Why is it (almost) impossible to find good ice cream flavours in shops?

[exhaustDAD]

Lighthearted, please don't take this personally if you disagree - everyone loves what they love.
(It is also a little bit making me annoyed at myself for being annoyed by such a first-world problem.)

Ice cream. Very topical with our heatwave here in the UK. For the longest time the ice cream flavours in shops are making me feel like an old grump. But this year, with people raiding ice cream freezers in shops it is even worse. I am a very fruit-oriented guy. To me limes, lemons, grapefruits, cherries, etc are refreshing. You can even go crazy, and combine your lime with bits of mint, something that makes sense. Or combine cherries with chocolate, it is divine.

But why on god's green earth is the majority of ice cream stacked in the shops are random, overkill flavours? I am sorry, cookie dough is not a flavour. oreos, or whatever random brand of sweet is not a flavour. All my boring face is trying to do is spot a nice, simple flavour... like a passion fruit... When I reach for "lemon" I don't need it to be lemon cheesecake. Cheesecake is not a flavour. it is a dessert of its own. Are people really loving these nonsensical inventions? Why can't a flavour be clear, and not an "ice creamified" specific dessert/sweet?

And I am talking about actual, good ice cream here. Not the lemon sorbet that is 45 spoons of sugar with lemon essence.

Why do I always find proper and clean flavours in the most remote farm shops if I want to buy some? The reign of silly ice cream flavours needs to end...

(oh, and a little personal addition that will make me unpopular: vanilla can die a painful death, too. It was already boring even when I was a kid. There is a reason we say "he/she's a bit vanilla". And yet vanilla is the flavour that you have stacks and stacks of from all brands.. )

Yes, I know we can make our own. And yes, I know some cafes have wonderful handcrafted ice cream.. I specifically aimed at shops.

I've just googled the shop, it's not that far from me! Anything blackcurrant is like heaven for me. My mouth is watering at the thought of vimto sorbet oh my goodness. It sounds like you have such fond memories of going there, and a lovely dad, too! With great taste in ice cream, I might add. Thanks for sharing the shop, I will have to visit some time!

I once had Christmas pudding flavour ice cream somewhere by the sea in December. It was amazing!

There's an ice cream shop in West Bay that has about 50 flavours, so bound to be some good ones in there.

Crosta & Mollica cherry & mascarpone ice cream is divine. I get it on Ocado.

https://www.crostamollica.com/products/dolci/amarena-cherry-and-mascarpone-gelato

You need Jude's cherries and cream , they also do strawberries and cream, plain strawberry, raspberry ripple and Sicilian lemon ice creams , I love their coffee ice cream but if fruit is your thing you'll prefer the others

Yanbu

Partly the reason I never buy ice cream.

Frozen yoghurt from M&S though… thank me later 😂

I agree with nearly all of that, but you're wrong about vanilla! 😬 Good quality vanilla is lovely.

I'm sure a big part of the decline in quality is the trend towards cheap, poor quality ingredients. If you sell strawberry ice cream, the quality has nowhere to hide. There's a world of difference between fruit ice cream made with real expensive fruit, and ice cream made with flavourings. If you concoct a weird recipe for Oreo-cookie-dough-salted-caramel-Malteser flavour or something, there's no pure flavour to shine anyway, and you can make the whole mess with cheap sugary synthetic ingredients.

Have you tried making your own? It's unbeatable, especially when you use fresh fruit.

Jude's is pretty ok :) I pass on the 'creams' ones, they just make it heavy and far too sweet for my liking..

I have a personal, eternal boredom with vanilla, but I understand that most people love it.
And I wholeheartedly agree about the cheap ingredients and flavourings.

Yes, I have made a few different ones in recent years, I think it's time to revisit the process.

of course! Or at least cheat's icecream which tastes exactly the same to me - mix 1 part condensed milk to 2 parts double cream plus whatever flavourings you like in a plastic container, give a good stir and shake to combine, stick in freezer for a few hours, done.

You can use single cream if you want a lower fat version but it melts much faster.

I think I only ever saw vanilla or natural frozen yoghurts at M&S before..

Lidl have a lovely lemon one on Italian week and a variety of flavours by themed weeks

Oh wow! Definitely give it a go, it’s been there years and I’ve never been disappointed. They do tubs you can take home too

I dislike the ice cream shops that have the big tubs of swirled ice cream in stupid flavours and colours. The sorbet are too sweet. No ice cream should ever be blue.
We have some good producers in the north too, Lake land thunder and lightning and Brymor black current and clotted cream is delicious.
And I'll stand up for vanilla. The best ice cream I ever had was a home made one in a little restaurant in Brittany. It was almost yellow from the cream and flicked with vanilla seeds. I can taste it today 30 years later.

Can I get an amen to hating the disgusting swirly monstrosities and I also think no ice cream should ever be blue. I remember when my kids were little they always wanted that... bubblegum, unicorn...whatever the flavour is.

I think these things are pretty horrible but I reckon if you speak to a food chemist they will tell you that they have just the right balance of salt, fat and sugar to make you eat like a pig. Thats what all these disgusting corporate ice creams are trying to make you do. Eat more of it.

The weird thing is that you may not actually like it very much. But you eat more.

A big fan of Remo in this house - very refreshing.

Like many on here I love unusual fruity sorbets. But other than that my favourite ice cream is chocolate Haagen Dazs. Everyone else in my family prefers the random Ben and Jerry flavours but I just don’t think the aftertaste is very nice, whereas my chocolate ice cream just has a lovely chocolatey taste and much creamier texture. So I think that is an easily accessible grown up ice cream.

Yes the natural one. It is so fresh and sour it’s kind of elderflowery.

I’m with you OP! Justice for mango ice cream!!

My favourite ice cream that I see in the shops are those haagen dazs little berry pots but they’re so tiny! I haven’t investigated so there might be, but I’ve never seen regular sized ones. They’d probably cost £20k + my first born anyways.

Figured I'd share with you lovely people, because it floored me - Just seen a video where a woman created mussels ice cream...