Editor’s Letter: A lifelong love of sugar

June 9, 2011

Ice cream cones

An editor’s letter for a Vox magazine issue on Jun. 9, 2011 featuring a local ice cream guide

I am a sugar addict. I think people who say they don’t like sweet things have serious issues. I love brownies, cookies, cakes, cupcakes and, most importantly. ice cream. If someone says he or she doesn’t like chocolate or icing, l am a little understanding, but people who say they don’t like ice cream have to be in denial.

When I was a kid, my parents had a homemade ice-cream maker that used dry ice and human power. I would sit on the top so it wouldn’t move, and my dad would crank it. We only used it when we had company, and we would put those guests to work by taking shifts cranking. I remember it taking hours (which probably isn’t true), but the result was like eating a cloud.

When I was older, my parents got another machine that didn’t require hand cranking but was also incredibly slow and noisy. The ice cream was still delicious. A couple years ago, my mom finally bought an updated nee-cream mache that’s electric, quiet and takes only an hour. For me, homemade ice cream is its own category of sweet treat, but often I don’t have the patience. There are so many places around town to get my frozen fix, and I visit them a little too often.

This week’s guide to ice cream in Columbia (Page 10 and online) was one of the most difficult features I’ve ever had to edit. Every time I read it, I had to fight the urge to walk over to Cold Stone, Yogoluv or Sparky’s and indulge in whatever I had just read about. If you are an ice-cream lover as well: beware. This feature will probably give you terrible cravings for ice cream, frozen yogurt, soft serve and frozen custard, but it will also tell you the best places in CoMo to satisfy your sweet tooth without pounds of dry ice and hours of waiting.

Vox magazine issue Jun. 9, 2011 - Editor's Letter page

Click here to view magazine page as a PDF.