'Ritz' Creation Wins Ice Cream Contest Oct 6, 8:59 PM (ET) JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) - Chocolate-covered Ritz crackers, gooey caramel and vanilla ice cream - it doesn't get much better than that, judges decided at an ice cream contest.
Judges said Jacksonville resident Tasha Callister's entry,
Puttin on the Ritz, tasted great and had a clever name. The flavor got top prize in the national Ben and Jerry's Do Us a Flavor Contest in Waterbury, Vt. on Thursday.
But the combo initially had people thinking it was a bit gross, Callister said.
"People were asking me if I was pregnant. They said it sounded like something a pregnant lady would put together," she told The Florida Times-Union.
Callister actually got the recipe from her grandmother, who would melt caramel over a camp fire and squish it between two crackers before covering it with chocolate.
Ben & Jerry's summer-long Internet contest drew more than 40,000 entries, company spokesman Sean Greenwood said.
Callister, a Navy meteorologist, and the other four national finalists won ice cream for a year, in addition to the trip to Vermont. She also won an ice cream party for her family and friends. Ben & Jerry's will create enough Puttin on the Ritz for the party, but there are no plans to put the new flavor in production, Greenwood said.
The other finalists were:
Robin Thornycroft of Richmond, BC, with
Italian Renaissance (amaretto liqueur ice cream, cherry chunks and sliced almonds)
Timothy Link of Troy, ID, with
Mojito (lime-based sherbet with mint, brown sugar and rum added in)
Kerstin Karlhuber of Boston, MA, with
Wackie Chan (sweet cream and ginger flavored ice cream, chocolate-covered fortune cookie bits and fudge swirl)
Reina Chilton of Tempe, AZ, with
ApricotAbra (apricot chunks, dark chocolate, vanilla ice cream and tart apricot preserves)
from:
http://www.benjerry.com/scoop_shops/dousaflavor/index.cfm