By Kathy Henderson
“Above average.”
That’s how University of Minnesota student Kat Nikkel rates the vanilla ice cream sold at the Gopher Spot in the Student Center on the U’s St. Paul campus, 2017 Buford Ave.
Of course, one wouldn’t expect this ice cream to earn anything less than an “above average” grade. After all, it’s made with milk that comes from the cows grazing on the pastures at the north end of the campus, and it’s produced at the U’s pilot plant, the Food Science and Nutrition Building, just a few blocks away from the Gopher Spot.
And if there is honey involved in the flavor, it’s probably from the U’s Bee Lab.
“We receive the raw milk from the barns and do the processing to pasteurize and create the ice cream mix,” said Mitchell Maher, researcher and pilot plant manager. “The mix is then frozen and inclusions added to create the finished product.”
While traditional production methods are used at the plant, its ice cream flavors are far from ordinary. Some of the innovative flavors reflect the U. For example, there is Gopher Gold (French vanilla base with raspberry chocolate ripple) and Row the Boat (fudge-coffee swirls and peanut butter-filled football candies in vanilla ice cream). There are also homages to the state — sweet corn and Minnesota sundae (honey-flavored base with sunflower seeds) — and widening demographics — green tea (made with matcha powder, not artificial flavor).
The Gopher Spot is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Friday; the cost is $2.29 for a single scoop; extra scoops, $2.
Approximately 125 to175 scoops of ice cream are sold every week at the Gopher Spot, said Tina Siverson, retail coordinator of Student Unions and Activities. The flavors available at the Gopher Spot rotate and depend upon what the plant produces, she said.
On a warm September afternoon, the Gopher Spot freezer was stocked with black licorice, honey, honey lavender, maple nut, huckleberry, Minnesota sundae and vanilla.
Honey lavender tastes like something that would be served at a luxury spa or retreat location.
Although black licorice is not a top seller, Siverson describes it as delicious and creamy. It is a personal favorite of Johan Ubbink, head of the U’s Department of Food Science and Nutrition, a flavor fondness that he attributes to his Netherlands heritage and culture.
As some flavors are seasonal, Gopher Spot manager Em Sangma predicts that pumpkin pie, candy corn and egg nog will return for the holiday season.
There is also a new flavor coming up that will reflect Central America, but neither Ubbink or Maher would give away the key ingredient. Coffee? Chile? Tropical fruits? They won’t say.
The U’s ice cream is also available at its Dairy and Meat Salesroom, which is open from 2 to 5 p.m. on Wednesdays at the Andrew Boss Lab of Meat Science, 1354 Eckles Ave. In addition, it is sold at Coffman Union, on the Minneapolis campus, and seasonally at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum’s AppleHouse in Chaska.
Ubbink noted U ice cream production is not meant to compete with retail. Sales support student roles in research and learning to produce an actual product and keep connected to an end product. Availability builds relationships and awareness within the U and neighborhood communities, he said.
The pilot plant is the informal name for the Joseph J. Warthesen Food Processing Center, which is part of the Department of Food Science and Nutrition.
The U’s Minnesota Dairy Cattle Teaching and Research Farm has about 90 cows. It is part of the Department of Animal Science. The Bee Lab is part of the Department of Entomology. All are within the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences, commonly known as CFANS.
In less than a minute, you can watch how Golden Gopher ice cream was made in 2020 via YouTube at youtube.com/watch?v=kyjhPAdUhXc.
Kathy Henderson lives in St. Paul and is a regular freelance writer for the Bugle.
Photos: University of Minnesota student Kat Nikkel with Minnesota Sundae flavor ice cream at Gopher Spot with (right) an overview of flavors in the ice cream case. Photos by Kathy Henderson.
