Story By Erin Gutzwiller
Have you ever wondered how the ice cream that you eat is made, and more importantly, what it is made of?
Most ice-cream connoisseurs do not know that the ingredients used to make ice cream are made from cheap and unhealthy ingredients. Which is interesting, because for me, eating ice cream is something that I could do every day, all day, but only if it was healthy for you. But who has ever heard of healthy ice cream?
Well, on the outskirts of Waynesboro, a young couple, Lynsie Watkins and Colin Steele, have created an ice-cream shop where the ice cream is made from scratch, right down to the ingredients used.
Perfect Flavor Ice Cream is located at 1809 E. Main St., and believes in wholesome and environmentally responsible practices.
The shop is the first in Virginia in the last 30 years to use raw ingredients. All of the ingredients that are used in the ice cream, such as milk, eggs, peaches and other ingredients, come from locally owned family farms and independent producers. Some ingredients are not made in Virginia and can not be gotten locally, so instead organic ingredients are used. The milk that is used to produce the ice cream is brought right off the dairy farm by Lynsie and Colin and pasteurized and separated into heavy creams right in the store. If you wish to have apple pie mixed into your ice cream, the pie is made from scratch with organic ingredients and put right into your ice cream.
It simply amazed me as I toured the shop the equipment used and the knowledge about foods that came from the owners. Lynsie explained to me that living in Europe really opened her eyes to the endless amounts of unknown food that we consume. She has brought her healthy eating knowledge to the ice-cream shop and thoughtfully incorporated it into the very ice cream she sells her customers.
Along with making custom made ice cream with local and organic ingredients, the packaging for the ice cream is just as healthy for you as the ice cream itself. Perfect Flavor is a green business where the packaging for their food, the straws that are drank from, and the napkins that we wipe the ice cream off our faces with is all biodegradable. The trash bags, the containers that the ice cream is shipped in, and spoons used for taste testing the ice cream is made from corn. I was pleased to see that not only is this a shop that cares about what types of foods its customers consume, but that they help save the earth in the process. Between global warming and pollution, the world in which we live is continuously being affected and harmed. Little things such as using biodegradable packaging can help prevent the harmful toxins entering into the atmosphere.
The store hours are Monday through Friday, 6:30-10 a.m. and 1-5 p.m., Saturdays 10 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m., and closed on Sundays.
Lynsie and Colin are Charlottesville residents, but they opened their shop in Waynesboro because their farmers that they buy from are in the Shenandoah Valley, and they wanted to be close to them.
You can visit the shop’s website at www.perfectflavor.com and order your own customized ice cream to be expressed ship right to you.
If you want to eat healthy, but have a sweet tooth then head to the Perfect Flavor for a sweet treat.
Erin Gutziller is an Augusta Free Press intern.
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