream could be sold in New York. Hurlburt said no one could figure out whether it was a frozen food or an alcoholic product. A bill finally passed the Legislature in 2008, limiting the alcohol content to 5 percent, putting regular alcohol warnings on the label, and limiting buyers to ages 21 and older.
 
In years past, Mercer’s was owned by a group of nine farm families from Lewis and Jefferson counties. But in 2013, Hurlburt and a niece bought out the other partners and now own the company.
 
Mercer’s wine ice cream has been featured on MTV, The Real, NBC and in more than 40 publications, including Time, U.S. News & World Report, Woman’s World and The Sun (in the United Kingdom). It also has won numerous food contests.
 
Hurlburt said production of the wine goodie varies from week to week and month to month. But after it has been featured on a national TV show or in a news article, “things just go wild here.”
 
For more information, go to Mercer’s website at www.mercerswineicecream.com or call (866) 637-2377.

Ice Cream Trivia for Ice Cream Month

Here's some handy ice cream trivia for you:


June was National Dairy Month, so July must be Ice Cream Month.
 
That’s right, a monthlong celebration of one of dairy’s greatest gifts takes place in July.
 
Many people celebrate the summer by downing cones, sundaes, milkshakes and other creamy, cold delights, but it was President Ronald Reagan in 1984 who officially named July as National Ice Cream Month.
 
And the third Sunday of July is National Ice Cream Day. So be sure to have some on July 19.
Ice cream is big business in New York state, with about 140 manufacturers. Some are large — Perry’s, Byrne — while others are small businesses that make their own ice cream and sell it at their shop.
 
There are no breakdowns for how much money New York companies pump into the economy, but nationally, sales of ice cream and frozen desserts rose 2.1 percent to $5.4 billion in the 52 weeks ending on Aug. 10, 2014, according to Information Resources Inc., Chicago. And ice cream production reached 894 million gallons in 2012 and 897 million in 2013, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
 
To qualify as ice cream, the product has to follow federal law.
 
According to regulations, ice cream must contain at least 10 percent milk fat and at least 20 percent total milk solids. The finished ice cream must weigh a minimum of 4.5 pounds per gallon.
 
There are well-defined labeling requirements for the types of flavors used — natural and/or artificial — and when egg yolks are present in the finished product, it can be called custard or “French” if the content of yolks is at least 1.4 percent.
 
Ice cream also may be labeled as reduced fat (25 percent less than the standard ice cream), light (50 percent less fat than standard), low fat (less than 3 grams of fat per serving), or non fat (less than 0.5 grams per serving).
 
Some other facts about ice cream:
 
** About 9 percent of all milk produced in the United States goes to manufacture ice cream. (Source: International Dairy Foods Association).
 
** Americans’ favorite flavor is vanilla, followed by chocolate, strawberry and chocolate chip. (Source: International Dairy Foods Association).
 
** The average American eats 4.8 gallons of ice cream and frozen treats a year (Source: www.smallbusiness.com).
 
** The largest manufacturer of ice cream and frozen desserts in New York state is Fieldbrook Foods in Dunkirk, Chautauqua County (the company also has a plant in Lakewood, N.J.). Fieldbrook makes more than 120 million dozen frozen novelties and 25 million gallons of ice cream annually; most of its ice cream products are private label. (Source: Northeast Dairy Foods Association and Fieldbrook website).
 
** Other large manufacturers in New York include Perry’s in Akron (Erie County), Byrne Dairy in Syracuse (Onondaga), Stewart’s in Saratoga Springs (Saratoga), and Mercer’s in Boonville (Oneida).
 
** Chocolate syrup is the most popular ice cream topping. (Source: Perry’s website). 
 
** The phrase “I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream” actually was the name of a song written by Howard Johnson in the late 1920s. (Source: www.answers.yahoo.com).
 
** There are three versions of the story about who invented the ice cream sundae:
 
— New Yorkers are partial to the story that the sundae was created in Ithaca by Chester Platt, who owned Platt & Colt’s drugstore in 1893. The story goes that Platt prepared a dish of vanilla ice cream for the Rev. John Scott on a Sunday. Platt spiced up the ice cream with cherry syrup and a candied cherry, and Rev. Scott named the dish after the day.
 
— Evanston, Ill. also lays claim to the treat. Its story goes that in Evanston and other Midwestern areas, the selling of soda water was prohibited on Sunday. So they made the sodas without soda, leaving just ice cream and syrup. They called it a sundae.
 
— In Two Rivers, Wis., soda fountain owner Ed Berners had a customer named George Hallauer, who asked for a dish of ice cream topped with the syrup used for sodas. Berner liked the dish and added it to his regular menu for a nickel. But then a competitor, George Giffy, decided to serve the same item at his shop, albeit at a higher price. He decided to serve the ice cream only on Sunday, and soon it became known as the “Ice Cream Sunday.”

Beer Ice Cream Combines Two Summer Favorites

When Mercer's in Boonville perfected wine ice cream a few years ago, you had to think that perhaps this would be coming soon.

Go to http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/dining/bottoms-up-ice-cream-made-with-beer.html?src=twr&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=1& to read a New York Times story about beer ice creams that are popping up across the country.

Mercer's Wine Ice Cream comes in many flavors -- Cherry Merlot, Port, Chocolate Cabernet, Riesling, Red Raspberry Chardonney and Peach White Zinfandel. The ice cream is 5 percent alcohol. Check it out sometime. I've found the pints locally at Byrne Dairy and Green Hills market in Nedrow.