Buck's gets new flavors from students

Key lime cheesecake and white chocolate peppermint are student creations.

By Belinda Kocen

Published Jan. 30, 2009

Two food science graduate students are working at Buck's Ice Cream on campus to create new ice cream flavors. Laura Ortinau and Liz Fenner worked together to see what new ideas they could come up with.

The students created two new flavors of ice cream that Buck's features to their customers. One was key lime cheesecake and the other was white chocolate peppermint.

"We normally carried the typical peppermint ice cream around the holidays," Buck's Ice Cream manager Rick Linhardt said. "The girls wanted to put a twist on it this season."

Once a flavor is created, many people, such as those who work in the nearby buildings, come and sample the creation, Ortinau said. That gives them a way to gauge if their new recipe is good.

Linhardt said many customers had a positive reaction to the white chocolate peppermint ice cream. He said people asked about it when it was no longer sold in the store.

Fenner just started working at Bucks. She started near the beginning of last summer while Ortinau has been there for about a year-and-a-half. Every couple of months Fenner and Ortinau create a new flavor.

Being artistic and creative helps the two create new flavors, Fenner said.

"We talk back and forth with each other and shoot ideas down before they reach production," Fenner said.

Ortinau said she couldn't remember a time when she and Fenner caused a catastrophe while experimenting with new flavor ideas. The worst thing that happens is that they might be out of an ingredient they need, such as egg custard, Fenner said.

"The hardest part is measuring such small quantities and getting them out of the graduated cylinder," Ortinau said.

There are many new flavor ideas that Fenner and Ortinau are going to start on soon. Right now they are focusing on a flavor called no-bake cookie. It consists of dark chocolate and peanut butter base with oatmeal in it. Other ideas include pineapple upside-down cake and cream cheese icing.

"I think about what I like in food and then try and translate that to ice cream," Ortinau said.

She also said they were limited on a small scale to what ingredients they can use. Normally they try to limit it to one or two ingredients. On a larger scale they would be able to use fruit pieces, or chucks of different ingredients.

"The girls come to me with flavor ideas and I tell them if it is feasible on a larger scale," Linhardt said.

For instance, he said he recommended modifying their no-bake cookie since they wanted to use little peanut butter chips. Linhardt said this was not feasible on an economic level since small peanut butter chips cannot be found in large quantities.

Linhardt said he thinks that having the two women working at Buck's gives them a good learning tool.

"They get to learn the process while still in school, which gives them a head-up on experience," Linhardt said.

Ortinau will graduate after this semester. She said she wants to possibly work with protein shakes to make them taste better.