Dairy-Loving Duo Doesn’t Waffle [Cone] on Goal to Make Ice Cream Flavor Permanent
“I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream JUSTICE,” reads the first line of a new petition on UW-Madison’s campus.
Recent UW-Madison graduate Emily Gerber and senior Kerry Huth took to change.org to encourage Wisconsin Union dwellers and ice cream fanatics alike to call for a sweet change: to make Babcock Dairy Plant’s Banana Peanut Butter ice cream a permanent flavor.
Daily Scoop employees in Union South and Memorial Union scoop up a standard set of permanent flavors year round, such as chocolate and Orange Custard Chocolate Chip.
On occasion, temporary specialty flavors available are also available for a couple weeks at a time, including Gerber and Huth’s famed Banana Peanut Butter.
Emily Gerber (left) and Kerry Huth (right) created the petition to make Banana Peanut Butter a permanent ice cream flavor at Daily Scoop.
When Gerber saw Huth post an Instagram photo of a Banana Peanut Butter ice cream cone at the Terrace, she responded with a comment sharing her shared appreciation of the flavor. From there, the two made the petition together.
The ice cream and Terrace zealots laid out a four-point set of reasons to make the ice cream flavor permanent:
- Year-round ingredients: Peanut butter and bananas are not seasonal items
- Pair-ability: Peanut Butter Banana would match great with other flavors like Union Utopia or strawberry
- Popularity: Like Ben & Jerry’s Chunky Monkey flavor, or similar mashups at other Madison ice cream shops, there’s a demand for it.
- Health Bonus: Bananas have fiber and peanut butter has protein, and so it’s “basically eating a salad”
Currently 77 people signed the petition, with dozens leaving comments supporting the change. One reads, “I HAVEN’T EVEN TRIED THIS DELECTABLE CONCOCTION AND NEED IT WHEN I RETURN HOME IN DECEMBER! Kerry is fighting for my right to eat what I want!” Another commenter wrote, “I’m literally allergic to peanuts but if I wasn’t I feel like I would enjoy this flavor.”
To get Banana Peanut Butter to a permanent flavor status, Huth acknowledged it might take a bit of time to transition. “From a logistics standpoint, it could start out with them trying the flavor out for a few months, and see how the trial period goes. Maybe it would fail miserably, but I don’t think it would.”
Huth scooped up a cone of the prized Banana Peanut Butter ice cream during its brief display at Memorial Union. Photo Credit: Bailey Nachreiner-Mackesey
Gerber and Huth said they’re still determining their next step, but want to look at who they should talk to next: Babcock, who makes the ice cream, or the Union, who distributes it.
Huth pointed out that while Banana Peanut Butter isn’t currently sold at Memorial Union, it is on limited display at Union South. Gerber and Huth explained how, as a recent and soon-to-be graduate, they likely won’t be on campus to potentially witness the ice cream reach its level of permanency.
“Even if this change does happen, we probably won’t be here to see that happen,” Gerber said. “But we’re okay with that, even if it happens a year from now, and we’re long gone in another zip code. We would be happy knowing that others will be able to enjoy the flavor like we have in the past.”
While they don’t know what the outcome of their petition will be, working with the Union is a good place to take a shot at pursuing their goals, Huth said.
“The whole spirit of the Union is the idea that it’s for students, it’s for graduates, it’s for community members, and [Union employees] seem to always be really willing to listen to people and gauge what they want to do off of what their community wants,” Huth said.
Stop by both Daily Scoop locations and see for yourself if Banana Peanut Butter is featured that day.
