RIYADH, 17 April — All my life- or at least for as long as I can remember — I’ve been eating and loving Baskin Robbins ice cream. We used to call it thirty-one. I was under the impression that it had thirty-one flavors; that’s how it was named. Apparently I was wrong. Baskin Robbins has developed nearly one thousand flavors of ice cream, sherbet, sorbets and ices. Some of their flavors are among the first ever made or invented.
Burt Baskin and Irv Robbins began making ice cream in 1945. Their idea was to create delicious ice cream with loads of ingredients and fancy names. From the initial concept of thirty-one flavors — one for every day of the month — Baskin Robbins has become the largest chain of ice cream shops in the world. They have 2500 locations in the US and over 2100 internationally. Baskin Robbins offers a complete selection of ice cream cones, sundaes and pre-packed and hand-packed quarts, smoothies, shakes, malts, a line of cappuccino blasts, that my seven year old cousin got addicted to, as well as a wide variety of beautifully decorated ice cream and cake creations for holidays and celebrations.
As for their cakes, I truly believe that they’re the best. I wouldn’t want my birthday cake from anywhere else (hint). Oh, and they have a catalog you can choose the design you like. You also have an option to make the whole thing only ice cream or you can choose more than one flavor in the same cake. You can even have half the cake chocolate and the other half vanilla. The possibilities are endless. Their milk shakes are amazing, especially the ones which have some syrup at the bottom.
Lately I’ve visited a Baskin Robbins here in Riyadh and I was impressed. It was huge and filled with a very wide selection of delicious flavors. I asked the man working there why all the Baskin Robbins don’t have all the flavors. He explained to me that it was all part of the Baskin Robbins plan. Their flavor list varies by region and by season. Each store will carry a different selection so you’re forced to visit as many as you can. The company has a flavor of the month program. Now that I was aware of. You see each time they bring out a new flavor — and I love it — it’s gone in about thirty days. I get so frustrated that I keep eating it with the idea that it’s going to disappear and I suffer terribly on account of two things. The first being how much I miss it and the second being how much I weigh. The salesman told me to look forward to the upcoming flavors of the month- which are chocolate mint, America’s birthday cake and tax crunch which is coffee ice cream with a swirl of crackling chocolate rice crunch pieces.
Naturally there are permanent flavors like Jamaica almond fudge, mint chocolate chip, pink bubblegum 1970, rocky road, chocolate chip cookie dough, nutty coconut and lots more, including a flavor called everyone’s favorite candy bar. It’s vanilla ice cream loaded with snickers candy bar pieces and swirled with a caramel ribbon. They also have a lighter low-fat section — yogurt-like yogurt gone crazy and even a no-sugar-added section where everything is sweetened with Nutra Sweet. Their seasonal flavors are English toffee, baseball nut and Reese’s peanut butter cup. The best sorbets in my opinion are red raspberry and peachy keen. I love their orange sherbet and I adore a flavor called gold medal ribbon. My cousin loved pralines and cream and for a while we switched our favorite flavors. He ate mine while I ate his. Nevertheless I can’t stick to one kind when there are so many to enjoy. I change according to my moods. If I had to eat one flavor for the rest of my life, I think I would choose vanilla. After all, it’s the safest and better safe than sorry, right?
In conclusion, I must say that in life we’re forced to commit ourselves to many things but luckily, an ice cream flavor is not one of them, so treat yourself to a new flavor every day and enjoy every moment because happiness is just a Baskin Robbins away.
