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The Show hosts try 6 different Halloween ice cream flavors from Valley shops

The Show tried Halloween-inspired ice cream flavors from Valley shops on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
The Show tried Halloween-inspired ice cream flavors from Valley shops on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.

MARK BRODIE: So I'm sitting in a studio with my colleague Sam Dingman.

SAM DINGMAN: Hi.

BRODIE: Why are there bowls of ice cream laid out in front of us here?

DINGMAN: The reason is, you know, I've lived in Arizona for about six months now and I have noticed that in spite of the fact that it is fall, it is still boiling hot.

BRODIE: It doesn't feel like fall.

DINGMAN: It does not feel like fall, especially for me as a confused Yankee still wandering the desert. So I found myself kind of craving the traditional autumn flavors of, of yore. And also looking to cool off a little bit a nice cold dessert. And I noticed that one of the cool things as it were about my new home state of Arizona is that there are a lot of very innovative Halloween/autumnal ice cream flavors.

BRODIE: So that, that's why, that's why these are all here.

DINGMAN: Yes. What I thought we could do is taste them. There's six of them here. Let's start with Pumpkin Graveyard.

BRODIE: Pumpkin Graveyard sounds very apt for Halloween because it, mostly because it has the word graveyard in it.

DINGMAN: All right. Taking the first bite. Yep. still remember the sweet taste of pumpkin and there's a lot of it in that,

BRODIE: That tastes a lot like pumpkin pie to me. Like in ice cream form.

DINGMAN: Yeah. I don't know how much graveyard I'm getting.

BRODIE: No, it feels very much alive.

DINGMAN: Yes. Yes. But, I'm not really looking to feel dead when I take a bite of ice cream.

BRODIE: I think that's a reasonable assumption. All right. So next on the on the docket here is something called Jack-O'-Lantern Pumpkin Bread. So let's down the hatch with this. That has a different, it's pumpkin but a different flavor to it.

DINGMAN: So this may be the first ice cream I've ever taken a bite of that had, it was like a three-act play. I felt like it started off as kind of sweet cream and then there was like a rogue marshmallow in there somewhere and then this very cakey finish.

BRODIE: All right. So the next bowl is a Maple Walnut. Now, let's try this one. Yeah, the name on that doesn't lie. It tastes like maple and it tastes like walnut.

DINGMAN: Yep. Well, well titled, not, maybe not as fun as Jack-O'-Lantern Pumpkin Bread, but really delivers on the promises.

BRODIE: Yes So we have another maple walnut. This is Vermont Maple Walnut, and you know, as a New Englander, anything that has the name Vermont in it especially this time of year is very evocative of going to look at the leaves and play in the leaves and you know, have some hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick in and all that kind of thing. So, absolutely interested to try this one.

Not sure if you could hear my chewing or not, but there's actually chunks of walnut in there.

DINGMAN: Yep. That was a real walnut. A walnut, a very palpable walnut. I have to say that was, it, it almost felt like the pancakes were implied in that one.

BRODIE: All right. Next is Creepy Crawly Critters. This has I'm just gonna say because it's radio, a kind of a greenish hue to it.

DINGMAN: Yes. And if I'm not mistaken, Mark, you may be about to eat a cricket.

BRODIE: Oh, all right.

DINGMAN: Mm, thorax.

The Show's Sam Dingman tried Halloween-inspired ice cream flavors from Valley shops on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
The Show's Sam Dingman tried Halloween-inspired ice cream flavors from Valley shops on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.

BRODIE: I'm just gonna say it, I'm not really sure what that tasted like.

DINGMAN: Yeah, that's a savory cricket, I will say. Yeah, I would say creepy is the operative, the operative word in, in that flavor there. I, I think I'm gonna be haunted by that experience. But, speaking of hauntings, we're gonna finish with Essence of Ghost.

BRODIE: Oh, is that licorice?

DINGMAN: I was not able to name it when it first touched my tongue.

BRODIE: Black licorice.

DINGMAN: That is black licorice.

BRODIE: Well, I mean, it makes sense. It's kind of like a gray and white kind of color on the ice cream. So the licorice is maybe not surprising. Did it evoke for you the essence of a ghost?

DINGMAN: You know, I'm not gonna say the essence of a ghost. I'm gonna say it, it more felt like the, the licorice flavor, which personally is not my favorite, is lingering a little bit longer than I would like it to. So, in the sense that ghosts sometimes do that.

BRODIE: It's kind of like possessing your mouth a little bit.

DINGMAN: There you go. There you go. So which of these, Mark, would you say made you made you think most about the old East Coast?

BRODIE: Oh, for me, it's the Pumpkin Graveyard, Pumpkin Graveyard. Now it's not a Halloween taste for me. That's, this is very much a Thanksgiving taste for me. But eating that put me back at, at the table, at the dining room table at my parents' house with my family all around like, you know, telling jokes and laughing at, at Thanksgiving.

That, that is what a Pumpkin Graveyard felt like to me. Although I wonder what would happen if I went to Thanksgiving and produced, you know, a pint of something called Pumpkin Graveyard.

DINGMAN: What, what are you trying to say to us here, Mark?

I have to say as exciting as it was to try the really adventurous options, it was that second Maple Walnut that felt most.

BRODIE: With the whole walnuts in it. Pieces of walnut.

DINGMAN: Yes, that's the one that felt really transported to me. It just made me think about a blazing fire and, you know, maybe a, a tumbler of scotch, which I have been known to enjoy with my ice cream. And there was just something really hearty and fire crackly about it that I, I really, really liked.

BRODIE: All right. Well, on that tasty note, Sam Dingman, thanks for, thanks for forcing us to eat some ice cream.

DINGMAN: I knew I was gonna have to twist your arm, but I'm glad you yielded eventually.

The ice cream flavors they tried

  • Pumpkin Graveyard — Sweet Republic
  • Maple Walnut flavors — Novel and Sparky's Old Time Creamery
  • Essence of Ghost — Salt & Straw
  • Creepy Crawly Critters — Salt & Straw
  • Jack-O-Lantern Pumpkin Bread — Salt & Straw
The Show's Mark Brodie tried Halloween-inspired ice cream flavors from Valley shops on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
Amber Victoria Singer/KJZZ
The Show's Mark Brodie tried Halloween-inspired ice cream flavors from Valley shops on Thursday, Oct. 10, 2024.
KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.

Amber Victoria Singer is a producer for KJZZ's The Show. Singer is a graduate of the Water Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

Mark Brodie is a co-host of The Show, KJZZ’s locally produced news magazine. Since starting at KJZZ in 2002, Brodie has been a host, reporter and producer, including several years covering the Arizona Legislature, based at the Capitol.
Sam Dingman is a reporter and host for KJZZ’s The Show. Prior to KJZZ, Dingman was the creator and host of the acclaimed podcast Family Ghosts.
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