If you walked into an ice cream shop and saw Kamala Pecan on the menu, would you order a scoop or two? A Lexington, Kentucky ice cream shop decided to honor the first black/Indian female vice-presidential candidate by naming an ice cream flavor for her.
The Crank & Boom Craft Ice Cream Shop is known for naming flavors after people in the news. It’s caramel ice cream with pecans added in. The limited-time treat was to be called Caramel Pecan, as one might assume, but after the election, the shop’s owner decided to celebrate Kamala’s victory. She said it isn’t a political statement, but one that honors women of color getting a seat at the table. Green feels a personal connection.
Owner Toa Green said that the flavor is not a political statement, but intended to be a “celebration for women everywhere, especially women of color, who are getting their seat at the table that so many have fought for before us.”
“As an Asian American, 1/2 of an interracial marriage, and the daughter of immigrants, seeing that my story and the story of so many other women in this country could look like this, means more to me than I could ever express,” Green said.
The ice cream is a salted caramel ice cream flavor swirled with candied pecans and salted caramel sauce. Sounds rich but yummy. If it sounds good to you and you’re in the area, the flavor is available for pre-order Friday. According to the shop’s website, a scoop of ice cream goes for $4.00. I assume this flavor will, too, unless ‘limited editions’ are more expensive. I haven’t been in an ice cream shop in a long time, apparently, because $4.00 sounds pricey for a single scoop of ice cream yet it’s comparable to prices on other websites I checked. Does anyone, other than young children, get just one scoop? Crank & Boom said it will donate $2 from each pint sold through pre-sales to the Step by Step Emergency Fund, which helps single moms. The only flavor offered on the pre-sale page when I checked was not Kamala Pecan. The advertised pint sales also contribute to the Step by Step Emergency Fund and is priced at $10.00, so we’re in Nancy Pelosi ice cream territory.
When Kentucky Governor Beshear (Democrat) delivered daily news conferences about the coronavirus pandemic last spring, Crank & Boom honored him and the American Sign Language interpreter with their own flavors. Then the shop honored “Kenneth,” “the slide technician who is never seen during the briefings but plays an integral role in showing the slides to which Beshear often refers.” Sales from his flavor generated donations to an organization that gathers excess fresh vegetables and fruits from farms and markets to distribute to over 100 agencies in Central Kentucky that feed people.
We’ll call this story a palate cleanser, much needed after a day of non-stop stories of recounts, lawsuits, and the coronavirus. I imagine that during times like this, ice cream sales are probably up.
