Fourth Annual Tasting and Judging of UMass Amherst Student Ice Cream Flavors on April 30

*** MEDIA ADVISORY ***

DATE:       Monday, April 30
TIME:        3:45 p.m.
WHAT:      Tasting and Judging, UMass Amherst Ice Cream Flavor Competition
WHERE:   Room 131, Integrative Learning Center, 650 North Pleasant Street

For the fourth year, a campus audience, local chefs and guest judges will sample four new ice cream flavors developed by UMass Amherst students majoring in food science at this year’s competition. The winning flavor will become the newest seasonal ice cream to be produced and marketed across the state by contest sponsor Maple Valley Creamery of Hadley.

This year’s judges include Robert J. Conlin, executive chef, The Farm Table restaurant, Bernardston, and Elizabeth Walsh, chef, kitchen manager and creator of the Farm Table Pantry line of jams, jellies and spreads; O’Brien Tomalin, executive chef, owner and brewmaster at the Sierra Grille Restaurant and Building 8 Brewing, Northampton; Mark Krause, coffee roaster and owner of Esselon Café, Hadley; and Steven Whitaker, chef at Equal Exchange, Cambridge, Mass.

Over the past semester, 24 students in four teams have studied ingredients and cost, tested mixtures and researched interactions between ice cream bases, ingredients and flavors to develop a new ice cream as their senior capstone project in assistant professor Maria Corradini’s food processing class. Creamery owner Bruce Jenks, who also serves as judge, says he will offer the new UMass flavor at eateries on campus and in retail outlets across the Commonwealth in the coming months. Food science professors Yeonhwa Park and Lynne McLandsborough will again serve as academic judges of the student projects.

Corradini says that UMass Amherst food science alumni Steve Platt and Ameena Cohen from the ingredient manufacturer Star Kay White, Inc. of Congers, N.Y., and Scott Coldwell, brand president of Carvel Ice Cream of Atlanta, Georgia, gave a seminar this semester on the ice cream industry, “Branding, Innovation, and Careers,” and provided many samples for the class.

Corradini adds, “New this year, the students are also using Equal Exchange ingredients in their products. Equal Exchange sources ingredients from small-scale farmers and supports their local communities.” Equal Exchange also provided samples.