Graeters - Cotton Candy

Cotton Candy - Cotton Candy Flavored Ice Cream with Candy Crunch Pieces

Today is the final pint from my Graeter's shipment.  I went with Cotton Candy.  Although I occasionally see this flavor in various scoop shops, a check of my archives shows that I have not reviewed a cotton candy pint before.  Should be fun!

Cotton candy is basically spun sugar.  Sugar is heated up and liquified and then spun out tiny holes forming strands of thing 'sugar glass'.  The strands are then wound up into the familiar light, fluffy and airy balls of candy that we know and love.  Spun sugar has been around much longer than I thought.  Centuries.  It was very originally very expensive, though.  Then in 1897, a dentist (!)  named William Morrison invented a machine which made it more affordable to the average person.  He introduced it at the 1904 World's Fair in Saint Louis to great success.  Further improvements to cotton candy makers have been made over the years.  Since the 1970s, automated machines have been available making it cheaper and easier to find.  The familiar 'blue' flavor is a blue raspberry flavor, but it has always been artificial.  It is the texture and airiness that I always remember.  I wonder how this will translate into a creamy ice cream.

Removing the lid, I see the familiar pale blue color that is reminiscent of cotton candy.  There are some pink and blue candy pieces visible as well.  Digging in, I taste that blue-raspberry flavor.  It is a lighter ice cream, but it is still quite creamy.  It is the candy pieces which sell the flavor for me.  They are pretty small and have the same consistency of sequin-shaped candy that sometimes goes on top of a frosted cake.  That extra dose of sugar definitely makes me think of cotton candy.

This is fun pint of ice cream.  Graeter's really pulls off this implementation well.  It is a bit on the sweet side, but what do you expect.  Cotton candy lovers should really enjoy this.  It is going to set the bar pretty high for future cotton candy implementations that I might try.  Enjoy.