Flavors of the Month

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To coincide with SEC Media Days this week, the unofficial start to college football season, Perry’s Ice Cream debuted new flavors of ice cream, led by featured flavor “Chicken Wing,” which is taking the south by storm. 

“We can’t keep it on the shelf,” said Lew Holtz (no relation to Lou Holtz), executive vice president of sales for Perry’s. “Besides Chicken Wing, we are thrilled that our collegiate line of flavors was also released last week and making quite the impact.

The new college flavors were introduced throughout 12 southern states at the beginning of July, and the reactions have been quite interesting.

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The University of Texas flavor – “We’re Texas THE Ice Cream” – was hit and miss on sales, as consumers commented that they did not like that the head chef changes every three years or so with fair to subpar results. Sales in Oklahoma and College Station are dreadful, but it is selling well in Kansas for some reason.

The Texas A&M ice cream – “Reload!” – received rave reviews from customers who were polled at the first few bites, but results waned as they got closer to the end of the bowl. But fans keep buying it, regardless of the polling, as it has a cult following.

Alabama ice cream – “Championship Crunch” – has completely sold out. Marketing experts pointed to the packaging as the main trigger, with Nick Saban’s face on the carton driving women of all ages to clean out the stock.

The Oklahoma State flavor champions “an ice cream for a man” – 40 percent chocolate with 40 percent peanut butter, mixed in what is described as “Gundy Swirl.” Despite the publicity effort, these cartons were consistently on the shelf below the OU ice cream, which had to change its name at the last minute from “Big Game Boomer” to “Fresh New Sooner.” Polling results are expected later this fall.

“Orgeron Tiger Bait” was selling very well in Louisiana. Expectations are high for this flavor but food critics wouldn’t be surprised if it goes south. Could go either way. But Ed Orgeron himself is keeping sales high in Baton Rouge, as he purchased a second freezer for his office to stock up.

No one seems to want anything to do with the Baylor cartons.

The Razorback flavor – “Borderline Erotic” features the mug of Bret Bielema on the carton, which seems to be a head-scratcher among critics as less-than-pleasant artwork. They view it as the opposite of Saban’s. Plus they couldn’t keep his entire face on the side of the carton.

“Red Raider Rocky Road” features a pair of sunglasses as its main moniker. Customers say they like the way the packaging looks but the taste isn’t exactly what they desire. Fans clamored for a return of the old favorite – “Leach Lemon Lime.”

TCU’s “Purple Passion” requested to be stocked as far away as possible from Baylor, but everything revolves around where Texas wants to be shelved. TCU reluctantly agreed since they are still fairly new to the aisle.

“Overall, we couldn’t be happier and more excited about all these new flavors, said Holtz. “We’re working on some new ones for basketball season. For instance, a Kentucky flavor is being produced but so far our taste testers only want one bowl of it and they’re done. We’ll keep working on it.”

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