Why Isn't Grape Ice Cream A Thing?

Those of us who love grape flavored sweets wonder why manufacturers don't make a grape flavored version of everything, and we assume it's because grape flavor doesn't work so well in things like cakes or donuts.

But grape flavored ice cream sounds like a delicious treat to me, so why isn't grape ice cream a thing?

Turns out it's because ice cream makers like Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's use fresh fruit purees, and grapes have too much water in them to be easily added to ice cream:

Grapes have a high water content, so when you try to use the fruit as a base for ice cream, chunks of that water therein tend to freeze. Chefs whipping up small batches of homemade grape ice cream can avoid this problem by pureeing the fruit, but it’s much harder to manufacture large volumes of ice cream when it’s flecked with bits of ice.

Of course, other fruits, like cherries, are also mostly water—and Cherry Garcia is one of Ben & Jerry’s most popular flavors. In short, it’s possible to make fruit ice cream on a larger scale, but the demand has to be there to make the hassle worthwhile (and for that matter, profitable). And as Cohen explained, most people don’t even think to associate grapes with ice cream—so if Ben & Jerry’s made a grape-flavored dessert, it's likely that nobody would buy it. Since cherry and vanilla are such popular flavors, it pays for the company to make Cherry Garcia.

-Via mental_floss


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There is a limited edition watermelon ice cream with chocolate chip "seeds" in western Canada at the moment, and some friends have reported seeing the same thing pop up elsewhere from other brands. I don't particularly care for the cream and watermelon combination and would probably like a watermelon sorbet much more (even though I like lemon and orange flavored ice cream more than the sorbet versions).
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