“Cherry Vanilla” Cedar Park, 2020
For several years I’ve been mentioning to my family how I used to always order Cherry Vanilla ice cream as a kid when we went to the Thrifty drug store. Since I have not been able to find it anywhere we have looked (and I do always check), they doubted that the flavor even existed and insisted that I must be making it up or imagining it. They even suggested that I should just have Ben & Jerry’s Cherry Garcia, which is NOT THE SAME THING! Cherry Vanilla is simply vanilla ice cream with Maraschino cherries added… perhaps too simple a thing for today’s world.
Well, at a recent trip to HEB with Koa, I spotted the holy grail… Cherry Vanilla ice cream! Frankly, I was a bit stunned. And when I showed Koa, he was also in disbelief. 😃 With a huge smile on my face, I quickly put a container in the cart, snapped a photo and sent it to Bay and Mariko. At long last, I felt as though I had been vindicated.
The ice-cream was exactly as I remembered: simple and delicious. The brand (Blue Bell) might be different, and it’s not the fanciest of flavors, but it brings back good memories of getting 10-cent scoops from Thrifty as a child, which is special. 🍦
But the story isn’t over yet because there is a second flavor of ice cream that I am still searching for: Lemon Chiffon. Someday…
It’s the food from childhood, some of which have long since discontinued, that really hits you with its nostalgia! I do like Cherry Garcia, but you’ve tempted me with the Cherry Vanilla from Bluebell (a brand which I’ve never had)!
So true! The tastes and smells have such nostalgic power. It looks like you’ll have to travel out of California to try Blue Bell, though. https://www.bluebell.com/where-to-buy/#store-locator
This was my dad’s favorite. I buy it when I see it.
My carton is almost empty… I hope HEB will carry it for a while yet.